Annual Report
Dean's Report to the Annual General Meeting 2008
The Faculty this year has made a number of steps to improve our corporate responsibility, raise our profile in the wider community and make ourselves more supportive of our Fellows.
The Board believes that its impending restructure, to take effect from this AGM, will contribute significantly to achieve these aims.
The number
of Fellows grew to 236, of whom seven are Honorary. Eighty-five have been admitted through
training and examination. Of the 226
active Fellows, 178 were domiciled in Australia,
13 in New Zealand
and 35 in other countries. Those whose primary specialty is anaesthesia make up
just over 60% of the Fellowship. In
2007, fifteen Fellows were admitted to Fellowship; eleven by training and
examination and four by election. 2007
saw the admission of two surgeons and three rehabilitation physicians.
Strategic Planning
Priorities
identified during the Board’s Strategic Planning Day in July 2006 were further
advanced in 2007:
Academic
The Faculty submitted a basic syllabus in Pain Medicine to the Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Committee (CPMEC) for PGY1 and 2. This syllabus now forms a compulsory part of skills training for PGY1&2.
At an undergraduate level, a document was sent to the Heads of all Undergraduate Curriculum Committees outlining the training needs and to provide a basic syllabus in Pain Medicine. Positive feedback was obtained.
The Faculty was represented at the anzMET meeting in Sydney - the Inaugural Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Forum, incorporating the 12th National Prevocational Medical Education Forum.
Fellowship
The strategic objective of placing more emphasis on providing services to Fellows, in addition to the current and continuing focus on trainees, was addressed in plans for the Board Restructure. There will be a designated Board member responsible for Fellowship Affairs.
Formation of Regional Committees has been encouraged again with the aim of improving communication between Fellows and with the College. Queensland Fellows have formed the Faculty’s first Regional Committee.
Relationships
In 2007, regular teleconference meetings with the Australian Pain Society and New Zealand Pain Society were convened to discuss areas of mutual interest, including the Global Day Against Pain, our respective Annual Scientific Meetings and mechanisms to promote pain related activities throughout Australia and New Zealand.
A Delegation of Responsibility document is now in place between ANZCA Council and the Faculty and is working well. A budget for 2007 was established to provide adequate funding to meet the requirements of expanding Faculty activities. The Faculty initiated the development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate communication and collaboration between the Faculty and its Founding bodies. Following a positive response to this initiative, it is anticipated the MoU will be signed off by the participating bodies in May 2008.
The Faculty was successful in progressing an extensive Pain Medicine Program at the RACS ASM in Christchurch and participated in the adult medicine scientific program at the RACP Congress in Melbourne.
The President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Professor Napier Thompson and the Chair, Professional Development and Standards Board, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Mr Ian Dickinson, met with the Board in May and October 2007 respectively to discuss opportunities for communication with regard to educational issues and potential areas of collaboration.
October saw the commencement of the Global Year Against Pain in Women. The Faculty will take this opportunity to raise awareness of painful conditions more common or specific to women, and to develop links with RANZCOG and gynaecological colleagues, to develop more multidisciplinary services for female chronic pelvic pain.
The American Academy of Pain Medicine, with which the
Faculty shares the journal Pain Medicine,
is keen to strengthen ties with the Faculty and offered further
representation on the Editorial Board of the journal. There has been a steady rise in the Impact
Factor of this journal which now exceeds that of Anesthesia and Analgesia, Spine, and the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. Discussions commenced with regard to
identifying Faculty input into the program for their scientific meeting in Hawaii in February
2009.
Policy/Government
Following the recognition of Pain Medicine as a Medical Specialty in Australia in November 2005, the Faculty continued to explore options with the Medical Council of New Zealand with regard to an application for recognition of Pain Medicine as a medical specialty in that country. Following changes to the submission process, an application will be made in 2008.
Annual Reports were provided to the Australian Medical Council and Medical Training Review Panel and communication continued with the state/territory Registration Boards.
The Faculty presented information to the Victorian Parliament’s inquiry into misuse/abuse of benzodiazepines and other pharmaceutical drugs. The interim report of that committee has focused on proscriptive and legislative areas with only a limited view on educational activities. As this is not only a Victorian issue, the Faculty has called for a national working group to address some of the problems raised. With the support of the CPMC and AMA the Faculty has plans to convene a multidisciplinary taskforce to progress the work initiated by the RACP/AChAM working party looking at the management of pain in people with drug dependency.
Education and Training
The ETC, is a large and active committee of 19 members, and oversees all
education and training requirements of the Faculty. The work of the ETC is expanding so rapidly
that, with the Board re-structure, the opportunity will be taken to divide the
work into smaller committees under the new portfolios.
Educational documents on the Conduct of Diagnostic Cervical and Lumber Medial Branch Blocks, Use of “Off label” or Drugs Beyond Licence in Pain Medicine, Pain Medicine Practitioners and Wellbeing and Guidelines on Continuous Quality Improvement were approved for promulgation.
Professional Document PM6 Guidelines for Long Term Intrathecal Infusions was approved and PS41 Guidelines on Acute Pain Management was revised. PM1 (2006) Policy for Trainees Seeking Faculty Approval of Programs for Training in Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine was rescinded.
Work commenced on the development of material for Patient Education on various aspects of interventional Pain Medicine, which should be of value to Fellows and their patients. It is intended that these pamphlets will be accessible on the Faculty’s website in a pdf format.
The Faculty’s 2007 Annual Scientific Meeting in Melbourne was a great success and the satellite Refresher Course Day had a record attendance. A highlight of the ASM program was the Sunday afternoon rotating series of lectures, workshops and simulations held at the Royal Australian College of Surgeons, which focused on neurosurgical and anaesthetic interventions for pain and development of key outcome indicators for pain.
