Canadian Pain Task Force Meeting: June 10, 2020

Canadian Pain Task Force Meeting: June 10, 2020, 14:00-16:00 EST

Via videoconference

Meeting Summary

Objectives

• Meet with the leads for the online consultation analysis and Phase II report development
• Meet with the leads for the Centre of Excellence on Chronic Pain funded by Veteran's Affairs Canada
• Provide status updates on various ongoing projects and engagements

Participants

Task Force: Fiona Campbell, Maria Hudspith, Manon Choinière, Hani El-Gabalawy, Jacques Laliberté, Michael Sangster, Jaris Swidrovich, Linda Wilhelm

External Advisory Panel: Norm Buckley (Centre of Excellence on Chronic Pain)

Secretariat: Pamela Rizzo, Nyree Schreiber, Andrew Taylor, Megan Wyszynski, Lindsey Yessick

Special Guests: Jennifer Field, Michael Sauve, and Peter Wilton (Hill and Knowlton); Ramesh Zacharias (Centre of Excellence on Chronic Pain)

Welcome

• The Secretariat welcomed everyone and provided an overview of the meeting objectives and agenda.

Affiliations and interests

• Andrew Taylor introduced Nyree Schreiber who has joined the Secretariat.
• No other significant updates to Task Force members' affiliations or interests.

Meet with the leads for online consultation analysis and Phase II report development

• The Hill and Knowlton team was introduced and discussed similar high profile analysis and reports conducted for the Government of Canada on other priorities.
• Peter Wilton and Jennifer Fields presented an overview of the analysis plan, preliminary themes, and potential report outlines/approaches. Data will be organized by themes (i.e., access to care, awareness/education/specialized training, pain research/infrastructure, and surveillance of population health).
• The Task Force provided advice on the proposed analytical framework and initial themes and sub-themes developed to guide analysis. The Task Force emphasized the importance of exploring data across different demographic profiles and reflecting on evidence related to ethnic and socioeconomic disparities as well as other topics as needed to ensure the report builds on potential gaps in the online consultation results.
• In addition to drawing on published literature on research priorities, Task Force members expressed a desire to further engage the research community to ensure discussion of the research theme adequately captures key needs identified across the field.
• The Task Force confirmed Hill and Knowlton would draw on all inputs to the engagement process (i.e., workshops, reports, and not just online consultation) to help round out the discussion and clearly report on the full pain ecosystem. The Hill and Knowlton team will return to present interim results to the Task Force at the next meeting.

Meet with the leads for the Centre of Excellence on Chronic Pain funded by Veteran's Affairs Canada

• Dr. Zacharaias and Dr. Buckley provided an overview of the Centre of Excellence priorities and activities. The Centre of Excellence on Chronic Pain is a non-profit, Veterans-first organization formed on April 1, 2020 to respond to the high prevalence of chronic pain in Veterans.
• The Centre of Excellence on Chronic Pain hopes to inform all Canadians living with pain in addition to their focus on Veterans. As such the Centre is funded as a research program and operates under three pillars: treatment, education, and research, and the goal will be to evaluate and disseminate best practice pain care.
• The Task Force discussed the main barriers experienced by Veterans related to their pain experience, including isolation, in particular after leaving service, which makes accessing treatment in the civilian world challenging. They also discussed the impacts of pain on mental health, additional work to help navigate and direct Veterans to available services, and potential for support group initiatives.
• A brief discussion followed on ways to engage with individuals linked to the Centre of Excellence.

Next steps and follow-up items

• Andrew Taylor of the Secretariat provided an overview of the preliminary agenda for the meeting scheduled for June 30, 2020 and invited suggestions of revisions or additions.
• The Secretariat requested feedback and guidance from the Task Force on the forward plan related to the sharing of web resources and updates to the website. The Task Force decided to ensure the sharing of web resources emphasize quality over quantity and could possibly consider alternative dissemination methods (e.g., posting to website rather than email update).
• The Task Force requested an update on the economic costs and surveillance progress during a future meeting.