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Providing Relief to Those in Pain: A Retrospective on the Scholarship and Impact of the Mayday Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Extract

Scholarship has intrinsic value, of course; but when good scholarship can stimulate change for the better in an area as fundamental to human dignity as health care and the relief of suffering, there is a special satisfaction. This has been our experience since 1996, when the first of now four special issues of this journal focused on legal, regulatory, ethical, professional, and financial issues in medical treatment for pain.

With the generous and steadfast support of the Mayday Fund, the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics (ASLME) has generated a significant body of scholarship published in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (JLME). This research has proven absolutely essential in changing public policy to support better care for those who suffer pain.

Over these years, the Mayday Project at ASLME has tackled many of the real and perceived barriers to effective pain relief. In pain management, both real and perceived obstacles can have a powerful negative effect.

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Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2003

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References

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For example, ASLME, Ben Moulton, and Mayday Scholar Diane Hoffmann conducted the Connecticut Statewide Pain Management Study, a two-year project funded by the Donaghue Medical Research Foundation. The purpose of the study was to develop baseline data on the adequacy of pain treatment in the state of Connecticut and to use the data as a basis for generating interventions and recommendations for further research to address the problem of undertreatment of pain in the state. Based on the findings from the Donaghue grant, the following were published: Tarzian, A., David, S., and Hoffmann, D., “Management of Cancer-Related and Noncancer-Related Chronic Pain in Connecticut: Successes and Failures,” Connecticut Medicine, 66 (2002): 683–89; Hoffmann, D., Lazzarini, Z., and Moulton, B., “Constraints to Prescribing Medications for Pain Treatment in Connecticut: Part I,” The Pain Clinic, 4 (2002): 28–35; Hoffmann, D. and Tarzian, A., “Third Party Reimbursement Practices and Their Influence on Pain Management in Connecticut: Part I,” The Pain Clinic, 4 (2002): 11–16.Google Scholar