American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians |February 7, 2018
ASIPP Board member Ramsin Benyamin Testifies to Ways and Means Committee

On behalf of ASIPP, Ramsin Benyamin, MD testified before the Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Health Tuesday.
He was asked to present ASIPP’s views on reforming approaches to curb drug overdose deaths and improve care of chronic pain with nonopioid treatments.
 
Click HERE to hear his testimony

Click HERE to read his testimony
Here is the link for Full Hearing
Essentials of Interventional Techniques in Managing Chronic Pain
Available for Order!
 
  • Comprehensive textbook of interventional techniques in managing chronic pain

  • Covers spinal interventional techniques, peripheral nerve blocks, sympathetic interventional techniques, soft tissue and joint injections and implantables

  • Step-by-step guidance backed up by the latest evidence

This comprehensive review covers the full and latest array of interventional techniques for managing chronic pain. Chapters are grouped by specific treatment modalities that include spinal interventional techniques, nonspinal and peripheral nerve blocks, sympathetic interventional techniques, soft tissue and joint injections, and implantables. Practical step-by-step and evidence-based guidance is given to each approach in order to improve the clinician's understanding. Innovative and timely, Essentials of Interventional Techniques in Managing Chronic Pain is a critical resource for anesthesiologists, neurologists, and rehabilitation and pain physicians.
Click HERE to order
Register Now and Receive ' Stop Physician Burnout: What to Do When Working Harder Isn't Working '
by Dike Drummond, MD
STOP PHYSICIAN BURNOUT – What to do when working harder … isn’t working
The first step-by-step manual for any physician in any specialty to stop physician burnout, build a more ideal practice and a more balanced life.
This Book Give-away is sponsored by PREMIER MEDICAL BILLING SOLUTIONS .
Books will be distributed to all attendees at the meeting as long as supplies last.
Excludes sponsor and exhibitor registrations.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
CLICK HERE FOR BROCHURE
CLICK HERE FOR HOTEL

The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians will hold its 20th Annual Meeting March 15-17, 2018 in Orlando, Florida at Marriott Orlando World Center.

  •   Multiple topics covering Interventional Pain Management
  • 70+ physician speakers discussing over 125 interventional pain management topics and conducting numerous panel discussions
  • 8 keynote speakers enlightening attendees
  • "Excellence in IPM: Education, Research, and Advocacy"
  • 100+ exhibitors showcasing new IPM products and services
  • A luxurious stay in the stylish rooms and many amenities of Marriott Orlando World Center



Thursday General Session:
RAJ-RACZ DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIES
ARNOLD CAPLAN, MD, PHD - KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Today, Tomorrow, and Future of Pain Management
LAXMAIAH MANCHIKANTI, MD - KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Evidence Synthesis in IPM: Evolution of EBM or Death of Expertise and Truth

Friday General Session:
MANCHIKANTI DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIES
ROBERT LASZEWSKI - KEYNOTE SPEAKER
State of Health Care in the US: Past, Present, and Future
REPRESENTATIVE ED WHITFIELD - KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Health Care Advocacy: ASIPP Involvement with Grass Roots Advocacy Find everything you need for a successful stay.
SENATOR TIM HUTCHINSON - KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Health Care Reform: A View from Washington

