Author of The Painful Truth
A July 8, 2016 Baltimore Sun article was titled, “Painkiller panel drops experts linked to pharma industry.” This story described how Dr. Mary Lynn McPherson, who teaches in the School of Pharmacy and specializes in hospice and end-of-life care, was removed from an FDA medical advisory panel. Three other doctors were similarly dismissed from the advisory panel that was organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
On the one-year anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) opioid prescribing guideline, an online survey of patients, doctors, and healthcare providers conducted by Pain News Network and the International Pain Foundation (iPain) found that the guideline has “harmed pain patients, reduced access to pain care, and failed to reduce drug abuse and overdoses.”
Myra Christopher is the PAINS Director and someone I’m proud to call a friend. She has given me permission to re-post her blog, An Epiphany, here. It was first published at PainsProject.org.
Ken Kirsh the Steelworker Pain Psychologist
Steven D. Passik, Ph.D., is a Pennsylvania-based pain psychologist. I’m proud to call him a friend. He is a giant in the field of pain medicine, but that doesn’t make his family and friends immune to suffering from terminal illness.
Steve lost his mother on September 14, 2016. Her story, The Painful Later Years of Frances Passik, appeared here. He’s given me permission to share the story of losing his best friend, Ken Krish, here.
As it turned out, I had lied to my best friend.