Millions of Americans suffer from chronic pain, including diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain (DPNP), or diabetic nerve pain, which affects not only their ability to function each day, but can also affect how they feel. Understanding that chronic pain, including diabetic nerve pain, can be elusive to diagnose and sometimes even more difficult to treat, a group of leading medical experts across different specialties have come together to form the Partnership for Helping People in Pain. The goal is to help open the lines of communication between patients and physicians to help the diagnosis and treatment process. This partnership began in July 2006, as an initiative of the National Pain Foundation and Eli Lilly and Company, with discussion surrounding diabetic nerve pain, the most common form of neuropathic pain.
Albert Ray, M.D.
Chairman of the board for the National Pain Foundation; medical director, Pain Medicine Solutions, Miami
Dr. Ray is the chairman of the board for the National Pain Foundation (NPF). He is also the medical director of Pain Medicine Solutions in Miami and a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami Medical School. In addition, he is the president of the Foundation for Pain Medicine and has been on the board of directors of the southeastern branch of the National Arthritis Foundation.
Dr. Ray has been involved with the study and treatment of painful disorders for over 30 years and has served as the medical director of two hospital-based pain programs. He is a past president of both the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) and the Southern Pain Society, and a past director of the American Board of Pain Medicine, and conceived and started the Public Information and Education Committee for the American Academy of Pain Medicine. He also has lectured nationally and internationally, co-edited the proceedings of a pain meeting in Austria, has coauthored a textbook chapter and has other pain related publications.
He is the recipient of the Nancy Reske Award for excellence in teaching medical students from the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Ray has been in
Who's Who in 1995/96/2007,
America's Top Doctors in 1996/97, and was listed in the Top 200 Doctors in South Florida in 2000.
A graduate of the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry, Dr. Ray also completed a residency in psychiatry and served two years in the United States Air Force. He is board certified in pain medicine and in psychiatry and neurology. Dr. Ray has done additional training in hypnosis, biofeedback, and neuroemotional technique.
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Zahid Bajwa, M.D.
Member of the American Academy of Pain Medicine; assistant professor of anesthesia and neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Dr. Bajwa is a member of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM). He serves on the scientific advisory committee and the nominating committee for the AAPM board, in addition to being a member of the education and training committee.
Dr. Bajwa is also an assistant professor of anesthesia and neurology at Harvard University. In addition, he is an attending physician at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with a joint appointment in the Departments of Neurology and Anesthesia and Critical Care. In the Neurology Department, Dr. Bajwa has established the Headache Center as a multi-disciplinary treatment unit, where patients as well as medical students, residents, and pain fellows benefit from the combined perspectives of physical therapy, psychology and an eclectic medical approach. In the Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, he serves as the director of education and clinical research in the Pain Management Center.
Dr. Bajwa has a background in neurology, psychopharmacology, regional anesthesia and neuro-rehabilitation, and has made a special effort to develop and encourage a multidisciplinary approach to pain management. He organized the inpatient cancer and chronic pain consultation service and was appointed the first director of the cancer pain service at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
He is a member of the American Pain Society, the New England Pain Association and the American Academy of Neurology. He also serves on the editorial board of numerous publications including the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, the New England Journal of Medicine and Regional Anesthesia.
Dr. Bajwa is the recipient of numerous awards in the department of anesthesia at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center including the 2000 Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2002 Excellence in Clinical Research Award and the 2003 Mentor of the Year.
Dr. Bajwa received his medical degree from Allama Iqbal Medical College, in Lahore, Pakistan and fulfilled his residency in Neurology at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He completed his postgraduate training with a fellowship in pain medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, and in pain management, at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston.
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Bill McCarberg, M.D.
Practicing family physician; assistant clinical professor, University of California, San Diego
Dr. McCarberg is an assistant clinical professor (voluntary) for the University of California, San Diego and practices family medicine at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego.
Dr. McCarberg is president of the Western Pain Society, a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and was former chair of several committees for various pain-related organizations, including the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the American Pain Society, and the National Institutes of Health. He also served on the board of directors of the American Pain Society from 2000 to 2003, and was the director of the chronic pain management program for Kaiser Permanente from 1984 to 2003.
He has published numerous articles, serves on the editorial board of
Pain Medicine News, is a peer reviewer for the American Pain Society Guideline for the Management of Pain in Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Juvenile Chronic Arthritis, and speaks nationally about pain management throughout the year.
