SIP 2022 Stakeholder Forum was held virtually on 31 October. The event, which brings together SIP partners annually, discussed SIP 2022 achievements, long-term priorities and aspirations for 2023. Attendees also had access to a preview of the SIP 2022 Road Map Monitor results, which will be presented at the upcoming SIP ICD-11 event on 29 November.
SIP/EFIC/PAE: Brona Fullen (BF), Sam Kynman (SK), Deirdre Ryan (DR), Patrice Forget (PF), Ángela Cano Palomares (ACP), Emilia Kosińska, Dieyenaba Faye (DF).
Registrants: Alexandre Guedes, Thomas Isenberg, Gudula Petersen, Carmen Suárez, Peter Conway, Neil Betteridge, Aleksander Stepanovic, Andy Bleaden, Anu Söderström, Rolf-Detlef Treede, Sanne Lydo, Monika Hoang, André Ljutow, Christopher Vella, Anja Burlica, Roland Pochet, Françoise Alliot-Launois, Juan Quintana, Richard Price, Gunilla Göran, Nevenka Krcevski Skvarc, Adriano Friganovic, Maria-Louisa Busuttil, Sholpan Tursynbayeva, Aitor Carpio, Martin Rakusa, Gustavo Fabregat, Marion Wüstefeld, Anthony Woolf, Ginevra Varallo, Lara Grosso, Marta Karasek-Pisarska, Irene Jensen, Volodymyr Romanenko, Maria Papadakaki, Martina Phelan, María Luz Padilla, Ivone Machado.
The Societal Impact of Pain (SIP) stakeholder forum is the annual meeting in which the SIP partners (European Pain Federation EFIC and Pain Alliance Europe) try to define their upcoming strategic priorities with the collaboration of partners from the EU health policy community and national SIP platform partners. The report below summarises the discussion from the 2022 stakeholder forum.
- Welcome and Introductions
- PF and DR welcomed all attendees.
- ACP presented the agenda for the day and introduced the SIP Team.
- Background on SIP
- ACP provided a short introduction on SIP’s long-term priorities, which include pain as an indicator, pain education, pain in employment and pain research.
- SK provided an overview of SIP’s background, changes to SIP governance structure and new opportunities (i.e. additional multi-stakeholders collaborations on European policy and advocacy activities).
- SIP 2022 Achievement and Aspirations for 2023
- ACP provided an overview of SIP 2021-2022 policy priorities (i.e. cancer pain policy, pain in employment and the social integration of pain patients, pain and digital medicine and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11)).
- ACP provided an overview of SIP 2021-2022 events (i.e. SIP Cancer Pain Policy Position Launch Event in 2021, Joint SIP-EU OSHA webinar in 2021, SIP Workplace Integration and Adaptation Policy Position Launch Event in 2021; SIP Digital Health Policy Event in 2022 and the upcoming SIP ICD-11 event in 2022.
- ACP provided an overview of the 2020-21 SIP Cancer Pain Policy activities culminating in the adoption of the SIP recommendations in the BECA final report.
- ACP provided an overview of the 2022-23 SIP Employment and Pain Policy activities which will include the dissemination of the SIP position paper on workplace integration and adaptation for chronic pain patients.
- ACP provided an overview of the 2022-23 SIP Pain and Digital Health activities which will include the translation and dissemination of the SIP position paper on digital health and the 2022 SIP Road Map monitor.
- ACP provided an overview of the 2022-23 SIP ICD-11 activities which will include the dissemination of the ICD-11 event recommendations and the development of an ICD-11 position paper.
- SIP 2022 Road Map Monitor Results: A Snippet
In 2022, the Societal Impact of Pain Platform (SIP) revisited the 2019 SIP Road Map Monitor, in order to understand how national guidelines, action plans, and the status of policies supporting the updated priorities of SIP, have evolved in the last few years, especially, after the challenging past two years with the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Rolf-Detlef Treede (RDT) gave a preview of the results:
- 16 countries responded the survey
- 5 sections:
- National Health Frameworks of Pain
- 13/16 replied. 62% (8) have a national guideline for pain management in place, while 38% (5) do not.
- Pain as a Quality Indicator
- 13/16 countries replied: 31% (4) have standards to measure chronic pain outcomes, while 54% (7) do not have those standards and 15% (2) do not know.
- 13/16 countries replied: 31% (4) have activities taking place to discuss or implement ICD-11, while 38% (5) do not, and 31% (4) do not know.
- 13/16 countries replied: 16% (2) have activities to discuss or implement ICF, while 38% (5) do not, and 46% (6) do not know.
- Pain Research
- 13/16 countries replied: None of the countries stated that they indeed have a national research strategy for pain implemented in their country. Therefore, 92% (12) said no, while 8% (1) stated they do not know.
- 13/16 countries replied: None of the countries stated that indeed, patient/public involvement is mandatory in their country when developing pain research projects in publicly funded calls. 69% (9) said it is not mandatory and 31% (4) do not know.
- Pain in Employment
- 13/16 countries replied: 23% (3) have regulations to reintegrate people with chronic pain into work, while 62% (8) do not, and 15% (2) do not know.
- Pain Education
- 13/16 countries replied: 46% (6) have national pain education resources available for the general public, while 54% (7) do not.
