Task Force on Pain Management Best Practices Announced

The Department of Health and Human Services today named 28 members to an interagency task force authorized by the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 to recommend updates to best practices for managing chronic and acute pain. Hospital representatives on the panel include: Sondra Adkinson, a clinical pharmacist at Bay Pines (FL) Veterans Administration Healthcare System; Jianguo Cheng, M.D., director of the Cleveland Clinic Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship Program; Jonathan Fellers, M.D., medical director for integrated medication-assisted therapy at Maine Medical Center and the MaineHealth Center for Tobacco Independence in Portland; Halena Gazelka, M.D., chair of the Mayo Clinic Opioid Stewardship Program and director of inpatient pain services for the Mayo Clinic Division of Pain Medicine; Mark Rosenberg, D.O., chairman of emergency medicine and chief innovations officer for St. Joseph’s Health in Paterson, NJ; and Harold Tu, M.D., chairman of the department of dentistry at Fairview Hospital, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis. Vanila Singh, M.D., chief medical officer for HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, will chair the task force, whose federal members include representatives from HHS, the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, and Office of National Drug Control Policy. The panel will hold its first public meeting May 30-31 in Washington, D.C., which will be webcast. For more information, visit www.hhs.gov/ash/advisory-committees/pain.