Pain Management Best Practices during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Public Health Crises

Pain Management Best Practices during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Public Health Crises is organized by American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM).

Release Date: April 15, 2020
Valid Through: December 31, 2022 

Target Audience:
This activity was developed to meet the needs of clinicians treating patients in pain while navigating the COVID-19 healthcare crisis.

Description:
The pandemic of COVID-19 infections is causing substantial disruptions to daily life around the world and pain practitioners across the globe are affected by these disruptions while care for their patients with chronic pain.

Pain is inherently subjective, and there is enormous variation in how patients react to pain and how it is treated, even between physicians who practice the same subspecialty. Patients with the same pathology can respond dramatically differently to treatment and react in very different ways to having anticipated treatment withheld including becoming socially withdrawn, functionally disabled, and suicidal. Large variations in practices can have long-standing consequences, such that practices that strictly interpret local recommendations to limit non-essential care to prevent disease spread can lose patients to less scrupulous practices that ignore regional ordinances intended to safeguard the community. For these reasons, there is a strong need for national guidance on pain management practices during epidemics.

Learning Objectives:
• Review general and specific risk mitigation procedures related to pain medicine and COVID-19.
• Discuss mechanisms for triaging pain procedures in the current healthcare environment.
• Discuss mental health considerations and steps providers can take to protect their own health.