painpolicy
suffering
“A responsible way to treat patients, pain”
Lynn Webster MD has been hauled over the coals of recent time for sharing honestly his many years of experience treating people with chronic pain, treatment regimens that often included the use of opioids. In an opinion piece published in the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal, he powerfully states a firm case for the use of opioids … Continue reading
‘Dispensing Comfort” Global cancer pain: A view from PRI’s The World
Since 1996, the Pain and Policy Studies Group (PPSG) has been pointing out the stark differences in opioid consumption around the world through graphs and maps and most recently with Gapminder. But the above infographic by Kim Ducharme and Zia Sobhani takes the cake! To see the bloated shapes of US, Canada and Australia and a … Continue reading
Relieving the Supreme Court’s Pain…..
Revisiting the constitutional right to Palliative Care Katherine Irene Pettus, PhD, a political theorist, was invited to write this commentary on April 18th. She is currently writing a book on Palliative Care and Public Policy for SUNY Press to be published in 2013) New state laws aimed at curbing opioid access in regions experiencing what … Continue reading
Nurses, you can’t do without them! Life before Death Film 29
Nurses, where to start? My mother was a hospice nurse and my sister a peds nurse. I met my wife when she was nursing in a home of the dying. Our eldest is now studying nursing in Brisbane, Australia. Nurses have taught me so much of what is important in caring for people near the … Continue reading
“Cure???” Life Before Death Film 28
“But what exactly is meant by “cured”? Until the late 1950′s the term cure was generally taken to mean, in research terms, an overall 5 year survival rate. Now, however, the statistical concept of cure is much closer to the one we all have in mind – that for a group of post-treatment cancer patients, … Continue reading
