Canadian Pain Task Force Meeting: April 14, 2021

Canadian Pain Task Force Meeting: April 14, 2021, 13:00-14:30 EST
Via videoconference

Meeting Summary

Discuss current status of Phase III report production for public release.
Discuss public release of report and opportunities for future engagement to promote and disseminate.
Provide an overview of process for briefing on the report and exploring next steps.

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

Secretariat: Kelly Albert, Olanna Barnett, Suzete Dos Santos, Fiona Morrow, Nyree Schreiber, Andrew Taylor, Lindsey Yessick

Regrets: Michael Sangster

The Secretariat welcomed everyone and provided an overview of the meeting objectives and agenda.
The Secretariat inquired about changes to member affiliations and interests, and Jaris Swidrovich disclosed his proposed candidacy for political office, which was formally declared the week of April 19. He has decided to step down from his membership to ensure the neutrality and credibility of the Task Force.

The report has been formally submitted to Health Canada and shared with both the Deputy Minister and the Minister of Health.
The report is undergoing translation, layout, and preparation for posting to web as planned in Spring 2021.
Members discussed the planned communications strategy roll-out, including news media and social media outreach, creating a strong web presence for pain on the Government of Canada website, delivering presentations to relevant government and non-government committees, stakeholder conferences, and webinars, and creating written and audio communications such as blogs or podcasts.
Members also discussed the creation of a tool to document outreach opportunities, which would be distributed to the Task Force and External Advisory Panel to capture outputs and outcomes of knowledge mobilization.

The Secretariat is currently planning a series of presentations at different federal, provincial, and territorial government committees.
The Secretariat is also undertaking an exercise to analyze Task Force recommendations and to prioritize options for next steps and convening relevant partners (e.g., Pan-Canadian Health Organizations, medical regulatory agencies).
The Secretariat will reconvene with the Task Force to discuss potential next steps in supporting moving recommendations to implementation.