The room block for the October Spinal Cord Stimulation Review Course and Cadaver Workshop ends on Sept. 30. We highly recommend you register for the course and book your hotel as soon as possible. After Sept. 30, rooms will be difficult to secure.

The course will be held on Oct 24-26 in Memphis, TN at the Westin Memphis Beale Street and the Medical Education Research Institute (MERI). The course is a CME activity that will cover all aspects of spinal cord stimulation and intrathecal implantable infusions systems, through didactics, extensive case discussions, faculty interaction and hands-on instruction.

Whether you have practiced spinal cord stimulation for many years or you are new to this procedure with only basic skills, you will find this course to be beneficial to you in building or refreshing your skills. A special certificate of attendance will be provided at the conclusion of the meeting.

Take advantage of the early registration discount by registering before September 30. For more information go to http://www.a sipp.org/meetings.htm

The Washington State Society has created a survey for Interventional Pain Medicine physicians for the purpose of gathering information from practitioners who have actual experience with Electronic Medical Records(EMR) and Practice Management systems.

The survey goal is to collect enough data to help those who are in the process of EMR evaluating systems for purchase. The results will hopefully help to minimize purchase mistakes and save IPM physicians time and money.

Click on the following link to particiapate in the survey and feel free to share it with your colleauges.

ASIPP, AAPM, ISIS, the American Medical Association (AMA), and more than 70 other medical specialty societies are conducting a comprehensive multi-specialty survey of America's physician practices. If you received a survey ASIPP encourages you to participate.

We need at least 100 surveys to be completed and returned which is only one-tenth of the surveys mailed. To date, 73 usable surveys have been returned. Interventional pain management has done very well compared to many other specialties. But we should strive for 100% in order to get the most benefit from the survey. .

The results will be used to positively influence national decision makers to ensure accurate and fair representation for all physicians and patients, and to articulate the challenges of running a practice that provides expert patient care, while operating a business that is sustainable.

Of particular importance is the section of the study pertaining to practice expenses and the amounts that are attributable to you. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has indicated that it will use the results of this study to help determine physician payment. The survey firm, dmrkynetec, will contact randomly selected physicians and practice managers to collect responses. All responses will remain confidential.

If you have been selected to participate in this important effort and have any questions about this survey, please call 1-877-816-8940 toll-free and ask to speak with one of dmrkynetec's executive interviewers about the 2008 Physician Information and Practice Expense Survey. Also, please inform your staff of your desire to participate in this survey and the importance of accepting incoming calls, faxes or e- mails from dmrkynetec, the firm administering the survey.

A virtual pharmacy system that has been tested in North Dakota allows residents in rural areas to visit a drugstore and talk to someone about their health needs via the Internet. The telepharmacies are staffed with registered pharmacy technicians who use remote cameras to contact pharmacists in another location and show them the original signed prescription, computer-generated label, stock bottle where the pills are stored, and the bottle the patient will take home. Once the prescription is approved, patients have a mandatory private consultation with pharmacists through real-time video and audio. Now other states that have changed laws to allow for remote pharmacies (Kolpack, AP/YahooNews, Sept. 12, 2008).

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The Kaiser Family Foundation sponsors this briefing, which unveils two new studies: Televisio n as a Health Educator - an innovative experiment with Grey's Anatomy to measure the reach and effectiveness of an embedded health message in a specific episode of the show from the last television season, and How Healthy is Prime Time? -- a survey examining the prevalence and quality of health content in popular, scripted prime time television.

The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) is undertaking a national public relations campaign targeted toward informing the millions of Americans who suffer from chronic pain about the relatively new and often confusing specialty of Interventional Pain Management (IPM).

It is our objective to promote a basic understanding of the various modalities and benefits our specialty can offer, and to demonstrate what it is that makes IPM physicians unique in their approach to the treatment and elimination of chronic and/or acute pain.

ASIPP believes that educating the national media, the general public, payors and even other physicians about new and emerging therapies in this rapidly expanding field is the logical and necessary next step for our specialty. We hope you will support this effort by making a contribution to the campaign.

Watch for more information on this important campaign as more plans are made and the details unfold.

Member Contribution Form

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee finally rolled out an online tool that provides cost and quality information on doctors to nearly 2 million of its members this week. With the launch, members of the state's largest health insurer can now see information such as what other physicians billed for procedures within a certain specialty. They also can see a doctor's record on whether he performed screenings (Ward, The Tennessean, Sept. 17, 2008).

But the addition of these new tools by health plans such as BlueCross has drawn concerns from some doctors about whether that information ultimately could be used to steer consumers to the cheapest doctors, who may not necessarily be the best.

A morphine pill with a built-in anti-abuse factor did better than placebo at relieving pain in patients with osteoarthritis, researchers said...(Smith, MedPage Today, Sept. 11, 2008)

Medical peer review is widely viewed as an important component of quality patient care. Yet the threat of liability poses a deterrent to physician participation (Sorrel, amednews.com, Sept. 22, 2009 issue).

ASIPP is now offering a new feature for those who advertise on our Positions Wanted section of the ASIPP Website. As a service to our advertisers and our members, please find the link to each current job posting.

Fellows hip Trained Physician - Northwest Indiana

Out patient Interventional Pain Physician - Atlanta, Georgia

Pain Management Opportunity - Pennsylvania

Entrepre neurial Opportunity - Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Florida Opportunities

Pain Medicine Fellowship Program Opportunity

BC/ BE Physiatrist - Shrewsbury, New Jersey

Part nership Opportunity - Milwaukee, Wisconsin

100% Pain Practice - Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Natio nal Pain Institute - Florida

Interv entional Pain Specialist - Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

MAYO CLINIC - Cardiac Anesthesiologist

Interven tional Pain Physiatrist Wanted - Nevada