Greetings from the National Pain Advocacy Center!  

Although we’ve been advocating for the health and human rights of people with pain for a few years now, we officially launched our website and social media presence in 2021. On our anniversary, we share this Year-In-Review of highlights of our work in 2021.

US Supreme Court.

On December 27, 2021, NPAC filed an amicus curiae (or “friend of the court”) brief in the United States Supreme Court in Ruan v. United States and Kahn v. United States. 

These cases address when prescribing clinicians can be held criminally liable under the Controlled Substances Act. Our primary interest was in explaining the “chilling effect” that inappropriate standards for criminal prosecution can have on clinicians in caring for people with pain. 

You can read our brief, here, and see our press release, here.  The Court heard oral argument on March 1, 2022, and an opinion is expected by summer. 

National Academy of Medicine.

NPAC’s Executive Director, Kate Nicholson, JD, was invited to be a panelist at the National Academy of Medicine’s meeting, Telehealth and Virtual Care. Nicholson spoke about the importance of continued and equitable access to telehealth, telephone, and virtual healthcare for people with pain.  

Media Engagement.

Nicholson published a key opinion piece on pain and Long-COVID, which you can read here, and gave several media interviews.

Additionally, two of our members were also featured in the media. Meet: 

Read their stories here and here. 

Capitol Hill Advocacy

NPAC conducted a week of meetings on Capitol Hill to alert members of key committees that the CDC’s update to its prescribing guideline was expected in early 2022 (the update was published on February 10, 2022 with a 60-day public comment period). We laid out the history of significant harm to people with pain following the 2016 Guideline.

NPAC has stayed busy working toward our mission of advancing the health and human rights of people in pain. You can read more details about our work here, but here are a few highlights:

A Proposed Nationwide Limit on Opioid Prescribing.

NPAC successfully defeated a nationwide three-day limit on opioid prescribing that had been introduced in the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act 3.0. Several states have enacted similar limits – and this provision would have applied across the country. To learn more, check out our press release, here.

The CDC Opioid Workgroup. 

• Two NPAC members, Executive Director, Kate Nicholson, JD, and Science and Policy Advisor, Beth Darnall, PhD, served as appointed members of the CDC Opioid Workgroup (OWG), a group tasked with reviewing an early draft of the CDC’s updated prescribing guideline. 

• The OWG met 11 times and issued a report that was highly critical of the draft. The OWG report was submitted to the Board of Scientific Advisors to the CDC, and the report was adopted without change.  

• NPAC members also testified during the July 2021 CDC meeting regarding harm to patients resulting from the 2016 Guideline.   

Meetings with Federal & State Administrative Agencies.

NPAC conducted several meetings throughout the year with federal and state administrative agencies, such as:

• The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department on the barriers to health care people with pain face;

• The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) on prescribing policies;

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on chronic pain and reimbursement issues, among many others. 

Responses to Formal Requests for Public Comment.

NPAC submitted several formal responses to requests for public comment, including:

• A formal response to the American Psychological Association’s proposed Guideline for Chronic Low Back Pain, 

• A formal response to CMS’ request for comments on its proposal to provide improved reimbursement for chronic pain management, 

• A formal response to the Food and Drug Administration request for comments on its summit investigating the validity of Morphine Milligram Equivalents, 

• A formal response to the National Institutes of Health’s request for comment on research related to chronic debilitating conditions that affect women, 

• A formal response to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)’s call for comment on its draft report on Integrated Pain Management Programs, among many others.

Presentations of Testimony and Speaking.

NPAC members were frequently invited to be panelists or speakers at key events, for example:

• NPAC’s Executive director, Kate Nicholson, JD, and Science and Policy Advisor, Stefan Kertesz, MD, MSc, presented at the Food and Drug Administration and Duke Margolis public meeting on provider education;

• NPAC presented an abstract on stigmas related to pain and opioids during the National Academy of Medicine’s Conference on the Stigma of Addiction;

• NPAC members provided testimony in state hearings, such as:

• Executive Director, Kate Nicholson, JD, spoke at the Colorado hearings on its prescribing guidelines and 

• Science and Policy Advisory Council Member, Beth Darnall, PhD, testified before an Oklahoma House of Representatives panel on the needs of patients with pain.

Beth Darnall, PhD, Speaking with the Oklahoma Legislative Panel, Hosted by P-3 Alliance

Collaboration with Partner Pain Organizations.

NPAC has been building coalitions with like-minded pain organizations.  For example, 

• NPAC’s Kate Nicholson, JD, Juan M. Hincapie-Castillo, PharmD, MS, PhD, Tamara Baker, PhD, Dawn Gibson, and Ryan Hampton presented on NPAC’s mission and goals at the International Association for the Study of Pain’s (IASP) GAPPA Uplift Conference.

• NPAC conducted a webinar on advocacy at Pain BC (British Columbia, Canada).

• NPAC’s Executive Director, Kate Nicholson JD, spoke about policy advocacy at the inaugural meeting of the US Association for the Study of Pain (USASP). 

Changing the Narrative: Media and Social Media Engagement.

NPAC members were frequently quoted in the national media, in publications like Washington Post, the New York Times, STAT News, and others, and placed key opinion pieces, Letters to the Editor, commentaries and articles.

In September, for Pain Awareness Month, NPAC’s Community Leadership Council conducted its #RealPainStories campaign, highlighting the stories of people with lived experience of pain.  

Kudos to Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Charis Hill, Dawn Gibson, and Sonya Huber for organizing it.

This #RealPainStories campaign garnered more than 15 million views each day during the month of September. Check out the hashtag #RealPainStory and #RealPainStories on Twitter. 

Official Launch in Spring of 2021.

Although we filed as a nonprofit in the fall of 2019, and received notice of our 501(c)(3) status in spring of 2020, we launched officially with our website in Spring of 2021. 

We are working hard every day to support the rights of people with pain and much of our work continues to be voluntary.  We remain fully committed to our pledge not to accept funding from pharmaceutical or industry funding and so we appreciate and value individual donations to help us continue our work.  

If you are able to give and would like to donate to NPAC, please visit the donate page, and join our mailing list below.

Thank you so much for all of us at NPAC.
We promise to keep fighting for the rights of people living with pain.