Public Outreach is an Important Part of National Pain Awareness Month for Weill Cornell Pain Medicine Physicians

September is National Pain Awareness Month. Begun in 2001 by the American Chronic Pain Association, the movement to raise awareness about pain and the variety of current treatments available has been embraced by dozens of organizations and thousands of practitioners nationwide. At Weill Cornell Pain Medicine, we are noting Pain Awareness Month and continuing our ongoing program of community outreach to let New Yorkers know all their options in managing and treating pain.

Dr. Sadiah Siddiqui

WCMC Pain Medicine’s Lisa R. Witkin, M.D., Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, and Sadiah Siddiqui, M.D., Instructor in Anesthesiology, have planned or completed multiple community and hospital events.

Dr. Siddiqui, who joined Weill Cornell over the summer, got the month of awareness off to an early start. On 27th, she gave a public talk at the Brookdale Battery Park senior living center, where she discussed the management and treatment of joint pain.

Dr. Witkin will be continuing our outreach with an education seminar at NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital on Sept. 30th. She will be communicating with physicians, staff, and hospital administration regarding improving the patient experience with multidisciplinary pain management. Dr. Witkin, Dr. Siddiqui, and all of our pain medicine physicians combine both high-technology treatments with comprehensive care, as was put forward by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

Dr. Lisa Witkin

Our message for Pain Awareness Month – and all year long – is that pain is best managed by a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach, and always needs to be tailored to each individual.

You can follow the national discussion about pain management during National Pain Awareness Month on Twitter at #PainAwarenessMonth.

UPDATE (Sept. 23, 2015) :

As part of Pain Awareness Month, The American Society of Anesthesiologists and the U.S. Pain Foundation are hosting a Twitter chat. The focus of the chat will be about the role that physician anesthesiologists have in caring for individuals with chronic and acute pain.

The Twitter chat is hosted under the hashtag #Pain101 and will be held Thursday September 24, 1:00PM ET.

More information about the ASA’s pain management resources can be found HERE.