The Alphabet Soup of Organizations a Resident Might Consider Joining

[paz5559]

As many of you know, I am interested in both interventional spine/pain and the politics of PM&R

With that in mind, I am a member of the AAPM&R, PASSOR, NASS, AAPM, ISIS, ASIPP, and the AAP.

Where do you belong, and which entities will you continue to belong to after you are through with residency?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Disciple]

As many of you know, I am interested in both interventional spine/pain and the politics of PM&R

With that in mind, I am a member of the AAPM&R, PASSOR, NASS, AAPM, ISIS, ASIPP, and the AAP.

Where do you belong, and which entities will you continue to belong to after you are through with residency?

Same here, minus ASIPP, plus ACSM.

I'll probably stick with most of these after graduation, maybe drop AAPM depending on how much "pain" I actually do.

I'm considering joining ASIPP. Have you found it be beneficial from a resident's standpoint?

Just as an interesting sidenote, I recently spoke with a member of the PASSOR board of directors. Apparently, at their last meeting there was discussion about whether to eliminate the existence of PASSOR as a separate entity within the AAPM&R. The thinking here being that PASSOR was originally created to garner support for the practice of musculoskeletal medicine. At the present time, approximately 50% of physiatrists list their focus as MSK, etc. Therefore, should we eliminate PASSOR in an attempt to reintegrate the profession?

 

[Disciple]

NASS, ISIS, PASSOR, etc. all offer injection workshops that may be attended by PM&R residents.

Considering the registration is roughly $1,000-1,500 for most of these and residents have limited yearly educational funds, which is the best buy for the resident with little to no injection experience?


I've spent alot of money on two of these courses and don't plan on attending a third in the near future, but thought this would be valuable information for some.

 

[Stinky Tofu]

At one point or another during residency, I've been a part of ISIS, ASRA, AAP, AAPMR, and NASS. During residency and fellowship, I think NASS and ASRA are definitely worth the money. The resident/fellow membership for NASS is only $50 and you get The Spine Journal and SpineLine™. ASRA is only $25 and you get Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine as well as additional discounts on conferences. I'm not so sure about ISIS and ASIPP as a resident/fellow. If you are planning on taking their courses, it might be worthwhile; otherwise, you don't get any subscriptions nor do you get any additional conference discounts for being a member on top of being a resident/fellow. With regards to AAP and AAPMR, I think most residency programs pay for it.

 

[paz5559]

At one point or another during residency, I've been a part of ISIS, ASRA, AAP, AAPMR, and NASS. During residency and fellowship, I think NASS and ASRA are definitely worth the money. The resident/fellow membership for NASS is only $50 and you get The Spine Journal and SpineLine™. ASRA is only $25 and you get Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine as well as additional discounts on conferences. I'm not so sure about ISIS and ASIPP as a resident/fellow. If you are planning on taking their courses, it might be worthwhile; otherwise, you don't get any subscriptions nor do you get any additional conference discounts for being a member on top of being a resident/fellow. With regards to AAP and AAPMR, I think most residency programs pay for it.

ST and I have several factual disagreements:

ISIS offers a resident discount, both for membership and conferences, and you get copies of their Scientific Newsletter and Pain Medicine. It's not cheap, but IMHO, it is the single most relevant organization for what we do, and worth every penny

ASIPP clearly has a different mission (reimbursement, lobbying, and keeping pain practitioners out of trouble with the DEA). Again, you definitely do get a discount, both for membership and tuition for their annual meeting, and Pain Physician is part of the membership. This is not the most scientific of meetings, but Rick Derby, James Rathmell, and Gabor Racz spoke at this year's conference, so I, for one, went (OK, it is also being held in New Orleans this weekend, so it wasn't a tough sell to get me to go).

NASS is inexpensive, but do you get what you pay for? NASS's discount is in flux, because the enticement was to get residents to participate in the spine match. With that on hold, no one is certain if their largesse will continue. It is also an organization run largely by Orthopaedic and Neuro Surgeons. As such, at least half of what they talk about is irrelevant to our field (how many lectures on artificial discs, instrumentation, and hardware can you sit through?) They also have a different agenda, and may or may not have our interests at heart. True, Joel Press is the incoming president, and physiatrists have been involved for years. But this is also the same group that chewed up Kevin Pauza's IDET paper in '03, and also apparently lobbied Congress to discourage the use of pulsed RF (likely will not be reimbursed if no Class I or II papers are produced withing the next three years), so again, may not have our best interests at heart.

I do not know as much about ASRA, but just looking at the last few issues of Regional Anesthesia, it seems much more anesthesia-oriented, and so we seem not to be their primary focus.

Heck, if you want cheap, apply for the APS! They will not only not charge you dime one to go to their conference, they will pay for your flight, hotel, AND give you spending money. Of course THEN you will have to sit through talks on the psych, neuro, and addictionology aspects of pain all day, but if that floats your boat (or if the conference is in a cool location like Vancouver, as it was in '04) I say go for it!

Oh, and AAPM was not on ST's list at all. As they are the organization that sponsors the alternate board exam in pain, even if it is a little too pain/psych oriented for my tastes, they are also a worthwhile organization to consider (and yes, they offer discounts to residents, and you get Pain Medicine)

Lastly, AAP and AAPM&R are most certainly NOT paid for by my institution, and from what I understand, not by most state-run residency programs. This and lack of book funds are the dirty little secret most applicants don't know to ask, but IMHO ought to druring the course of the interview process.

 

[Stinky Tofu]

I never said that ISIS didn't offer resident discounts. The resident membership fee is $100, but they don't list that on their application form. My point is that you don't get any additional discounts at conferences if you are a member on top of being a resident. For example, the registration fees for ISIS members at the New York meeting is $550 and the fee for residents is $275. You don't receive any additional discounts for being a member and a resident. I haven't received any subscriptions since I've joined about 8 months ago; however, this may be an error on their part. I agree that ISIS is probably the most relevant organization for what we do.

My interest lies in Interventional Pain and not soley in Interventional Spine so I do find the articles and topics in ASRA to be of interest. Plus, some of the articles and the newsletters are available for free online. Some PM&R residents might decide to do an Anethesia Pain fellowship so their will be some overlap between Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine at these Anesthesia-based Pain fellowships. Also, irregardless of whether or not I will do some of these procedures, I find reading about them to be interesting and sometimes relevant to the patients we see as a Physiatrist. For example, the current issue of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine talks about analgesia after rotator cuff surgery, lumbar discography, and adding sciatic blocks to continuous femoral blocks for analgesia after total knee replacements. By the way, James Rathmell is one of the directors of ASRA.

Anyway, these are just my own opinions on the above organizations. There are obviously a lot of good organizations out there and not every organization will fit everyone's interests. I try to go to many of these conferences so the registration fees for membership are important to me because I have a limited budget. In retrospect, from my persepctive, I think the membership fees for some of these organizations would've been better spent on the resident registration fees for the conferences.