pain associations

[ieatpaste37]

what's the main pain association?

aapm?
asipp?
iasp?
aps?

which one are pain management doctors in?

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[Aether2000]

ASIPP has tried to be the one ring to rule them all but has largely failed. The proliferation of non-pain physicians and non-physicians engaging in pain procedures and pain management, the steadily decreasing reimbursement, the increasing irrelevancy of pain board certification, and the imposition of state laws/medical licensing actions have made the well intentioned ASIPP initiatives and actions far less effective than intentioned.
AAPMR is closed to non-physiatrists and has a small pain contingent.
AAPM has been under fire for their over exuberant embracement of opioid therapies in the past, and have mainly medical management as their primary focus in their publications, although ISIS contributes interventional component to their journal.
AAPManagement is a collection of many non physicians that cater to CRNAs by offering "certificates" in pain management that they have used inappropriately to obtain privileges to do advanced procedures in surgery centers and hospitals. Their past presidents include "doctors of naturopathy".
APS is primarily for researchers or policy wonks, with far less than half the board members as physicians in the past.
IASP is a great organization with world wide representation and is apolitical.
ISIS is an extremely conservative injection society that typically embraces standard pain procedures only after they have been employed for many years and after significant studies supporting their application have been published. They believe in a "best practices" model and use the term "guidelines" to mean a committee consensus best practice.
NASS is dominated by surgeons and surgeon's interests. They offer injection courses to surgeons to supplant board certified pain physicians jobs.

 

[lobelsteve]

AAPM is saddled with Lynn Webster as current president. See other thread regarding his prescribing habits and bad outcomes.
AAPMR is out of touch with its members interests and takes years to make any changes. I've been on the membership committee for 5 years and we are possibly making some advances. But it is too little too late.

 

[ampaphb]

ISIS is the single most effective organization. They advocate when crises occur (largely behind the scenes), and as Algos said, advocate for "best practices". That phrase can be frustrating, because Dr. Bogduk and his Australian disciples, tend to take a very dogmatic stand. It should be pointed out that Algos is a former Board member. Mike DePalma (VCU), DJ Kennedy (Stanford), Matt Smuck (Stanford), and Josh Rittenberg (formally of Northwestern/RIC) are all current really smart, reasonable, and honest current Board members.

ASIPP is full of the worst of the worst. In my neighborhood, we have a former president of ASIPP who is amongst the biggest ****** in town. They are VERY antagonistic, and rarely play well with other organizations. They toot their own horn loudly whenever they can. The science they generate is designed to bolster our reimbursement. Quoting a study by members of their leadership is gonna get you laughed out of the room when talking to legitimate researchers (other, oddly, than the folks from Lubbock, who have hitched their wagon to Lax's team politically).

The above two organizations are mortal enemies. A few folks (Calodney for one) have been involved with both Boards.

NASS is odd. They have managed to get Ray Baker (former president of ISIS), as well as a good portion of the Northwestern/RIC mucky mucks (Akathota, Prather, Press) involved in their hierarchy. David O'Brien has also been their representative to the RUC for for several years. That being said, Carragee is the editor in chief of their journal, which should tell you all you need to know about the organization. When IDET was a promising procedure, the vast majority of members tore Kevin Pauza, one of the developers, a new one when he presented the seminal article on the subject.

The most prestigious organization no one ever hears about, btw, is ISSLS (International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine)

 

[lobelsteve]

Rus DeMicco is PMR/Pain at Cleveland Clinic and involved with NASS.

 

[hyperalgesia]

In my experience, ISIS has a tradition of a high standard of ethics and quality medical care.
--I had to edit this because I talk too much

 

[Pacman27]

Not to knock any of your thoughts and I clearly get it when it comes to data published by ASIPP.
But isn't ASIPP the only organization that is clearly being vocal to protect our profession

 

[lobelsteve]

Not to knock any of your thoughts and I clearly get it when it comes to data published by ASIPP.
But isn't ASIPP the only organization that is clearly being vocal to protect our profession

Only if you are a pain doc who owns an ASC. If you are office based they dont care about you.

 

[stim4u]

ASA has the most pull, all the other suck. I would not paid a lifetime membership to ASIPP if I knew better....

 

[Ligament]

ASIPP has political pull and a public "face," if any pain society has one. I view them as the pain PAC.

ISIS has more behind the scenes political pull and solid science. The actually do a lot more work with Washington, DC than most people understand. I wish they'd take more credit for it and be more vocal of an organization like ASIPP is.

It is true they are both mortal enemies of each other, solely due to the old guard. It is a HUGE shame too, since we need them to provide a unified front.

NASS is for surgeons.

 

[SeniorWrangler]

ASIPP is pretty politically active but I have my doubts about their effectiveness. They seem to spend a lot of time wooing politicians who represent the areas where ASIPP leadership practice, but who don't really have much influence on policies. I like their classes, though.

ISIS also has good classes and I don't think you'll go wrong relying on their guidelines.

The APS is a very good organization for the study of pain, but it's very academic and not clinically focused, and actually seems to be getting more and more distant from clinical realities as time goes on.

 

[ieatpaste37]

As a resident that is interested in a pain management fellowship, which organization is better to put on my CV for poster presentation: AAPM or APS? I was accepted to both and I am not sure which one would be in my best interest. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Aether2000]

Doesn't matter. Membership in a particular pain organization is really irrelevant, and confers no implicit or explicit quality or legitimacy to support a poster presentation. Most physicians list all the organizations in their CV of which they are members, and in the pain world, typically this at least several. However, it may be a less favorable sign if you list no pain related organizations on your CV or even deleterious if certain organizations are listed.

 

[ampaphb]

... even deleterious if certain organizations are listed.

That would be AAPManagement, just to be clear.

 

[Aether2000]