The Oregon Pain Management Commission
“The management of pain is a cornerstone of the compassionate practice of medicine. The knowledge exists to ameliorate pain in most of our patients. We now require the will to do so.”
--Schecter, Berde, Yaster, 2003
In 2001, the Oregon Legislature mandated the creation of a commission to focus on the issue of pain in Oregon. The OPMC is a 17 member commission within the Department of Human Services. Its members are a multidisciplinary group of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, psychologists, social workers, patient advocates, healthcare consumers, acupuncturists, naturopaths, researchers, and other involved parties.
Among the tasks of this commission was to develop requirements for pain management education for Oregon physicians and other licensees of the regulatory boards.
This commission has mandated a requirement of one hour of Oregon specific pain education, and six additional hours of continuing education on the issue of pain management or palliative care. This is a one-time requirement of the licensees of the regulatory boards, and must be completed prior to license renewal in 2009. In comparison, the state of California has a 12 hour requirement, with no specific required content.
This presentation fulfills the requirement of the one hour of Oregon-specific pain education. At your next license renewal, you will be required to certify that you have viewed this presentation and received an additional six hours of pain medicine or palliative care-related medical education hours.