Pain Week. Progetto formativo teorico-pratico per le Facoltà di Medicina, a supporto della legge 38/2010.

The clinical and socio-economic impact of chronic pain is very high, both regarding quality of life of patients and family members, and economic burden. Educational institutions, however, do not pay adequate attention to the training of health professionals in pain-related fields. Such a flaw affects the whole Europe. As a result, physicians often underutilize analgesic drugs for the treatment of chronic pain. The International Association Karol Wojtyla has conceived and promoted a practical and theoretical training, within the degree course in Medicine, on pain relief and palliative care. The course is meant to be shared among the faculties of Medicine and Psychology, Medicine and Dentistry and Pharmacy and Medicine of the Sapienza University of Rome. The training course aims to implement the 38/10 law, which prescribes training on palliative care and chronic pain therapy during pre-and post-graduate medical teaching courses. The goal is to develop in students the basic diagnostic, therapeutic and management skills for a correct multidisciplinary approach. The route, called Pain Week, is structured in 6 thematic training modules, one per year of the Study Course. The didactic methodology used is blended e-learning, where use of a telematics platform (Moodle2) integrates with meetings. Starting from the fourth year course, in addition to the theoretical teaching, fellows will be able to practice at the health facilities of the two networks of Palliative Care and Pain Therapy of the Regione Lazio. Pain Week aims to provide an integrated longitudinal training, which embraces all aspects of pain therapy. Pain week serves also as model to any other domain of modern medical training focused on transversality and interdisciplinarity.