ANZCA Bulletin - June 2009 - Australian and New Zealand College ...

Faculty of Pain MedicineDean’s MessageThis has been a busy period. In the lastmonth I have attended the Australian PainSociety Annual Conference in Sydney andas part of this conference, Milton Cohenchaired a public forum on “Health careservices for people in pain: when there is awill there is a way”, which was facilitatedby John Quintner. A number of our Fellowswere involved on the panel.There was also the first face to faceof the National Pain Summit (steeringcommittee) chaired by Michael Cousins.A preliminary leaders meeting was held atANZCA House on June 5 where a detailedframework for the summit was agreed.At the beginning of May I travelledto Cairns where we had three visitorspresenting at both the Refresher CourseDay (“Unravelling the Chaos of Pain”) onMay 1, then as plenary speakers in the mainANZCA ASM program. Professor AndrewRice from London, our FPM ASM Visitor,was an incredibly dedicated visitor. Hepresented outcomes of his clinical researchand also gave us clinical guidelines formanaging peripheral neuropathies. Hepresented the Michael Cousins Lectureon the Saturday morning “CannabinoidAnalgesia – Future Friend or Dead End?”stressing that although cannabinoidreceptors seem to have a very important rolein pain management, because of the riskof mental illness including acute psychosisand long term risk of psychosis andschizophrenia, we cannot recommend theiruse clinically.Andrew attended all the sessionsover the two days of the Pain Medicineconference and was a great contributor,asking questions and participating. He andI then went on to Brisbane for the RoyalAustralasian College of Surgeons meetingwhere Leigh Atkinson had organised athree-day pain and neurosurgical program.Once again Andrew Rice and several of ourFellows were able to present to the surgeonsour understandings of the risks andmanagement of chronic pain problems.Our second visitor, Associate ProfessorSteve Passik from New York, challengedhis audience at both the Refresher CourseDay and ASM, introducing the term “TheChemical Coper” to describe a patientwho is on opioids but not benefitingfrom that prescription. He also presentedthe Queensland Pain Medicine Visitor’sLecture, talking about “Risk Management inOpioid Therapy”. This talk was particularlychallenging to our anaesthetic colleaguesas he pointed out that not all opioids arethe same. Due possibly to their receptorproperties, some opioids are muchmore likely to lead to dependency in“vulnerable” patients.We once again welcomed ProfessorRollin (Mac) Gallagher as our special guestand he presented to our Board meetingon the Thursday, and then again at ourRefresher Course Day and as part of ourASM program on the weekend. Mac wasalso an active contributor in all partsof the program.At the Faculty Dinner on the Fridaynight we farewelled Roger Goucke andMilton Cohen, who have now retired fromthe Faculty Board, and thanked themfor their amazing contributions. We alsoacknowledged Professor Tess Cramond inher retirement.On Sunday, May 3 we held our AnnualGeneral Meeting followed by the new Boardmeeting and were pleased to welcome RayGarrick and Guy Bashford as new membersof the Faculty Board.Milton Cohen has taken up the challengeof being senior editor for our journal, PainMedicine, and Professor Gallagher hasencouraged the Faculty to put forward thenames of other Fellows in Australasia whoare prepared to work on the editorial boardin different capacities.I am pleased to say that more and morewe are being asked as a Faculty to commenton many different issues, and I believe itis important for us to continue to strive toprovide input so that we continue to raisethe profile of Pain Medicine. To this end,occasionally I will ask the executive officer,Helen Morris, to approach Fellows to makecomments on submissions I receive onbehalf of the Faculty.It was pleasing to welcome ProfessorMaree Smith and Associate ProfessorMichael Nicholas as Honorary Fellows ofour Faculty at the College Ceremony inCairns. Both of these individuals havecontributed to the Faculty over many years.Dr Michal Kluger FANZCA (New Zealand)was elected to Fellowship at the BoardMeeting on April 30. We now number265 Fellows (108 by examination). Threeindividuals have been directed towards thenew summative assessment pathway toFellowship without further training.Once again I would like to thank theBoard for their support and wisdom, HelenMorris and her staff, Angela Boolieris andPenny McNair for all their support and allthe Fellows that contributed to the Facultyin so many ways.Dr Penelope BriscoeDeanThe ANZCA Bulletin June 2009 83