News & Blog

This week at the 2019 RX Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit, Dr. Francis Collins, NIH Director, presented the Institute’s strategy to address pain management in the midst of a national opioids abuse crisis. The two slides below outline how NIH is devoting millions in research dollars to advance the fundamental science of pain management and advancing effective treatments.

ICA Vice-Chair, Mike Greenwell, participated in the Summit (this is his third year of participation) and noted that there was substantially more emphasis and discussion this year on the topic of addressing the needs of the chronic pain community.

Until such medical advancements become reality, ICA will continue to advocate to maintain access to chronic pain care medication and protect the patient/doctor relationship with regards to prescriptions. Chronic pain patients depend on important medications to cope with their pain and ICA supports the National Pain Strategy. Read more about our efforts at https://www.ichelp.org/ic-advocates-on-capitol-hill/.