The American Academy of Pain Medicine

AAPM Members in the News

Dr. Joel Saper named one of America's top doctors for women by Women's Health magazine

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -  A new list of America's top doctors for women features Dr. Joel Saper, founder of the Michigan Head Pain & Neurological Institute (MHNI) in Ann Arbor and Medical Director of the Head Pain Treatment Unit at Chelsea Community Hospital.  The November 2008 issue of Women's Health magazine includes a list of the best doctors in the specialties most important to women.  Dr. Saper is featured in the "Top Neurologists" category - the only Michigan doctor among the 16 that were named in that specialty.   
 
Dr. Saper is featured for his pioneering work with women suffering migraines.  When he began his career 35 years ago, women were often told their migraines were due to their "anxious natures."  Women's Health credits Dr. Saper for rejecting that idea, and states that new research linking women's higher headache rates to estrogen receptors in the brain backs him up.
 
"It's an honor to be recognized by a publication that targets a significant segment of America's pain population," said Dr. Saper.  "We have worked tirelessly over the years to identify the causes of pain and provide successful treatment outcomes to everyone who walks through our doors.  This is one of the primary reasons people suffering from pain travel here from around the country for treatment, often after exhausting all other options in their local communities.
 
Women's Health recognizes a total of 176 doctors in 10 specialties:  Cardiology and Internal Medicine, Dermatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Oncology, Neurology, Orthopedics/Sports Medicine, Psychiatry, and Reproductive Medicine and Fertility. 
 
Dr. Saper founded the Michigan Head-Pain & Neurological Institute 30 years ago.  MHNI is considered one of the world's premier centers for head and neck pain management providing comprehensive care to patients suffering from headache and related painful disorders.  MHNI partners with Chelsea Community Hospital (CCH) for specialized and in-patient treatment.  Dr. Saper and CCH developed the head pain treatment unit at CCH in 1978, forming the first hospital specialty program of its kind in the world.

Media contact:  Walter Kraft at Caponigro Public Relations Inc., (248) 355-3200.

Paul Christo, M.D., M.B.A, was one of six experts to receive prestigious Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship

NEW YORK CITY (July 28, 2008) - The Mayday Fund today announced the selection of six experts in pain management to be fellows under The Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship. The new fellows hail from across the United States and Canada, specializing in a wide range of health care disciplines including anesthesiology, nursing, pharmacy pediatrics and pain policy. 

Established in 2003, the Fellowship provides leaders in the pain management field with tools and skills to advocate on behalf of better treatment for pain. Fellows learn how to better communicate to media and policymakers and raise visibility for their issues.  Thirty fellows will have completed the program by 2009.

"The caliber of candidates for this Fellowship continues to amaze us, and we wish we could have awarded a Fellowship to so many more," said Russell Portenoy, M.D., Chairman of the Mayday Fellowship Advisory Committee, and Chairman of the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center. "The twenty-four fellows who have been through the program to date are true leaders in pain management," he said.  "They bring new energy and focus to pain issues that need so much attention.  We know the six new fellows will expand the effort."

The new six fellows for 2008-09 are:

Paul Christo, M.D., M.B.A., Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, and Director, Multidisciplinary Pain Fellowship and Pain Treatment Center, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Lisa Robin, Senior Vice President, Federation of State Medical Boards; Bonnie Stevens, M.S.N., Ph.D., Signy Hildur Eaton Chair in Paediatric Nursing Research, University of Toronto, Hospital for Sick Children; Scott Strassels, Pharm.D., Ph.D., B.C.P.S., Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Health, University of Texas School of Public Health, Austin Regional Campus; Anna Taddio, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto; William Zempsky, M.D.,  Associate Director, Pain Relief Program and Medical Director, Clinical Trials, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

"The Mayday Fund Trustees are proud of the outstanding cadre of pain leaders who have participated in the Fellowship program to date, and are pleased to invite the new six to a group with such exciting potential," said Christina Spellman, Executive Director, The Mayday Fund. 

As part of their training, the new fellows will attend an intensive four-day workshop in Washington, D.C. in October 2008, and work closely with Burness Communications, a public relations firm that works solely with non-profit organizations, primarily in health and science.  Fellows will learn how to connect with local and national media, write opinion editorials, develop relationships with university public affairs and government relations leaders, and talk with state legislators and Members of Congress. By improving their communications skills, the candidates will be poised to move the field forward by educating and working with the media, policymakers, advocates, and health and business leaders.

The fellows will develop skills to advocate and communicate on many of the pain issues they deal with everyday including the under-treatment of pain, pediatric pain, chronic pain, palliative care, the treatment of pain with prescription pain medications, and disparities in pain treatment.

The Fellowship Advisory Committee selects the six winners each year. On the Advisory Committee for the Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship are Chair Russell K. Portenoy, M.D.; James Campbell, M.D., Professor of Neurosurgery and Vice Chairman of the Department at Johns Hopkins Hospital; Scott Fishman, M.D., Professor of Anesthesiology and Chief, Division of Pain Medicine at the University of California, Davis; Kathleen M. Foley, M.D., Attending Neurologist in the Pain and Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Sandra H. Johnson, J.D., Professor of Law and Health Care Ethics Emeritus, St. Louis University; Patrick John McGrath, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Dalhousie University Medical School; Joan Teno, M.D., M.S., Professor of Community Health and Medicine, and Associate Director of the Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research at the Brown Medical School; and Lonnie Zeltzer, M.D., 2004 Mayday Fellow, Professor Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Director of the Pediatric Pain Program at UCLA's Mattel Children's Hospital, and Associate Director of the Patients and Survivors Program at the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center.