Multiple breakout sessions including: Abstract and Posters; Regenerative Medicine; Resident/Fellows; Compliance, Billing and Coding; and various sessions on interventional techniques
2018 – Show ASIPP Support
With a new year comes challenges, but also new possibilities. 
As you must be aware, the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians has long been at the forefront of the fight for the survival and practice of interventional pain physicians. So as we move into 2018, and continue to fight against challenges such as painful cuts to ASC reimbursement, Medicare Non-coverage policies, and continued payment cuts for interventional pain management procedures, we must look to you for help in realizing and taking advantage of the new possibilities. 
Our past advocacy efforts have reaped great benefits for interventional pain physicians, including the reversal of cuts for epidural injections, changes to the CMS MIPS ruling, and greater coverage for Percutaneous Image-guided Lumbar Decompression. 
But to continue our successful work, we must ask for the help of those who benefit most. 
If you haven't given the maximum $5000 to the ASIPP PAC in 2018, we urge you to give what you can. These donations must be made from personal funds. We will also recognize those who contributed to the PAC at the ASIPP Annual Meeting and we would like to see your names at the top of our list of supporters.
Additionally, we have new levels of sponsorship, allowing individual physicians, as well as physician corporations, to make tax deductible contributions to ASIPP from a corporation or an individual. 
Physician Corporation Sponsorship Levels: 
Supporter $5,000
Advocate $10,000
Promoter $15,000
Champion $25,000
Individual Physician Sponsorship Levels: 
Supporter $500
Advocate $1,000
Promoter $1,500
Champion $2,500 
Please become a sponsor at any level you would like and make a tax deductible contribution to support the organization and join the below list of those who have already become ASIPP Physician Sponsors.
If you contribute before February 15, your name will be displayed at the 2018 ASIPP Annual Meeting in Orlando in March. If you contribute after February 15, you will be recognized at the 2019 annual meeting.
Please show your support and contribute so we can continue our essential work. 

ASIPP Abstract Submission Deadline Extended to Feb. 8

This year, we will be making significant changes to the Abstract and Poster Sessions. Submissions will be in two categories: Resident/Fellow and Physician.  Selected posters will be on display for all meeting participants during all breaks and meal times.
  
The Abstract Committee will select the top 25 for publication in Pain Physician and of those 10 will be selected for Abstract presentation and judging during the Annual Meeting. The top 3 will receive cash prizes.

Health Programs on the Line as Budget Deadline Nears
WASHINGTON -- As Congress comes up on a Thursday deadline for funding the federal government, there are still many healthcare financing issues that remain unresolved.
On Jan. 22,  Congress approved a "continuing resolution" (CR) , or stopgap spending bill, to keep the government funded through February 8th. The bill also included delays in implementation of two taxes that were part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- a medical device tax and a tax on so-called "Cadillac," or high-end, health insurance policies, as well as a 6-year reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Researchers Call for Widespread Inclusion of Conflict-of-Interest Disclosures in Manuscripts
Medical journals should require article authors to include conflict-of-interest statements as a way to enhance transparency, according to the authors of a research letter published in  JAMA .
Quinn Grundy, PhD, RN, from the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study of all articles published in journals in accordance with International Committee of Medical Journal Editors policies between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2016. Articles were randomly sampled to reach a prespecified sample of 1000 articles, which included primary research articles, commentaries, editorials, narrative reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.
Click HERE to view February issue of IPM Reports

Interventional Pain Management Reports is an Open Access online journal, a peer-reviews journal dedicated to the publication of case reports, brief commentaries and reviews and letters to the editor. It is a peer-reviewed journal written by and directed to an audience of interventional pain physicians, clinicians and basic scientists with an interest in interventional pain management and pain medicine. 

Interventional Pain Management Reports is an official publication of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) and is a sister publication of Pain Physician . Interventional Pain Management Reports Interventional Pain Management Reports is an open access journal, available online with free full manuscripts.  

The benefits of publishing in an open access journal that has a corresponding
print edition journal are:  
  • Your article will have the potential to obtain more citations.
  • Your article will be peer-reviewed and published faster than other journals.
  • Your article can be read by a potentially much larger audience compared with traditional subscription-only journals.  
  • Open Access journals are FREE to view, download and to print.

So submit today your:
  • Case Reports
  • Technical Reports
  • Editorials
  • Short Perspectives

Click HERE to submit
CMS Proposes Opioid Prescribing Limits for Medicare Enrollees
Drug plans would implement 'hard formulary levels' at pharmacies
WASHINGTON -- Pharmacies would have new limits on filling opioid prescriptions for Medicare beneficiaries under regulations proposed Thursday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
"We are proposing important new actions to reduce seniors' risk of being addicted to or overdoing it on opioids while still having access to important treatment options," said Demetrios Kouzoukas, CMS deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare, on a phone call with reporters. "We believe these actions will reduce the oversupply of opioids in our communities."
Under the proposal, Part D plans would implement so-called "hard formulary levels" at pharmacies which would restrict the amount of opioids that beneficiaries could receive. "These are triggers ... [that] can prompt conversations between physicians, patients, and plans about appropriate opioid use and prescribing," Kouzoukas said. "The trigger can only be overridden by the plan sponsor after efforts to consult with the prescribing physician." The safety level would be a 90 morphine-mg equivalent (MME) with a 7-day supply allowance.
January/February 2018 Journal Now Posted

