Few Spots Remain! Register Today for Hands-on Cadaver Workshop for IPM Techniques and Ultrasound for Non-spinal Techniques Review 

  On Friday, Feb. 27 ASIPP will hold a course in Ultrasound for Non-spinal Techniques Review and Hands-on Workshop.  This course will feature a short session of didactics followed by a hands-on learning experience using live models. 
 

The following day, Sat. Feb. 28 - March 1, 2015 we will hold a Hands-on Cadaver Workshop for IPM. ASIPP will transport participants from the Venetian to the Oquendo Center Cadaver Lab. The course will have three levels: Basic, Intermediate, and ABIPP Exam Preparation (Advanced) plus online videos presentations.
  

Room block:

The Venetian

3355 South Las Vegas Boulevard

Las Vegas, NV 89109

Phone: 702-414-1000

Click HERE  to book your room at the Venetian.

Learn Ways to Combat IPM's Strategic Deficit at ASIPP Annual Meeting April in Orlando

As you know, any and all organizations connected with the spine are interested in interventional pain management, and yet multiple societies influencing interventional pain management are not adapting to changing circumstances. It is now time that we come out from the reactive crouch and take control of our future. So what is going on here? Peggy Noonan (Ronald Reagan's speech writer) wrote about America's strategy deficit, well it appears that interventional pain management is also suffering from a strategy deficit.

IPM cannot continue with this strategy deficit. Whether it is CPT coding, RUC assessment, draconian cuts for interventional techniques, LCDs and other coverage policies, or FDA regulations, we must make a change.

ASIPP continues to provide a strategy which is proactive, improves evidence-based practice, and addresses safety concerns. We are not consumed by minor issues, political ramifications, and isolated and unconnected behaviors which are detrimental to interventional pain management now and into the future.

The ASIPP Board of Directors cordially invites you to attend the 17th Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL on April 9-11. This year's meeting is set to be the most dynamic, evidence-based, informative, and practical meeting for interventional pain physicians. This meeting will assist you in reversing the strategy deficit and moving into the future with confidence.

We have invited many excellent speakers, several of whom are from outside of ASIPP. The 17th Annual Meeting faculty totals 53 with more than 75 scheduled lectures and presentations. This year's meeting holds something for everyone! 

Some of the outstanding and well-known speakers include:

John J. Nance   http://www.johnnanceassociates.com an author, reporter, aviation analyst for ABC News and Good Morning American, pilot, and veteran. An excellent speaker, John will be providing a lecture on how to survive the Affordable Care Act earthquake. He will also speak on the prevention and management of medical errors.

P. Christopher Music,  http://www.pchristophermusic.com/ an author and financial advisor will provide lectures on the survival of independent practices in interventional pain management, along with a special lecture for resident fellow section on starting an independent practice.

In addition, we also have imminent speakers such as Devi E. Nampiaparampil, MD http://www.doctorrdevi.com ; Josh Hirsch, MD; Robert Levy, MD, PhD; Senator Tim Hutchinson; Jeff Mortier;  Vanila Singh, MD; Paul Sloan, MD; Chris Gilligan, MD; Chris Gharibo, MD; Jay Grider, DO PhD; Ken Candido, MD; Wade Wong, MD; Kaylea Boutwell, MD; Nebojsa Nick Knezevic, MD, PhD; and many, many others, along with ASIPP board members, all of whom will be available to interact with the membership.  See Brochure for complete schedule. 

Make plans for you and your staff to attend. We look for ward to seeing you on April 9 in Orlando!  Register today.

Registration Now Open for July Board Review Course in Chicago

Make plans today to attend the 2015 Board Review Course set for July 21-24 at the Palmer House in Chicago, IL.

This intensive and comprehensive high-quality review will prepare physicians appearing for the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)-Subspecialty Pain Medicine examination and for the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians (ABIPP)-Part 1 examination.

* A five-day review covering anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, psychology, ethics, interventional techniques, non-interventional techniques, controlled substances and practice management

* Unique lectures by experts in the field

* Extensive educational materials

Click HERE to Register:  

Many physicians believe patients' inappropriate demands or requests for medical tests or treatments are partially responsible for ballooning healthcare costs, but the rate at which these requests are satisfied is actually very low, according to a recent study published in JAMA Oncology, of which Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, was the senior author.

Additionally, physicians feel compelled to do additional tests and procedures to protect themselves from medical malpractice suits. Despite their beliefs, the study shows malpractice and defensive medicine account for a very small portion of rising healthcare costs.

The U.S. government plans to establish a new agency to address cyber threats.

After a tide of security breaches in 2014 and early 2015, President Barack Obama included cybersecurity as one of his focuses for his 2015 agenda. The new agency will be called the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, according to the Washington Post.

The new division will pull information and resources from the cybersecurity sectors of other government agencies, such as the National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. It is modeled after the National Counterterrorism Center, which was created amid rumors that the government had failed to share information that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks.

I hear this question over and over. Generally what I find are appropriate staffing levels but inappropriate timing! In other words, over the course of a week, the right staff is in place, but not on a given hour of the day.

Think about the workflow in a practice. Even without consideration for specialty type, every medical office will tell you that the phones are busier on Monday mornings than any other time of the week. Yet we often have the same level of staff phone support on Monday morning as we have on Thursday afternoon. Does that make sense?

The phone workflow is often overlooked when we think of staffing effectively. Every practice can do a simple study of its incoming phone volume by making tick marks for every incoming call on a per-hour basis to track calls for appointments, prescription reissue, nurse/doctor, diagnostic test results, billing, or other. (If, after the first time you do it, you think you didn't get a typical week, try it for 2 or 3 weeks.)

MedPage Today

Six of seven witnesses at Wednesday's "Examining ICD-10 Implementation" hearing, hosted by the House Energy and Commerce's Health Subcommittee, testified that the code set conversion should move forward on schedule, holding firm to the Oct. 1 deadline.

The meeting came on the heels of a study released Tuesday by the Professional Association of Health Care Office Management, which found that among practices with six or fewer providers the average cost of making the ICD-10 transition ranged from $4,372 to $13,541. Across all surveyed practices, average expenditures were $8,167 with per-physician costs coming in at $3,430.

Medical Practice Insider

A new compound discovered by a team of UC Davis investigators has potent actions against production of a chemical that is implicated in the development of chronic pain following a peripheral nerve injury in the spinal cord.

The compound, a molecule named 6-chloro-8-(glycinyl)-amino-β-carbolin, or 8-Gly carb, provides an important new avenue of research for developing drugs to prevent the severe pain that sometimes remains long after an injury or infection has healed.  

UC Davis Health System

Patients with axial spondyloarthritis who smoke may be undermining the potential benefit of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor therapy, Swiss researchers reported.

Over the course of a median 2 years, significantly smaller reductions in the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) were seen among current smokers compared with never smokers, with the mean change from baseline score differing by 0.75 units (95% CI 0.22-1.28, P=0.005), according to Adrian Ciurea, MD, of University Hospital Zurich, and colleagues.

MedPage Today