Pain Treatment Topics is a new Web site for healthcare professionals devoted to the causes and effective treatment of pain. In America alone, surveys reveal that up to half of all persons may suffer chronic or recurring pain conditions. Many of them are either untreated or undertreated for their pain, and the economic impact is staggering, costing hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
Meanwhile, healthcare providers are bombarded with information coming from many directions: associations, foundations, journals, news media, government agencies, and product manufacturers. Busy practitioners usually do not have time to wade through, make sense of, and put into practice the information they need most.
Pain Treatment Topics provides evidence-based clinical news, information, research, and education on the causes and effective treatment of the many types of pain conditions.
Pain Treatment Topics' publisher and editor, Stewart B. Leavitt, MA, PhD, envisioned Pain-Topics.com as a clearinghouse to gather and logically organize all the clinical essentials of pain management at one Web site so site visitors can make the most of their time. The site is open access; all of the resources are available free of charge, without restriction or required registration, and the site does not promote or sell any products or services.
Pain-Topics.com is designed for easy navigation, and among the important pain-related offerings are as follows:
* Complete listings of events, education courses, clinical guidelines, research reviews, and links to related Web sites in the field
* Original articles, reports, and answers to frequently asked questions, evidence-based summaries, and helpful practice perspectives
* Special sections that address safety issues in analgesic prescribing and the interface of pain and drug addiction
* Patient education materials, which are offered to healthcare providers to evaluate and make available for their pain patients, as appropriate
* Bimonthly news/research updates and the quarterly newsletter, Topics e-Briefing, which provide review articles, interviews, commentary, research summaries, and other relevant advice for everyday clinical practice
Pain Treatment Topics is dedicated to complying with the highest ethical standards in the presentation of accurate and useful medical information. The site is certified to comply with the Health on the Net Foundation's Code of Conduct and abides by Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education standards and US Food and Drug Administration guidance on industry-supported scientific and educational activities.
All resources created are reviewed by an expert medical advisory panel for consistency with sound and accepted clinical practice.
Pain Treatment Topics is modeled after another successful project, Addiction Treatment Forum (http://www.ATForum.com), which was started in 1992 by Leavitt and colleagues. This has become a leading noncommercial educational program in the addiction treatment field worldwide.
Both Pain Treatment Topics and Addiction Treatment Forum rely on sponsor support in the form of unrestricted educational grants to fund the considerable costs of developing and providing quality content, free of charge, to a worldwide audience. Mallinckrodt, Inc, St. Louis, MO, a manufacturer of opioid analgesic products, is the current sponsor of both projects. Visitors of Pain-Topics.com can register to receive periodic notifications by e-mail when the site is updated, including listings of new site contents and the latest Topics e-Briefing.
For more information, or to view content, visit the Web site at http://www.Pain-Topics.com.