Foundation Vice President, Lexi Reed Holtum, Speaks at Pain Conference

On November 15, 2013, Foundation Vice President, Lexi, participated as an expert panelist at the 8^th Annual Pain Conference in Minneapolis. The conference was sponsored jointly by the Minnesota Medical Association and MAPS Medical Pain Clinics. The moderator of the panel was the distinguished drug abuse trends and solutions expert Carol Falkowski, Principal, Drug Abuse Dialogues, LLC. Other panelist were; Marsha Thiel, RN, MA, CEO of MAPS Medical Pain Clinics; Chris Johnson, MD, Methodist Hospital Emergency Department; Barbara Carter; Director MN Prescription Monitoring Program and Howard Epstein, MD, Chief Health Systems Officer, Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI). The panel addressed topics that helped the audience to define the nature and scope of the opioid epidemic in Minnesota, shared current efforts and strategies to address opioid abuse, and discussed implications of future state and federal regulations. The audience consisted of primary care physicians, NPs, PAs, RNs, PTs, psychologists and chiropractors. There were roughly 200 attendees present. All of the participants left with a deeper understanding of the issues and a greater network from which to draw support for their own practices.