UPFRONT | News TRAINING Toronto scientist gets Mayday Fund pain management fellowship The Mayday Fund has selected six experts in pain management to be fel-lows of the Mayday Pain and Society Fellowship, one of them a scientist at the Toronto Wester n Research Institute. Karen Davis, head and senior scien-tist, at the institute’s Division of Brain, Imaging and Behaviour – Systems Neuroscience, and professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Surgery and Institute of Medical Sci-ence, is the only one from Canada se-lected for the fellows of the Mayday Pain and Society Fellowship. The following researchers also re-ceived fellowships: • Dr. Bill McCarberg, adjunct assis-tant clinical professor, University of California San Diego; family medicine provider, Neighborhood Healthcare; hospice provider, Eliz-abeth Hospice in Escondido, Calif. • Dr. Brian Schmidt, director, Blue-stone Center for Clinical Research; director, New York University Oral Cancer Center; professor, Depart-ment of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery; professor, Department of Physiology and Neuroscience; and co-leader, Epidemiology and Can-cer Control, New York University Cancer Institute • Dr. Steven Stanos, director, Cor-porate Pain Services, Rehabilita-tion Institute of Chicago (RIC); attending physician, RIC Center for Pain Management; associate professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; as-sistant program director, Multidis-ciplinary Pain Fellowship, Depart-ment of Anesthesia, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine • Cindy Steinberg, national director of policy and advocacy, U.S. Pain Foundation • Catherine Underwood, chief exec-utive officer, American Pain Society The new fellows specialize in a wide range of health-care disciplines, includ-ing neuroscience, primar y care, 10 Canadian Chiropractor October 2013 physical and rehabil-itative medicine, patient advocacy and pain policy. The fel-lowship program is in its ninth year, and will con-tinue for one more session in 2014. The fellowship provides pain-care leaders with skills to advocate for effective pain management. Fel-lows learn how to better communicate with the media, policymakers and others to raise visibility for their issues. “The applicant pool was one of the largest and most impressive to date,” said Russell Portenoy, chairman of the Mayday Fellowship Advisory Commit-tee, which selects the fellows each year. “The response showed us that re-searchers, clinicians and advocates are becoming increasingly aware of the need for effective communication about the urgent problem of under-treated pain. We are confident that this year’s fellows will bring fresh energy and focus to our program, and will acquire the skills they need to more effectively promote the legitimate needs of patients with pain. More than ever, the patient’s voice must be part of the public and professional dis-course about pain-related policy and practice,” added Portenoy, who is also chairman of the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. The fellows will develop skills to advocate and communicate on many of the issues they deal with every day, including the undertreatment of pain, pain research and treatment, pain ed-ucation, and policies to improve pain care. “The Mayday Fund Trustees con-gratulate and welcome this new class of fellows,” said Christina Spellman, executive director of the Mayday Fund. “We are eager to support such qualified leaders to speak publicly about cutting-edge pain research, ed-ucation programs and policy issues impacting pain care.” As part of their training, the new fellows will attend an intensive four-day workshop in Washington, D.C., in October 2013, and will work closely with media and policy coaches from Burness Communications, a public relations firm that works with non-profit organizations, primarily in health and science. Fellows will learn how to connect with local and national media, write opinion editorials, and educate members of Congress and other poli-cymakers about pain-care research and treatment. By improving their commu-nications skills, they will be poised to move the field forward by educating and working with the media, policy-makers, advocates, health and business leaders, and their own peers. Established in 1992, the Mayday Fund is dedicated to further Shirley Steinman Katzenbach’s commitment to social and medical causes. Her spe-cial interest in the treatment of pain forms the core of the fund’s mission. Over the last 20 years, Mayday has contributed to many different projects, among them surveys of public attitudes to pain and its treatment; clinical and academic research; assistance to public and professional advocacy groups; the worldwide documentary film Life Be-fore Death, which raises awareness about the global crisis of untreated and undertreated pain; and most recently, a video to help health-care profession-als understand the importance of good communication and treatment for pain and palliative care. www.canadianchiropractor.ca Photo: Dreamstime.com
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor October 2013: Page 10
