October 2019 – The VALERAS book is here…

Preoperative Optimization of the Chronic Pain Patient

We are excited to announce that Oxford University Press has finally released our collaborative manual (with Dr. Beth Darnall from the Stanford University pain team, and Anchorage’s own Dr. Lyn Freeman) on our preoperative optimization program (see valerasprogram.com). The book is the first to address the complex and costly problem of failure to optimize chronic…

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September 2019 – Introducing ANTLR…

ANTLR

As many of you know, September is National Pain Awareness month, and this month we’re choosing to concentrate on one of the more debilitating and still poorly understood conditions today: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS, formerly known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy or RSD.) NAPM has adapted to the evolving national and international treatment guidelines for…

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August 2019 -Windmills, Beware!

Windmills

…was the original title of an article I wrote for the American Academy of Pain Medicine/MedPage Today collaboration (“Pain Points”) this month. I’m supposed to be exposing folks around the country to how we do pain management here in AK, but I needed to get some stuff off my chest – see https://www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/pain-points/81569 for my…

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February 2019 – Not all opioids are created equal…

oxycodone mat-su valley

This month we’re highlighting research published by Daniel Remillard (former NAPM medical assistant and current medical student at the University of Washington) and Dr. McAnally and published in the journal Current Pain and Headache Reports. The graph above shows survey data from nearly 90 patients with a formal diagnosis of opioid use disorder; 40% were…

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January 2019 – A Call for Rational, Safe and Compassionate Opioid Policy.

Pain Medicine, Dr. Heath McAnally

Primary care and surgery both frequently refer patients to Northern Anesthesia & Pain Medicine for chronic pain management and in particular for help weaning off of chronic opioid therapy. Our reputation in the community is one of holistic/integrative, preventive-focused, biopsychosocial care, with data to back up our methodology (see linked post.)   What we do…

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March 2018: ASIPP Florida Presentation

Undermining Opioid Demand from Meghan Bartlett on Vimeo. Donna Nall, RHYI, CPT  (familiar to many of you as our Resume Course Director) and Dr. McAnally were recently featured at the 20th Annual American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians’ (ASIPP) meeting in Florida this month. As part of her keynote address on the role of ASIPP…

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