Advancing Pain Research in Private Practice

Alex Cahana, MD, PhD; Debra A. Schwinn, MD

Alex Cahana, MD, PhD
Professor—Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
Adjunct Professor—Bioethics and Humanities, Radiology
Chief—Division of Pain Medicine
Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
University of Washington Medical Center for Pain Relief
Seattle, WA

Debra A. Schwinn, MD
Professor and Chair—Department of Anesthesiology
University of Washington Medical Center
Seattle, WA

Clinical trials often fail to represent cohorts observed in general practice, which at times can leave clinicians frustrated with calls for evidence-based medicine. Moreover, the biopsychosocial model of pain suggests that pain management outcomes are necessarily complex and multifactorial. In an educational session at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, Dr. Cahana explored current methodological and practical barriers to pain research and innovative ways to adopt real-life solutions that will increase pain research in the private pain practice. Topics included how clinicians can track patient outcomes and translate their observations into research, considerations for informed consent, and using larger datasets examined over the long-term to extract clinically relevant parameters in post-hoc analysis.

References

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