Pain Medicine in Crisis—A Possible Model toward a Solution: Empowering Community Medicine to Treat Chronic Pain

Pain medicine in Israel and in the world has reached a crisis. The lack of available pain medicine services is resulting in the unsatisfactory treatment for chronic pain sufferers. The main causes of this crisis are: 1) the high prevalence of chronic pain, reaching levels of 17% in the adult populat...

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Main Authors: Amir Minerbi, Simon Vulfsons
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Rambam Health Care Campus 2013-10-01
Series:Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:http://rmmj.org.il/Pages/ArticleHTM.aspx?manuId=348
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spelling doaj-797b6b49d1154844b6569a1870ca668b2020-11-24T21:15:35ZengRambam Health Care CampusRambam Maimonides Medical Journal2076-91722013-10-0144e002710.5041/RMMJ.10134Pain Medicine in Crisis—A Possible Model toward a Solution: Empowering Community Medicine to Treat Chronic PainAmir Minerbi0Simon Vulfsons1Department of Family Medicine, Clalit Health Services, Haifa and Western Galilee District, Israel and Institute for Pain Medicine, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, IsraelInstitute for Pain Medicine, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, IsraelPain medicine in Israel and in the world has reached a crisis. The lack of available pain medicine services is resulting in the unsatisfactory treatment for chronic pain sufferers. The main causes of this crisis are: 1) the high prevalence of chronic pain, reaching levels of 17% in the adult population;2) the lack of appropriate training of primary care physicians in the field of chronic pain management; and 3) the paucity of consultation services in the field of chronic pain. In this journal article, we propose a possible model for the solution of the problem, based upon levels of treatment according to the severity of the disease and upon training of primary and secondary care physicians in the treatment of pain. According to the model, the vast majority of treatment and management will take place in the community after appropriate training of primary care physicians. More complex cases will be referred to secondary care community-based pain clinics manned by physicians with further in-depth training. Only the most complex of patients, or those needing specialized treatment such as invasive analgesic therapy, will be referred to tertiary pain centers manned by specialists in pain medicine. Implementation of this model will necessitate training of primary care physicians and the establishment of secondary care facilities and can, in our opinion, pose a pragmatic solution for the hundreds of thousands of patients suffering from chronic pain.http://rmmj.org.il/Pages/ArticleHTM.aspx?manuId=348Chronic paincrisis in pain medicinepostgraduate medical trainingprimary caresecondary care
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Amir Minerbi
Simon Vulfsons
spellingShingle Amir Minerbi
Simon Vulfsons
Pain Medicine in Crisis—A Possible Model toward a Solution: Empowering Community Medicine to Treat Chronic Pain
Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal
Chronic pain
crisis in pain medicine
postgraduate medical training
primary care
secondary care
author_facet Amir Minerbi
Simon Vulfsons
author_sort Amir Minerbi
title Pain Medicine in Crisis—A Possible Model toward a Solution: Empowering Community Medicine to Treat Chronic Pain
title_short Pain Medicine in Crisis—A Possible Model toward a Solution: Empowering Community Medicine to Treat Chronic Pain
title_full Pain Medicine in Crisis—A Possible Model toward a Solution: Empowering Community Medicine to Treat Chronic Pain
title_fullStr Pain Medicine in Crisis—A Possible Model toward a Solution: Empowering Community Medicine to Treat Chronic Pain
title_full_unstemmed Pain Medicine in Crisis—A Possible Model toward a Solution: Empowering Community Medicine to Treat Chronic Pain
title_sort pain medicine in crisis—a possible model toward a solution: empowering community medicine to treat chronic pain
publisher Rambam Health Care Campus
series Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal
issn 2076-9172
publishDate 2013-10-01
description Pain medicine in Israel and in the world has reached a crisis. The lack of available pain medicine services is resulting in the unsatisfactory treatment for chronic pain sufferers. The main causes of this crisis are: 1) the high prevalence of chronic pain, reaching levels of 17% in the adult population;2) the lack of appropriate training of primary care physicians in the field of chronic pain management; and 3) the paucity of consultation services in the field of chronic pain. In this journal article, we propose a possible model for the solution of the problem, based upon levels of treatment according to the severity of the disease and upon training of primary and secondary care physicians in the treatment of pain. According to the model, the vast majority of treatment and management will take place in the community after appropriate training of primary care physicians. More complex cases will be referred to secondary care community-based pain clinics manned by physicians with further in-depth training. Only the most complex of patients, or those needing specialized treatment such as invasive analgesic therapy, will be referred to tertiary pain centers manned by specialists in pain medicine. Implementation of this model will necessitate training of primary care physicians and the establishment of secondary care facilities and can, in our opinion, pose a pragmatic solution for the hundreds of thousands of patients suffering from chronic pain.
topic Chronic pain
crisis in pain medicine
postgraduate medical training
primary care
secondary care
url http://rmmj.org.il/Pages/ArticleHTM.aspx?manuId=348
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