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About the American Academy of Pain Medicine

Advancing Pain Medicine Through Expertise, Education, Advocacy, and Community

The American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) is a medical specialty society and professional community for physicians and other health care professionals committed to advancing Pain Medicine and improving the care of people with pain.

Founded in 1983, AAPM brings together expertise from across medicine and health care to address the clinical, scientific, professional, and policy issues shaping pain care. Through evidence-based education, clinical guidance, advocacy, research, professional development, and multidisciplinary collaboration, the Academy works to strengthen the specialty and support the professionals who practice it.

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Advancing the Specialty of Pain Medicine

Pain Medicine draws on expertise from many disciplines. The professionals caring for people with pain work across specialties, practice settings, and stages of their careers, often managing conditions that require complex clinical judgment and coordinated care.

AAPM provides a place for that expertise to come together.

The Academy connects clinicians, researchers, educators, and other leaders to exchange knowledge, evaluate evidence, develop clinical guidance, address barriers to appropriate care, and prepare the next generation of pain professionals to lead the field forward.

Our focus is not a single treatment, technology, or clinical discipline. It is the continued advancement of high-quality, evidence-informed, patient-centered pain care.

Our Mission

AAPM is dedicated to advancing multidisciplinary pain care, education, advocacy, and research to improve the quality of life for our members and those they treat.

That mission guides how the Academy educates, convenes, advocates, collaborates, and contributes to the evolving field of Pain Medicine.

Credible Expertise in Pain Medicine

Pain care continues to change. New evidence, technologies, therapies, regulations, reimbursement policies, and models of care create opportunities for better outcomes—and new questions for clinicians.

AAPM helps the pain medicine community navigate that change with credible, evidence-informed expertise.

Clinical Guidelines & Consensus

AAPM convenes experts to evaluate evidence, build consensus, and develop clinical guidelines and recommendations on important issues in Pain Medicine. This work helps clinicians interpret evolving evidence and translate it into informed decisions for patient care.

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Education for Clinical Practice

AAPM provides continuing education focused on the clinical challenges pain professionals encounter in practice. Through PainConnect, webinars, enduring education, and expert discussions, the Academy connects current evidence with practical application.

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Research & Scientific Exchange

AAPM supports the exchange of research, clinical experience, and emerging ideas that can strengthen the evidence base for Pain Medicine. Scientific presentations, educational programs, clinical initiatives, and Pain Medicine, the Academy's scholarly journal, provide forums for advancing knowledge across the field.

Advocacy for Appropriate Pain Care

AAPM engages policymakers, payers, regulators, medical organizations, and other stakeholders on issues that affect pain professionals and the patients they serve. The Academy's advocacy is grounded in evidence, clinical expertise, and the need for appropriate access to individualized pain care.

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A Professional Home for the Pain Medicine Community

AAPM is more than a source of education. It is a place to build a career, develop professional relationships, contribute expertise, and help shape the future of Pain Medicine.

Members connect across specialties, disciplines, career stages, and practice settings. They participate in Shared Interest Groups, committees, educational programs, clinical initiatives, advocacy, research presentations, mentoring, and leadership opportunities.

For residents and fellows, that may mean finding mentors, presenting research, and developing a professional network. For established physicians and other pain professionals, it may mean staying current, solving difficult practice challenges, collaborating with peers, contributing to guidelines, or taking on a leadership role.

AAPM creates a professional community where people committed to Pain Medicine can learn, contribute, connect, and grow throughout their careers.

EXPLORE MEMBER BENEFITS

Strengthening the Future of Pain Medicine

Pain Medicine will continue to evolve as science advances, new technologies emerge, care models change, and the needs of patients and clinicians become more complex.

AAPM works to help the field evolve with them.

The Academy creates opportunities for emerging and established leaders to share ideas, evaluate new approaches, question assumptions, and connect innovation with clinical evidence. It supports the development of future pain professionals while giving experienced clinicians meaningful ways to contribute their expertise.

AAPM also works with organizations and partners that share a commitment to responsible advancement of pain care. Those relationships help extend education, research, clinical guidance, and other mission-driven work while maintaining the independence and credibility expected of a medical professional society.

Building a strong future for Pain Medicine requires more than responding to today's issues. It requires a durable professional community capable of investing in the people, knowledge, partnerships, and infrastructure the specialty will need next.

Learn More About AAPM

AAPM's multidisciplinary community has been advancing Pain Medicine since 1983. Learn more about the professionals we serve, the field of Pain Medicine, the Academy's history, and the volunteer leaders who guide our work.

OUR COMMUNITY, HISTORY & LEADERSHIP

Be Part of the AAPM Community

The future of Pain Medicine will be shaped by the people willing to learn, collaborate, question, contribute, and lead. AAPM gives physicians and other pain professionals a place to do that work together.

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