The mission of Pain Treatment Topics is to provide access to news, information, research, and education relating to the causes and effective management of pain. Along with that, we are dedicated to offering contents that are evidence-based, unbiased, non-commercial, and comply with the highest standards and principles of accrediting and other oversight organizations.

The selection of all subject matter and editorial content for this website is made independently of sponsor or affiliate organization control, and is at the discretion of the Pain Treatment Topics Editor-in-Chief, other staff members, and consulting Medical Advisors. Contents do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints, or representations of Pain-Topics.org sponsors or affiliate organizations. See also, Site Policies.

Pain Treatment Topics is a subsidiary of Stewart B. Leavitt, PhD, Ltd. (an Illinois Corporation). This associated website – Pain-Topics.org – is supervised and produced by professionals with specialties in communications, healthcare, and pain management disciplines. A fundamental policy is to be openly accessible and responsive to inquiries by site visitors; please see the contact information below.

General Contact Information

Postal Mailing Address

Pain Treatment Topics
202 Shermer Road
Glenview, IL  60025

Telephone/Voice Messages/Fax

(847) 724-0862

E-mail

Info@Pain-Topics.org

Pain Treatment Topics Staff/Contributors

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Stewart B. Leavitt, MA, PhD  <see biography>
( (847) 724-0862
Stew.Leavitt@Pain-Topics.org

Research Editor

Winnie Dawson, MA, RN, BSN <see biography>

Medical Advisors

James D. Toombs, MD; Lee A. Kral, PharmD, BCPS;
Paul W. Lofholm, PharmD, FACA; Seth I. Kaufman, MD; and
Steven J. Tucker, MD, FACP (consulting advisor). <see biographies>

Ongoing Contributing Faculty/Researchers/Writers

James D. Toombs, MD;  Lee A. Kral, PharmD, BCPS;  Forest Tennant, MD, DrPH; Winnie Dawson, MA, RN, BSN; Stewart B. Leavitt, MA, PhD. Others participate on a project basis.

Medical Reviewers

Expert reviewers participate on a project basis and are attributed by name within the specific documents.

Document Search/Acquisition

MedSearch, Inc.; Ashland, OR

Website Programmers/Consultants

Lehman Design Group; Evanston, IL

Michael Crowl; Seattle, WA

ISP (Internet Service Provider)

HostMySite; Newark, DE

Domain Registrar: directNIC.com

Administrative/Financial Director

Diane Dahl Leavitt

Auditor

Kohn, Roseth & Associates, Ltd.; Highland Park, IL.

Pain Treatment Topics Medical Advisors

Seth I. Kaufman, MD
Dr. Kaufman practices Pain Management and Palliative Care at the West Clinic, as well as at Methodist Hospice, the largest providers of their respective care in the Memphis, Tennessee region. He is a graduate of McGill University Medical School, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He completed training in Anesthesiology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and a clinical fellowship at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York. He is board certified by The American Board of Anesthesiology, The American Board of Pain Medicine, and The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Dr. Kaufman has a very active inpatient and outpatient practice in addition to being involved in several research trials. His current areas of interest include the concurrent use of multiple opioid analgesics, the relief of cancer-treatment-induced side effects, and the application of IV methadone for pain. He enjoys teaching and has lectured on pain and symptom control to various healthcare professionals, including physicians, medical students, nurses, and pharmacists. He also lectures on Ethical Wills to various layperson audiences.

Lee A. Kral, PharmD, BCPS
Dr. Kral is a Faculty Member at The Center for Pain Medicine and Regional Anesthesia at The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, IA. She holds an adjunct faculty position at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy, is actively involved in training pharmacy students and residents, and lectures for several departments in the hospital and the Carver College of Medicine.

Dr. Kral is a member of the outpatient and inpatient pain services, the Narcotic Teaching Team, and the hospital's Pain Management Subcommittee. Her current areas of interest include methadone use in chronic pain and regional/intraspinal pain medicine.

Paul W. Lofholm, PharmD, FACA
Dr. Lofholm is a Clinical Professor of Pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, and President of Ross Valley Pharmacy, Larkspur, California. He also is an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pharmacy at the University of the Pacific. A Fellow in the American College of Apothecaries, he serves as the Director of Clinical Affairs for the organization's new American College of Hospice Pharmacists (ACHP).

