So said June Dahl, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The standards call on these facilities to ensure that pain is assessed and managed appropriately. Look at the media attention. It's put pain on every hospital's radar screen. As it should be, she said.
Undertreated pain is a major public health problem.
Richard Brown, M.D., associate professor in the family medicine department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he hopes the new focus on pain management will evoke a positive change in practice patterns for FPs. Brown has traveled the country conducting seminars on pain-related topics for health care professionals. I think FPs vastly underrecognize and undertreat chronic pain. Pain management practices of the past need updating, said Brown. And one area ripe for reform is education.