A Single Point of Access for frontline practitioners
PAINWeekEnd St. Louis 2019 | Saturday 5/4/19
This is a 1-day meeting and will provide 6 CE/CME credits.
Practicing Healthcare Professionals: $129
In order to maintain the clinical nature of the conference, nonclinicians—including, but not limited to, office managers, billing specialists, receptionists, and administrative staff; guests, spouses, friends, and/or family members—may not attend PAINWeekEnd.
Unfortunately, we do not have discounts available on hotel rooms. Please contact the hotel directly should you require accommodations.
St. Louis Union Station Hotel
Curio Collection by Hilton
1820 N. Market St.
St. Louis, MO 63103
Get Directions using Google Maps
Faculty and courses are subject to change. Please refer to the online agenda below for the most recent course descriptions.
To view the agenda below, click on the + sign next to the day of the conference to expand the conference agenda. Click on the + signs within the agenda to view the course description, UAN number, and AANP pharmacology credits.
*not certified for credit
Coffee will be served.
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.
Refreshments will be served.
Sponsored by kaléo.
Nonopioid analgesics are oftentimes considered first-line therapy for most chronic pain syndromes. A strong understanding of these agents’ mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, and toxicity profiles is paramount for today’s pain practitioner. This course will provide an in-depth look at each of the agents within these drug classes, their potential role in pain management, and available data supporting their use. Additionally, clinically relevant monitoring pearls will be discussed.
Few would question the severity of the prescription opioid crisis of the early years of this millennium, the causes of which were myriad. Undoubtedly, society needed to address the crisis in an aggressive manner. Unfortunately, the manner in which the problem was addressed has been a classic example of “overkill,” resulting in a war on opioid analgesia, the patients who require opioid treatment, and the providers who have continued to prescribe. Although many have cast blame on the 2016 CDC Opioid Prescribing Guideline, it was not necessarily the Guideline itself that caused so much suffering, but rather its weaponization. Irrespective, patients have been the “collateral damage” in this war on opioids. This presentation will address the imperative of physicians exercising more thorough and consistent opioid risk mitigation in order to avoid opioid analgesia from becoming further “legislated away,” as well as the imperative of those who are “pro-opioid” and “anti-opioid” to agree on a rational middle ground that is more “pro-patient.”
Lunch will be served.
Sponsored by SCILEX.
Pain remains one of the most common reasons that people seek medical attention in the United States. When pain was designated as the fifth vital sign, people were given the right to have their pain assessed and effectively treated by their healthcare professionals. A number of ethical dilemmas have surfaced since, including the increased prescribing of opioid medications for patients with chronic pain, in the face of also increasing rates of abuse, misuse, and addiction related to these medications. The “opioid overdose epidemic/crisis” has led us to the challenge of balancing the safe, compassionate, and effective treatment of chronic pain against serious negative outcomes associated with the increased abuse and misuse of these medications. With overdose death rates increasing, tensions running high, a multitude of political and regulatory involvement, and knee-jerk reactiveness, it seems as if the only thing being forgotten is the needs of chronic pain patients and the core ethical principles intended to help clinicians maintain the highest standards of care. This session will describe these principles and clarify their role in determining reproducible courses of action that maximize safety, efficacy, and compassionate pain care, regardless of the direction the “opioid pendulum” is swinging.
Multidrug therapy, also known as rational polypharmacy, has been a part of treatment approaches for chronic pain for many years. This course will review the concept of rational polypharmacy as it applies to the treatment of migraine, neuropathic pain, and musculoskeletal pain conditions.
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.
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!