EFIC's School for: Neurological Diagnosis in Chronic Pain "Clinical and instrumental processes"

Why do we need a School for neurological clinical and instrumental diagnostic processes in Pain Medicine?
There are several reasons: the foremost is to ensure the best available diagnostic and therapeutic tools for all EU citizens. 
Chronic pain is typically neuropathic. The fact that many specialists from different countries and a variety of branches of medicine are increasingly involved in Pain Medicine is certainly a boost to cultural richness. However, this creates a point of weakness in the lack of uniformity of clinical approaches to the patient and in the different uses of the various available diagnostic tools. 
Only very few physicians work in structured multidisciplinary teams within the specific framework of Pain Medicine. Most professionals involved in Pain Medicine work in teams which rely on the external support of other specialists whose diagnostic results are not always digestible by pain clinicians. Besides, the increasing complexity of single and specific instrumental diagnoses makes our task even more difficult.
For the few physicians who already work in a multidisciplinary team, this School will help them to refine their clinical approach and to improve their ability to interpret instrumental and laboratory findings. For the many who do not work in a multidisciplinary team or who rely on external support, the School will provide the skills for better understanding of the various diagnostic tests.
The aim of the School is to fill a lack in the educational offer currently available for young doctors in Europe.
Specific goals and objectives of the School:

  1. Support the concept of pain as a disease
  2. Improve the clinical examination skills of the participants
  3. Define a core set of diagnostic tools for pain as a disease
  4. Define what kinds of instrumental evaluation should/could be done by the pain specialist
  5. Promote the consistency of instrumental diagnostic procedures in Pain Medicine
  6. Improve clinicians' skills in planning the correct instrumental diagnostic pathway in Pain Medicine
  7. Improve the understanding of the diagnostic tools available in the diagnosis of pain
  8. Allow the participants to use all the available diagnostic tools
  9. Allow the participants to interpret the findings of many of the diagnostic tests most widely used by other specialists
  10. Allow the participants to use some of the most valuable bedside tests in pain medicine