Pain Awareness Month, keeping kids safe, and more

September is Pain Awareness Month.  Our Comprehensive Pain Center plays a leading role in managing pain patients throughout the year and is actively participating in programs to help stem the opioid crisis. Other current highlights of their work include a Pfizer study to look at alternative therapies for chronic pain, a new NSAID study with hemophilic arthropathy, spinal cord stimulator research, and diversity in pain research. 

Clinical

Dr. Matthias Merkel wrote a guest column with Dr. Dana Braner in the Oregonian titled “Opinion: With hospitals full, Oregonians must take action to keep kids safe, healthy."

Research

Congratulations to Dr. Scott Mist on his recently published papers “Subgrouping a large US sample of patients with fibromyalgia using the fibromyalgia impact questionnaire-revised" in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, and “Modeling the Complexities of Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis” in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 

Congratulations to Drs. Brandon Togioka, Sarah McConville, and Katie Schenning for the acceptance of their manuscript “Diagnosis and Management of Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome during labor.”  This is the first known description of Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome during labor.  The authors use a case to illustrate how the physiologic changes of pregnancy alter the diagnostic criteria for Obesity Hypoventilation. Data is provided to support the idea that Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome should be defined differently in pregnancy.