The Faculty held its inaugural Spring Meeting, Waves of Change in Pain and Suffering, on the Gold Coast in conjunction with the Medico-Legal Society of Queensland. The meeting was well attended, with 123 delegates, there was considerable variety in the program including judicial, medical scientific, sports injuries, rehabilitation and opioids. The 2008 Spring Meeting, Pain at the Centre, will be held in conjunction with the Acute Pain Special Interest Group (SIG) of ANZCA/ASA/NZSA and the IASP Acute Pain SIG at Ayers Rock in September. The theme will be Acute Pain and will recognise the 20th anniversary of Acute Pain Services.
A Supervisor of Training Workshop was convened during the 2007 ASM focusing on the Examination, including examination failure, Case Reports and development of a Mini Clinical Exercise to give trainees guidance on how to talk to patients about neuropathic pain. In an effort to further support SoTs, a second workshop for SoTs was convened on the Gold Coast in conjunction with the Faculty’s inaugural Spring Meeting.
A Trainee Agreement, to formulate the obligations of each party involved in FPM training, and a Trainee Performance Review process, to allow for an independent review to determine the future of a Trainee, were developed in line with ANZCA processes and will take effect in 2008.
The Faculty commenced a “Blueprinting” process to map out the main criteria required of a Pain Medicine Specialist, and to align these objectives with the training requirements and assessment processes to ensure that all core components of the curriculum are being delivered and assessed. The Blueprinting Sub-Committee of ETC includes multidisciplinary representation and is being facilitated by Professor Brian Jolly, Monash University.
MOPS/CPD
The Faculty
was actively involved in the design of the new Continuing Professional
Development Program run by ANZCA, which will replace the Maintenance of
Professional Standards Program from 2008.
Compliance with a CPD program is a mandatory requirement for ongoing
Fellowship of the Faculty and an audit of compliance was undertaken in 2007.
Examinations
The Faculty
Examination was held at the Geelong Hospital, Victoria on 28 to 30
November. All seventeen candidates were
successful and were from the following disciplines: anaesthesia (14), and
rehabilitation medicine (3).
A Pre-Examination short course was held at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in September and was attended by sixteen trainees.
Training Unit Accreditation
In 2007,
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (WA), Westmead Multidisciplinary Pain Service
(NSW), the Hunter Integrated Pain Service (NSW), Geelong
Hospital Pain Management Unit (Vic), Royal North Shore Pain Management Centre
(NSW), Flinders Medical Centre Pain Management Unit (SA) and the Royal Hobart
Hospital were
reaccredited for Pain Medicine Training.
The Royal Prince Alfred Pain Management Centre (NSW), Bayside Pain
Service: Caulfield Pain Management and Research Centre and Alfred Anaesthesia
were accredited.
There are now 22 accredited Pain Medicine Training Units in Australia and New Zealand.
Accreditation Reviewer training was made available to Faculty Reviewers through ANZCA to address issues of consistency. The electronic Unit Accreditation Questionnaire and Report developed in 2006 proved useful in simplifying the processes during this busy year of accreditation reviews.
The Faculty Board wishes to focus not only on chronic pain medicine but also acute pain medicine and to this end, a number of initiatives were commenced in 2007. These include; a closer liaison with the ANZCA Hospital Accreditation Committee (with appointment of a Faculty representative), offering a closer involvement with ANZCA Module 10 and support of the development of Acute Pain Management: Scientific Evidence 3rd Edition. The Faculty ETC began a review of the Acute Pain component of the Faculty’s training program.
Research
The FPM Research Committee continued its focus on promoting
a culture of research to its Fellows and Trainees.
A Dean’s Prize, to be awarded to the Fellow/Trainee judged to have presented the most original Pain Medicine/pain Research paper at the Free Paper Session of the FPM ASM, was introduced in 2007. The inaugural Dean’s Prize was not awarded and the Faculty has made significant efforts to raise awareness of the Prize in advance of the 2008 ASM. As a result of the general high quality of Free Papers presented in 2007, the Board resolved to award a Best Free Paper Prize in addition to the Dean’s Prize for papers of sufficient standard from 2008.
The Faculty contributed seed funding, in partnership with the Australian Pain Society and the Australian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists, to the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress in November 2008 in Brisbane. It is hoped that by being represented at this important research congress we can help bridge the gap between clinical and experimental research in Pain Medicine.
Communications
The development
of the Faculty website was a focus in 2007 and functionality and content were
significantly improved. A trainee
e-newsletter was established. The
Faculty’s bi-monthly e-newsletter Synapse
continued to keep Fellows and Trainees informed of items of interest.
Honours and Appointments
A number of Fellows were recipients of awards and honours in 2007:
Dr James Bradley (Qld) – award of Honorary Life Membership Australian Society of Anaesthetists and New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists
Prof Michael Cousins (NSW) – receipt of the Pugh Award, Australian Society of Anaesthetists and conferral of DSc, University of Sydney
Professor Alan Merry – conferral of Honorary Fellowship, Royal College of Anaesthetists
Prof Michael Paech (WA) – conferral of Honorary Fellowship, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Thank you
Without the
input from Board members and committee chairs, together with the work of
Fellows, none of the achievements outlined above would occur. The significant amount of time and effort
committed to the Faculty is greatly appreciated.
Thanks must also go to the tireless work of our Executive Officer Ms Helen Morris and her team Jenni Allison and Penny McNair.
Roger Goucke
Dean
4 May 2008