Dr. Lofholm has more than 25 years experience in the pharmacy field and has served on numerous professional advisory committees and organizational boards. Besides receiving a number of awards – such as induction in 2006 to the California Pharmacists Association Hall of Fame – he has authored nearly 20 publications. He also is an avid speaker on pharmacy topics and has delivered more than three dozen lectures during just the past few years.

James D. Toombs, MD
Dr. Toombs is a Staff Physician in the Division of Primary Care/Pain Medicine at the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital in Columbia, Missouri. A graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine, he completed a Family Practice Residency in the Cox Family Practice Residency Program, Springfield, MO and Pain Medicine Fellowship in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Iowa. He is the recipient of several awards and scholarships, including the Piscano Scholarship.  He was named as one of Pfizer's Scholars in Pain Medicine in 2004.

Dr. Toombs is a Diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice and holds a Subspecialty Certification in Pain Medicine from the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.  He has published several papers focusing on pain management. He is a Senior Flight Surgeon in the Missouri Army National Guard and served on active duty as a Field Surgeon in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Consulting Medical Advisor

Steven J. Tucker, MD, FACP
Dr. Tucker is Medical Director of The West Medical Group International, Singapore, an international oncology center serving local and regional needs across Southeast Asia.  Previously practicing in Los Angeles, Dr. Tucker was Director of The Prostate & GU Oncology Program at The Angeles Clinic & Research Institute.  He also is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and an attending physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.  He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology as well as licensed in both California & Singapore.

A graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine, Dr. Tucker completed residency and fellowship programs in Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation at the UCLA Center for Health Sciences. He is active on boards or committees of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Community Oncology Alliance, and the California Medical Association, among others, and is a section editor for the journal Community Oncology.

Dr. Tucker has been the recipient of numerous awards and research grants, has authored or coauthored more than 24 journal articles and abstracts in oncology, and has personally delivered more than 50 lectures and presentations on oncology-related subjects to healthcare professionals. As a medical oncologist, he is interested in topics relating to the prevention and treatment of cancer pain with an emphasis in the area of cancer involving the bones.

Pain Treatment Topics Staff

Stewart B. Leavitt, MA, PhD   (Publisher/Editor-in-Chief)
Dr. Leavitt was educated in biomedical communications at the University of Illinois Medical School, Chicago, and then served as a Commissioned Officer in the US Public Health Service at the National Institutes of Health, Clinical Center, in Bethesda, Maryland. During that time, he also studied medical journalism at American University, Washington, DC. He went on to earn Masters and Doctorate degrees specializing in health/medical education at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, where he also was an instructor and a Ford Fellow researching urban heallthcare delivery systems.

Dr. Leavitt has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare education and medical communications serving numerous government agencies, private organizations, and pharmaceutical companies nationwide. Through the years, he has served as a consultant to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (SAMHSA/CSAT), Rockville, Maryland, and has been a frequent speaker at association conferences. He also is certified in industrial ergonomics and has authored numerous publications focusing on occupational safety and health.

Dr. Leavitt was the founding editor (and principal researcher/writer) of Addiction Treatment Forum (http://www.atforum.com) in 1992, and directed that project for 15 years. Besides his work on AT Forum, encompassing more than 260 articles and peer-reviewed research reports, he has created more than 45 articles appearing in various medical and healthcare journals and websites, many of them focusing on pain management issues. He is a member of the American Academy of Pain Management and a founding member of the International Association for Pain & Chemical Dependency.

Winnie Dawson, RN, BSN, MA   (Research Editor)

Ms. Dawson is a medical researcher/writer and the director of MedSearch Inc., a biomedical literature-research service founded in 1993. As a medical information specialist, Dawson has researched and provided relevant background literature for monographs, white papers, and medical education presentations on a wide variety of medical topics, including pain management. She received her Master of Arts in Health Education from the University of Alabama.

Previously, Ms. Dawson worked as a hospital staff nurse and a health educator in corporate, community, and hospital environments. She served as a member of the Elmhurst Memorial Hospital Speakers Bureau and presented on many wellness and healthcare topics for more than 15 years. She also developed an educational course, “Computers for Health Living,” focusing on techniques for medical research using informative and reliable Internet resources.

She has presented at the annual Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of American Education Symposium and the National Wellness Conference. Her book, Dare to Journal, won the National Health Information Awards bronze book award in 1999 in the ‘Health Promotion in Disease and Injury Prevention Information’ category. Along with that, she developed a workshop on the benefits of journaling as a tool for coping with chronic disease.

MedSearch can be reached at 800-682-8404 (medsearch@mind.net).