Improvement of pain management and prevention efforts among underdiagnosed and/or undertreated subpopulations is another tenet of the report. Those at risk include surgery and cancer patients; people at the end of life; racial and ethnic minorities; people with lower income and education levels; women, children, and older people; and military veterans. This need is not unique to pain, Dr. Altman said. "That same disparity exists in all medical care. People who are at risk for not having pain control are the people who are at risk for not getting medical care. It’s the same population."
Strategies to reduce barriers to pain care are among the recommendations that should be implemented by the end of 2012, the report committee said. Support of greater collaboration between pain specialists and primary care clinicians also should be established by the end of next year.
In addition, an existing institute within the National Institutes of Health should become the lead institute and responsible for moving pain research forward as well by the end of 2012, the report states. The NIH Pain Consortium also should take a stronger leadership role in fostering the necessary research. Dr. Altman was somewhat pessimistic about these proposals. "They make a recommendation in here that the NIH devotes some specific groups to pain control. Good luck with that in this financial climate."
Ongoing efforts to enact the remaining recommendations in the report, the authors stated, should be finalized by the end of 2015.
Dr. Lane and Dr. Altman said that they had no relevant financial disclosures.
The report is available from the IOM website.