Past Advocacy Projects

Please read the introduction by former European Pain Federation EFIC® President Hans G. Kress M.D., Ph.D., FFPMCAI (Hon.) on the APPEAL study below.

“The European Pain Federation EFIC® can now, on behalf of the APPEAL study Expert Taskforce, share the results of the first Europe-wide study on pain education provision for undergraduate medical students, presented at the annual European Pain Federation EFIC® congress in Florence on October 10th.

This research was guided by a multi-disciplinary Taskforce of experts under the leadership of European Pain Federation EFIC®, funded by Mundipharma International Limited and involved 242 undergraduate medical schools across 15 European countries. Set against a public health backdrop, which sees approximately 75 million adults in Europe affected by chronic pain, the objective of this important study was to understand how pain is taught and assessed at the undergraduate medical schools level in Europe, and to identify any opportunities for improvements.

The findings were striking – 82 per cent of undergraduate medical schools in Europe have no dedicated courses on pain that are compulsory for all students. Not only does this indicate the low priority that pain teaching has within the current undergraduate medical curricula, it also raises questions about whether future doctors are equipped to manage and treat one of the most common problems they will encounter in clinical practice. Even when compulsory courses on pain are in place, they represent on average only 12 hours within a degree programme; equivalent to just 0.2 per cent of an undergraduate medical teaching, based on the European Union’s Directive on minimum training hours for medical degrees (currently six years or 5,550 hours).

It is based on these, and the other detailed findings from the study, that the APPEAL Expert Taskforce calls on medical schools, pain specialists, medical students and relevant policymakers to ensure that pain education for undergraduate medical students across Europe is fit for purpose to address the current unmet public health need to adequately manage and treat pain.”

For more information you can find the APPEAL study media report here. Please also feel free to link to this location from your website referring to the European Pain Federation EFIC®.

Improving the Current and Future Management of Chronic Pain The Pain Proposal Steering Committee is an independent group of European experts, from a range of backgrounds, with a shared interest in chronic pain. The Steering Committee has taken a leading role in the development and implementation of the Pain Proposal initiative. Committee members have contributed their time and expertise, hosting a meeting with the Executive Committee; reviewing the questions for the patient and primary care physician surveys commissioned for this project; and assisting in the development of content for this report. The recommendations within this document represent a consensus from the Steering Committee of steps that could be taken to improve the management of chronic pain in Europe for the benefit of all involved. Click here to download the Pain Proposal

At the Miami Beach Convention Center, the site of the sixth World Congress of the World Institute of Pain in 2012, leaders of the four societies – Dr. Ricardo Ruiz-Lopez, President of WIP; Prof. Hans Kress, President of EFIC; Prof. Robert van Seventer, President of WSPC; and Dr. Prithvi Raj, Chairman and Prof. Serdar Erdine, CEO both of the WIP Foundation, jointly declared through the Declaration of Miami that:

•   It is the right of any human individual to have access to the best possible pain relief in any and every part of the world.

•   We, as a consortium of professional pain societies, and as witnessed by the representatives from all continents, affirm the above declaration and strive towards its fulfillment.

•   The advances in medicine will continue to increase the population of healthy, young and old people all over the world.

•   Presently, there is still limited access to adequate treatment of acute and chronic pain in many parts of the world

•   Governments and even healthcare professionals are not sufficiently aware of chronic pain as a health problem.

•   Many healthcare professionals are not educated and familiar with best practice pain medicine.

•   We demand that Pain Medicine should be a distinct specialty because of its unique body of knowledge required to treat pain patients.

The declaring professional organizations jointly and firmly agree on the right of any human individual to have easy access to adequate pain management, the necessity of generally available information about proper options for pain relief and the obligations of governments and health systems to provide financial, personnel and structural resources to achieve these goals and to guarantee adequate pain management as a human right.