January/February 2018 Issue Features
 
Health Policy Review
  • Buprenorphine Formulations
Systematic Reviews
  • Lumbar Spinal Stenosis
  • Middle Cervical Sympathetic Ganglion
  • Postherpetic Neuralgia Therapies
Randomized Trials
  • Pulsed Radiofrequency Improves Neuropathic Pain in Chronic Constriction Injury
  • Ultrasound-Guided Genicular Nerve Block for Knee Osteoarthritis
  • Reducing Radiation Exposure in Lumbar Transforaminal Epidural Steroid
  • Cerebral Blood Flow and Heart Rate Variability in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
  • Intradiscal Ozone-Oxygen Injection in Patients with Low Back Pain

Click view full article pdfs available only online at:  www.painphysicianjournal.com 
Daily Dose of OTC NSAIDs Regularly Exceeded
The number of users who exceed the daily limit of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is "nontrivial," according to a study published online in  Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety .
David W. Kaufman, ScD, from Boston University, and colleagues evaluated 1 week of online diary entries for 1326 ibuprofen users to determine deviations from dosing directions.

Updated Criteria for CRPS Diagnosis May Reveal Presence of Neuropathic Pain After TKA
Use of the 2006 Orlando criteria vs the 2007 Budapest criteria for the diagnosis of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) may lead to the misdiagnosis of patients experiencing unexplained excessive pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), according to a prospective study published in the  Journal of Knee Surgery . This study found that >50% of these patients may be experiencing neuropathic pain.
A total of 100 consecutive patients who underwent TKA were prospectively evaluated 6 weeks after the procedure to determine whether the use of updated criteria for  CRPS  would result in a different diagnosis.
None of the patients enrolled in this prospective analysis exhibited signs or symptoms of CRPS in >2 of 4 subgroups. Excessive pain levels were recorded in 17 patients, 6 of whom reported isolated sensory symptoms. The most common signs were sudomotor and sensory in nature, and no motor/trophic changes were found in any of the patients.
Tamper-Resistant Controlled-Release Oxycodone and Opioid Use: A Population Study
A new tamper-resistant formulation of controlled-release oxycodone may help reduce pharmaceutical opioid tampering in individuals who inject drugs, but it was not found to reduce opioid use or harm at the population level, according to study findings published in  Lancet Psychiatry .
Investigators followed a cohort of individuals with a history of manipulating pharmaceutical opioid medications prior to and after the introduction of a new tamper-resistant controlled-release  oxycodone  formulation.
FDA Approves GammaCore Treatment for Migraine Pain
GammaCore (nVNS) has been granted 510(k) expanded clearance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat pain associated with migraine.
GammaCore was developed by electroCore and received its initial FDA approval for the treatment of cluster headache pain in April 2017.
Electronic Medical Record "Nudge" May Shape Opioid Prescribing Behavior in the ED
Implementation of an electronic medical record (EMR) default opioid prescription of 10 tablets of 5 mg oxycodone/325 mg acetaminophen (Oxy/APAP) at discharge from the emergency department (ED) may be associated with an increased percentage of prescriptions for 10 tablets, compared with having no default number, according to the results of a recent study published in the  Journal of General Internal Medicine .
To evaluate the impact of an EMR intervention that provided a default prescription of 10 Oxy/APAP tablets, researchers evaluated weekly  prescribing patterns  for those tablets for 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after default implementation at 2 Pennsylvania EDs in 2015. 1
State Society News 
April 18-22, 2018
GSIPP 2018 Annual Meeting
Georgia Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
Thursday, April 18, 2018 - Sunday, April 22, 2018
The Ritz Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee

July 19-22, 2018
FSIPP 2018 Annual Meeting, Conference, and Trade Show
Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians
One South County Road, Palm Beach, FL 33480

Send in your state society meeting news to Holly Long, hlong@asipp.org
ASIPP | Pain Physician Journal | Phone | Fax | Email