He is the recipient of several awards, including the Shilling Compassionate Care Award, and in 1998 was named the Highest Rated Physician by Member Appraisal of Physician Services at Kaiser Permanente. In addition, he was the 2003 recipient of the Elizabeth Narcessian Award for Outstanding Educational Achievements in the Field of Pain from the American Pain Society.
He received his medical degree from Northwestern University and completed a medical internship and residency in family practice at Highland Hospital in Rochester, New York. He is board certified in pain medicine and family practice, with added certification in geriatric medicine.
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Christine Sang, M.D., M.P.H.
Director of the Translational Pain Research Program, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
Dr. Sang is the director of the Translational Pain Research Program at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She is also an assistant professor of anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Sang had served on the Boards of Directors of the American Pain Society and the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, is the founding chairman of its Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee, and is a founding member of the Neuropathic Pain Institute. She is also a Special Government Employee with the Food and Drug Administration (CDER/Anesthetic, Critical Care and Addiction Drug Products). She also actively participates in and organizes consensus conferences in neuropathic pain, neurofibromatosis, and spinal cord injury.
Dr. Sang served as associate medical director of the Pain Research Clinic at the National Institutes of Health, and director of the Clinical Trials Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital Pain Center.
She is also a member of several local committees including the Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School Institutional Review and Clinical Investigation Advisory Committees. She serves on numerous pharmaceutical scientific advisory boards and actively consults in the discovery and clinical development of novel analgesics, clinical trial design, and the diagnosis and management of pediatric and adult acute and chronic pain (including central and peripheral neuropathic pain syndromes) and migraines.
Dr. Sang is the recent recipient of the Seymour Diamond Headache Award from the National Headache Foundation. Her own research program, which has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, Paralyzed Veterans of America, among other competitive funding sources, systematically evaluates novel potential analgesics in Phases Ia (First-in-Man) through III clinical trials to target selective mechanisms of pain.
Dr. Sang received her medical degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and her master of public health at Harvard University. After completing her clinical training in anesthesiology at John Hopkins Hospital, she continued her postgraduate clinical research training at Harvard Medical School and the National Institutes of Health.
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David Simpson, M.D.
Professor of neurology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York
Dr. Simpson is a professor of neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and director of the Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratories at Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York, where he also maintains a clinical and electromyography practice. Dr. Simpson also directs the Mount Sinai Neuro-AIDS program, which provides state-of-the-art clinical care, research, and education related to the effects of HIV on the nervous system.
Dr. Simpson has held leadership positions in national and international AIDS research collaborative groups, including the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and the Neurologic AIDS Research Consortium, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Academy of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine and a diplomat of the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine.
The author of a plethora of articles, abstracts, book chapters, and reviews, Dr. Simpson has lectured extensively and held numerous visiting professorships throughout the world, and he has been recognized internationally for his work. He serves on the editorial boards of AIDS Patient Care, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, and Current HIV/AIDS Reports. He is also a reviewer for AIDS, Archives of Internal Medicine, Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Neurology.
A pioneer in the field of HIV infection and AIDS research, Dr. Simpson's clinical research interests include the neurologic complications of HIV infections and AIDS, neuropathic pain, and the use of botulinum neurotoxin in the treatment of spasticity. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Service Award and was named one of the "Best Doctors in New York," by
New York Magazine.
Dr. Simpson received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine and served an internship in internal medicine at Case Western University, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Ohio. He then fulfilled a residency in neurology at Cornell Medical Center, in New York. He completed his postgraduate training with a fellowship in clinical neurophysiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, both located in Boston.
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Said Beydoun, M.D., FAAN
Professor of neurology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
Dr. Beydoun is a professor of neurology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC), as well as the director of the Electromyography Laboratory at USC University Hospital and the director of USC Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship Training Program.
His clinical and research activities involve diagnosis and management of patients with diabetic neuropathies, neuropathic pain and immune-mediated neuromuscular diseases.
Dr. Beydoun is certified in neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and in electrodiagnostic medicine by the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with subspecialty certification in Clinical Neurophysiology. He is also certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with subspecialty certification in Pain Medicine.
He is a member of numerous boards, including the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of California, the American Pain Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine.
Dr. Beydoun has done numerous lectures on diabetic neuropathies, neuropathic pain and immune-mediated neuropathies. He has been involved, as a principal investigator in various clinical trials, related to neuromuscular diseases including diabetic and painful neuropathies.
Dr. Beydoun is listed in the
Guide to America's Top Physicians, 2004- 2005 Edition, and was elected by his peers for inclusion in
Best Doctors in America, from 2005 to 2006, and also listed in the
Guide to America's Top Physicians, 2006 Edition.
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