Last year we began planning our 2020 Southern Pain Society meeting, “Perspectives, Concerns and Options for Managing Pain.” Little did anyone realize that national events of 2020 would necessitate many concerns and needs. We have worked to change our perspective as we explored options for safely coordinating an exciting conference to share timely and innovative pain management information.
Cluster headache is among the most severe pains known to mankind. It is characterized by excruciating, debilitating pain lasting from 15 to 180 minutes, or occasionally longer. Pain is usually located around or through one eye or on the temple. The series of headaches usually lasts several weeks to several months, once or twice per year. Clusters may occur every other year or less frequently.
During the last five years, the focus upon, and priority for effective management of pain have dramatically shifted. After more than a decade of efforts to improve the awareness of pain and the need to manage it, health care administrators and providers were keenly aware that pain management was an important health care need.
As COVID-19 continues to influence individual and corporate function worldwide, The Southern Pain Society leadership is working diligently to ensure the best plan for our upcoming Annual Meeting in September. We would like all to know that while information on the current unprecedented pandemic is evolving quickly, your health and safety remains our primary concern.
The efficacy of new drugs is usually reasonably accurate. We have multiple scales for efficacy, and the studies are powered for clinical effect. However, the studies often produce inaccurate adverse event or adverse effect profiles. To determine the likely adverse effects, post-approval we have to piece together multiple lines of evidence. The physician online chat boards have been very helpful.
Quarantined people have to go out to get their prescriptions and can’t get a backup supply.
As you may know or have read in our President’s Column, Dr. John Satterthwaite has stepped down from his long-standing role as SPS Treasurer and will remain on the board as a non-voting member. We are grateful for his 34 years at the financial helm of the organization and appreciate his wisdom, historical perspective and recommendations that have kept SPS healthy, financially sound and robust.
Gepants are small molecule calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonists. The preventive CGRP monoclonal antibodies(Aimovig, Emgality, Ajovy) are large molecules, delivered once per month as a SQ injection. Seven gepants have been developed since 2004…. CGRP has many effects throughout the body.
Wilmington is a community in southeastern North Carolina known for its beautiful beaches, historic river-walk district, and the largest domestic television and movie production facility outside of California. In April of 2016, this city also became recognized for something else. Castlight Health released “The Opioid Crisis in America’s Workforce.”
Developing this president column is no small task. It is written to pay tribute to our friend and mentor Dr. John Satterthwaite who recently stepped down from serving as the treasurer of the Southern Pain Society during the last 34 years. John nurtured and guided SPS while significantly impacting many SPS members in ways that can never be repaid. As Dr. Mordi Potash said so well: “it is an absolute truism that there would not be a Southern Pain Society in existence in 2020 if not for John Satterthwaite.” This was echoed by Lori Postal who recently wrote John Satterthwaite has served the Southern Pain Society as a “trusted mentor, historian, voice of reason and steward of our finances.”