- National Health Frameworks of Pain
- The final report will be disseminated at the SIP ICD-11 event on 29 November 2022.
- As a response to the SIP Road Map Monitor presentation and its section on Pain Research, BF mentioned the EFIC Research Strategy, which will be published in the first quarter of next year, and will contribute to fill the gap in pain research across Europe.
- Highlights from Around the Table for 2022
A few partner organisations present at the stakeholder forum gave brief presentations on their policy priorities adjacent to pain policy, in order to show what other organisations are focusing on currently and to give inspiration to SIP.
- Aitor Carpio from European Region World Physiotherapy (ER-WCPT) gave an overview of their EU funded projects (including UcanACT – focusing on people with cancer), their working groups (Advocacy & EU matters, Education Matters, Professional Practice, Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD), Cancer and Mental Health) and their activities. He also mentioned a possible collaboration with SIP/EFIC on their booklet on musculoskeletal diseases.
- Lara Grosso Sategna from the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) gave an overview of their activities and priorities (including raising awareness on mental health, fostering research, encouraging knowledge sharing and collaboration across disciplines). She also mentioned the Shared European Brain Research Agenda and EPA next Congress (25-28 March 2023 in Paris).
- Maria Papadakaki from the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) gave an overview of their priorities and focus (i.e. occupational injuries and the identification of tools for injury burden measure), their awareness raising Public Health Week and their upcoming Conference (9-12 November in Berlin).
- Martin Rakusa from the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) gave an overview of their leading projects and the EAN Brain Health Strategy (aiming to develop a holistic approach to brain health). He also mentioned their research priorities (including pain and the cooperation with EFIC, EFNA, European Pain Forum and SIP). EAN next Congress (1-4 July 2023 in Budapest) will include a focused workshop, a teaching course, and a special session on neuropathic pain guidelines.
- Richard Price from the European Cancer Organisation (ECO) gave an overview of their cancer mission commitments (including the development of an early predictor for quality of life). He also evoked Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, the opportunity of improving pain management in Europe and ECO next Summit (16-17 November in Brussels).
- SK stated that hearing what other stakeholders are focusing on and what they see as opportunities for the future at the European level is inspiring for SIP, EFIC and PAE. He also invited attendees to share any priorities or activities relevant for pain advocacy.
- Open floor for stakeholders from around the table
- Monika Hoang from the European Brain Council (EBC) mentioned EBC’s main focus: brain research, innovation, and health. She also mentioned their Value of Treatment research project (VoT) – the third round of which includes case studies of three types of chronic pain disorders.
- Anthony Woolf from the Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health evoked their global framework on how our systems could respond to musculoskeletal diseases and their work with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to highlight the burden of these conditions. He also stated that he is open to collaborating with SIP and other stakeholders.
- 2023 Proposed SIP Activities
At this point, ACP presented some proposed activities and priorities for the future based on a pre-event survey. The survey was completed by most (14) attendees and the results were discussed by the attendees in the meeting.
- The pre-event survey results reflect SIP priorities for next years: ACP stated that digital health and ICD-11 will continue to be SIP priorities in 2023 and that mental health, long COVID and personalised care, will be discussed as SIP priorities for 2023 after the meeting.
- ACP stated that if mental health, is indeed one of SIP’s priorities for 2023, developing mental health materials in 2023 in collaboration with stakeholders would be key.
- SK stated that in order to implement access to treatment (one of SIP’s possible priorities for 2023), EFIC aims to set standards for multimodal pain treatment in Europe – which will have an advocacy outcome and it could be one possible area of collaboration.
- DR stated that the European Commission is setting a working group to build a mental health strategy in Europe, with the support of various MEP’s – with the strategy planning to be released in 2023.
- On the ICD-11 implementation in Europe, RDT evoked ongoing discussions for involving pain in treatments for all cancer diagnosis.
- Closure
- DR invited stakeholders to sign SIP Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen their participation in the SIP SF, thanked everyone and closed the meeting.
2023 SIP Objectives/Policy Areas
- Pain and digital health
- ICD-11
- Mental health
- Access to treatment
*SIP will remain active on other policy areas when opportunities arise (e.g. cancer pain).
About the Societal Impact of Pain (SIP) platform
The ‘Societal Impact of Pain’ (SIP) platform is a multi-stakeholder partnership led by the European Pain Federation EFIC and Pain Alliance Europe (PAE), which aims to raise awareness of pain and change pain policies.
The platform provides opportunities for discussion for health care professionals, pain advocacy groups, politicians, healthcare insurance providers, representatives of health authorities, regulators, and budget holders.
The scientific framework of the SIP platform is under the responsibility of EFIC and the strategic direction of the project is defined by both partners. The pharmaceutical company Grünenthal GmbH is the main sponsor of the Societal Impact of Pain (SIP) platform. SIP is open to additional sponsors joining Grünenthal in the future.
Contacts: For further information, please contact:
Ángela Cano Palomares, Project Manager, Societal Impact of Pain (SIP) Europe, at European Pain Federation EFIC – angela.palomares@efic.org
Emilia Kosińska, Association and Projects Manager, Pain Alliance Europe– emilia.kosinska@pae-eu.eu