Federal Campaigns > Pain and Palliative Care
Useful links
Pain Management in the
Affordable Care Act
Provisions that further ACS CAN's efforts to ease suffering for cancer patients and survivors.
Editorial in CA:
A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
Editorial co-authored by Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society.
Communicating About
Cancer Pain: Fixing the
Doctor-Patient Disconnect
Document outlining what we're doing to raise awareness about pain management.
Pain & Palliative Care
Pain Management
Cancer patients and survivors have plenty to worry about when coping with this terrible disease. But suffering from cancer-related pain shouldn't be a concern. There are many safe and effective medicines and non-medicine therapies that can help relieve pain and improve quality of life.
Pain management provisions included in the Affordable Care Act will help improve pain research, education and clinical care to help get cancer patients and survivors back on track to living their lives with less pain and more comfort.
While great strides have been made to advance more balanced pain management policies and practices nationwide, much work still remains to be done.
The 2008 Progress Report Card from the Pain and Policy Studies Group (PPSG) at the University of Wisconsin evaluates state policies that influence pain management and grades each state from A to F depending on the degree their policies enhance or impede pain management.
Pain and Policy Studies Group
Executive Summary
Complete Report Card
State by State Evaluation Guide
Executive Summary
Complete Report Card
State by State Evaluation Guide
Useful linksPain Management in the
Affordable Care Act
Provisions that further ACS CAN's efforts to ease suffering for cancer patients and survivors.
Editorial in CA:
A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
Editorial co-authored by Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society.
Communicating About
Cancer Pain: Fixing the
Doctor-Patient Disconnect
Document outlining what we're doing to raise awareness about pain management.
Palliative Care Provides a Lifeline to Quality of Life
Scientific and medical progress have helped people live longer -- sometimes decades -- after facing a cancer diagnosis. But quality of life has not been the priority that it should be, so many patients, survivors and their caregivers suffer needlessly as a result.
New England Journal of Medicine Study & Editorial
* View the Editorial
With implementation of the Affordable Care Act, momentum is now building around the concept of improving care quality by promoting more patient-centered care that recognizes the limitations and impact of treatment on patient and family quality of life. At every opportunity, ACS CAN will advocate for public policies that emphasize the importance of providing palliative care and other patient-centered care at the same time as best cancer care to assure the best possible quality as well as quantity of life.
Palliative Care in the Affordable Care ActNew England Journal of Medicine Study & Editorial
An August 2010 landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that providing palliative care earlier in the disease course not only improved quality of life and reduced depression, it also extended survival time for patients with advanced lung cancer by nearly three months
* View the Study* View the Editorial
