We are glad to announce that the Societal Impact of Pain (SIP) - European Road Map Monitor 2019 poster has been selected for presentation in the IASP Virtual Poster Gallery at the IASP Virtual Series on Pain & Expo

Pain remains a major source of disability worldwide and is the main reason people seek healthcare, from general practice to emergency care. In 2011, the Societal Impact of Pain (SIP) platform released its “Road Map for Action”. The Road Map calls on European governments and EU institutions to establish an EU platform to enable the exchange, comparison, and benchmarking of best practice between Member States on pain management and its impact on society. Further, it is used to monitor trends, and provide guidelines, to ensure harmonisation across the EU. After evaluation in 2011 and re-evaluation in 2014, the status of Road Map implementation has been revisited again in 2019 to compare with previous years´ results and assess progress.

An online survey was conducted from September-November 2019 aiming to identify the current status of pain policies and guidelines in all European countries, with a focus on the priorities of the SIP Joint Statement from 2018:

• Pain as a health quality indicator
• Pain research
• Pain education
• Pain and employment

A pilot was started in Spain before the broad roll-out of the survey to test the feasibility of the questionnaire. Responses were collected from the national representations of the SIP platform.

Read the results and the full article about the Road Map Monitor survey 2019 here.