Stanford's Dr. Philip Pizzo Urges Public Health Campaign, More Pain Specialists

In an article he co-authored in the New England Journal of Medicine, Philip Pizzo, MD, dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, urged for a public health campaign to educate people about chronic pain, according to a Stanford news report.

Dr. Pizzo chaired a committee that issued an Institute of Medicine report last June that found more than 116 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. The report also found chronic pain cost the country from $560-635 billion per year. Noreen Clark, PhD, professor of health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan, was vice chair of the committee and co-author of the NEJM article.

While working on the report, the authors realized one of the barriers to chronic pain care was a lack of education in patients as well as physicians. A recent study of 117 medical schools found some schools provided only a few educational sessions on pain. With only 4,000 pain specialists in the country, Dr. Pizzo says primary care physicians provide effective pain management. However, studies show that most primary care physicians feel "inadequately prepared" to counsel patients on pain.