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Symptom control: using technology pragmatically

Published on March 4, 2009 Updated on August 14, 2020   36 min

A selection of talks on Cancer

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0:00
Hello I am Steven Richeimer, Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Today we're gonna discuss how technology provides some solutions in assistance for treating difficult to control pain and other symptoms of discomfort.
0:22
However, it is important for us to understand the pain is not occurring as a simple manifestation of a physiological problem. Pain in fact, is not exactly the same thing as suffering as we see in the middle of this slide. Pain and suffering overlap, but they are not identical and there are many factors that contribute to the degree of suffering of the patient. These includes psychological factors, spiritual factors, social and family factors. Therefore, it is very important that when we turn to technological solutions that we are not providing them in a sterile environment that ignores the entire context of the patient's pain and their suffering.
1:12
When we examine the patient with pain, it's important for us to understand the pattern of the pain that they suffer with. So for instance, providing long-acting opioids provides an excellent steady baseline of pain control for the patient who has persistent pain. But it is not an effective approach for the patient who has spikes of episodic or breakthrough pain. For such an approach we need to be able to rapidly deliver additional medication.

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Symptom control: using technology pragmatically

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