Neil Schechter
Neil Schechter, Professor and Head of the Division of Pain Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Director, Pain Relief Program, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Hartford, Connecticut
Bio: Dr. Schechter received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut . He completed pediatric training at the University of Connecticut and fellowships in psychosomatic pediatrics and developmental pediatrics at Children’s Hospital and Harvard University in Boston. He has authored over 80 articles and is the senior editor of Pain in Infants, Children, and Adolescents, the major multi-disciplinary textbook in the area of pediatric pain, and serves on a number of editorial boards. Dr. Schechter served on a number of expert and scientific committees including the World Health Organization Committee on Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care and the Agency for Healthcare Policy and Research Panel on Acute Pain. He chairs the Special Interest Group on Pain in Children of the Academic Pediatrics Association and is co-director of ChildKind, a global initiative to reduce pain in children’s healthcare institutions. Dr. Schechter’s initial research focus was on documenting the undertreatment of pain in children and attempting to understand its origin. He then became involved in issues of pain associated with chronic disease where his research focused on sickle cell disease and on painful procedures in children with chronic disease. Most recently, he has become interested in the more common pains associated with pediatric practice such as injection pain and functional pain syndromes as well as developing strategies to alter pain-related practice patterns in health care providers and institutions.
PRESENTATION TITLE AND DESCRIPTION:
Knowing is Not Enough: Promoting Change to Reduce Pain In Pediatric Healthcare Institutions
Despite the fact that we now know that unrelieved pain has short and long term consequences in children and have the tools to relieve most pain, pain from disease and from its treatment continues to be a major source of psychological trauma in pediatric healthcare facilities. This talk will highlight the current status of pain relief in children, review current efforts to improve it, and offer additional strategies to enhance the compassionate medical care of children.
At the completion of this presentation, the participant will:
- Demonstrate an increased understanding of the history and present status of pain management in children.
- Identify the gaps in knowledge and implementation.
- Gain strategies to alter pain-related practice patterns in health care providers and institutions.