Registration Info

This is a 1-day meeting and will provide 6 CE/CME credits.

Conference Registration Fee

Practicing Healthcare Professionals: $129

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Non-Clinicians / Medical Office Support Staff / Industry Participants

Non-clinicians--including, but not limited to, office managers, billing specialists, receptionists, and administrative staff--may attend PAINWeekEnd on a space-available basis when accompanied by a clinician and will be put on a wait list. These non-clinicians must still pre-register. Participation in industry sponsored meal programs, however, is strictly limited to practicing licensed healthcare providers. Please make necessary arrangements for meals for office support staff. In order to maintain the professional nature of the conference, guests, spouses, friends, and/or family members who are not currently employed in the medical field may not attend PAINWeekEnd.

Schedule

Venue

Unfortunately, we do not have discounts available on hotel rooms. Please contact the hotel directly should you require accommodations.

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh Downtown
1 Bigelow Square
Pittsburgh, PA

Schedule (subject to change)

Click on a course name below to see the course description, UAN number, and AANP pharmacology credits.

Saturday, December 1, 2018

  • Registration and Exhibits

    Coffee will be served.

  • Evidence-Based Approaches to Chronic Pain Management: Time to Reconsider the Benefit of Technophilism?

    Americans are obsessed with all that is technical, yet technologically-focused approaches to chronic pain management are not necessarily the most effective approaches. Despite their perceived promise, unimodal approaches such as medications, surgery, spinal cord stimulation, intrathecal opioid pumps, and various other interventional approaches are not necessarily the most effective ways to treat chronic pain. Primary care physicians, when overwhelmed by these patients, are apt to refer them either to interventionalists or surgeons prematurely, resulting in myriad unnecessary injections and surgeries--with iatrogenic complications associated with both. This presentation will emphasize the potential benefits of considering referral of patients with chronic pain to physiatrists--who are the pain specialists with the broadest armamentaria for treating the biopsychosocial complexities of these conditions.

    • UAN: 0530-0000-18-037-L01-P
    • AANP Rx Hours: 0.0

  • Product, Disease Awareness, Medical Information Program*

    Breakfast will be served.

    Sponsored by kaleo, Gene Levinstein, MD, DABPMR, DABPM

  • Break & Exhibits

  • The Regulatory Agency Will See You Now

    Despite high prevalence and seemingly continuous attention, the clinical challenges associated with assessing, treating, and managing patients with chronic pain continue to persist. Many different forces are at play and responsible for this frequently frustrating situation and, as is often the case, the person with the most at risk is the patient with chronic pain. There is no deficit of opinions for possible solutions to this problem. In fact, the number of potential solutions seems to increase each year, all with the intent of helping pain care be more safe and effective, and most trying to stem the negative consequences of abuse, misuse, and diversion of prescription pain medications. Clinicians have had to juggle these good intentions along with the fear of regulatory scrutiny. This course will present and detail the variety of current regulatory forces that need to be considered in clinical practice; how they can potentially impact clinical decisions regarding chronic pain; and how they can be negotiated. A number of regulatory agencies are now "sitting at the pain management table" for the foreseeable future and it is critical to navigate the waters without sacrificing that most important stakeholder: the patient.

    • UAN: 0530-0000-18-056-L01-P
    • AANP Rx Hours: 0.4

  • Relax, All Antispasmodics Are the Same....Right?

    Antispasmodics are commonly used in managing pain from muscle spasms, cramping, and sometimes hiccups, but they aren't a one-size-fits-all medication. Certain antispasmodics are for smooth muscle, others are for skeletal muscle. Some are more sedating. The aim of this session is to provide a high level review of the different classes and types of antispasmodics and their place in therapy. The discussion will include pharmacokinetic profiles, side effects, and dosing pearls for the different muscle relaxers. Participants should leave the presentation with a better understanding of the appropriate place of antispasmodics in therapy and be more "relaxed" when choosing one, knowing that they are customizing their patient's care by matching the symptom to the appropriate medication.

    • UAN: 0530-0000-18-399-L01-P
    • AANP Rx Hours: 0.8

  • Faculty Q&A

  • Break & Exhibits

  • Product, Disease Awareness, Medical Information Program*

    Lunch will be served.

    Sponsored by AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo Inc.

  • Reefer Madness Revisited

    Medical, and recreational, marijuana serve as sources of great confusion to patients and clinicians alike. A culture of "neuromysticism" around medical marijuana has arisen, leaving patients and clinicians alike confused regarding what constitutes "medical" marijuana. A part of this confusion is related to the poor quality of the available research on safety and efficacy, which are due, in part, to the restrictive scheduling of the drug. This lecture will focus on what we know, and what we don't know, about the efficacy and safety of medical cannabinoids. Specific recommendations regarding the safest and most effective use of medical marijuana as part of a pain management armamentarium will be provided.

    • UAN: 0530-0000-18-398-L01-P
    • AANP Rx Hours: 0.0

  • Break & Exhibits

  • The Other Opioid Crisis: Fentanyl and Heroin

    There is a significant amount of media, political, and public attention paid to the opioid crisis/opioid epidemic in the United States. With the seemingly ever-increasing number of opioid related overdoses and fatalities, there has been a feverish push by stakeholders to diminish the amount of opioids prescribed in order to help stem these worrisome trends. Unfortunately, there may be a lack of focus regarding the true definition and characterization of the opioid epidemic. There may also be a rush to judgment about the role of appropriately prescribed opioid analgesics in the addiction crisis we face today. This presentation will discuss the roles and statistics of both prescription and illicit opioids--namely fentanyl and heroin--in today's "opioid overdose epidemic" with the intention of clarifying important differences and similarities between these competing epidemics including concerns and clinical considerations specific to each of them. Additionally, this program will examine and identify how these medications and drugs share potentially tragic adverse effect profiles in many cases. However, it is important for clinicians to make sure that appropriate chronic pain patients who may be candidates for opioid analgesic therapy aren't penalized, and still get the treatment they deserve.

    • UAN: 0530-0000-18-055-L01-P
    • AANP Rx Hours: 0.0

  • The 411 on Nonprescription Analgesics: When to Hold 'Em, When to Fold 'Em

    Pain is the number one reason why patients seek advice from their pharmacist or primary care provider. Patients very often seek to use a nonprescription analgesic to self-treat a painful complaint, yet often do not understand the exclusions to selftreatment or how to select the best analgesic. Participants in this presentation will learn what nonprescription analgesics are available, indications for use, appropriate dosing and duration of therapy, appropriateness of candidates, and how to monitor and educate patients about their nonprescription analgesic. At this presentation, participants will learn the mechanism of action, indications, adverse effects, and precautions of oral and topical nonprescription analgesics, along with patient counseling points when recommending a nonprescription analgesic.

    • UAN: 0530-0000-18-052-L01-P
    • AANP Rx Hours: 0.7

SPONSORED PROGRAMS

To accompany and enrich your experience at the PAINWeekEnd conference, be sure to attend one or more of the sponsored programs, which are scheduled during breakfast, lunch, and afternoon "Brain Food" time slots in the schedule. There is NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE to attend these program sessions!

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