Innovations in End-of-Life Care
an international journal of leaders in end-of-life care

David E. Joranson, MSSW, is senior scientist and director of the Pain & Policy Studies Group (PPSG) at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Madison, Wisconsin. The mission of the PPSG is to improve pain-related policies, including those that govern the medical use of opioid analgesics, through a program of policy research, education, and communication. The PPSG is a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Policy and Communications. It prepared WHO guidelines for evaluating national opioid control policies and is now engaged in projects to implement those guidelines by working with the WHO and national governments to address regulatory barriers and improve patient access to opioid pain medications in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Mr. Joranson received a Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin. From 1975 to 1989, he was administrator of the Wisconsin Controlled Substances Board, responsible for administering state control of controlled substances and developing a nationally recognized diversion prevention and control program. In 1980, Mr. Joranson assisted the White House to organize a national conference on the misuse, abuse, and diversion of prescription-controlled substances. In 1986, as a regulator, he co-founded the National Association of State Controlled Substances Authorities and the Wisconsin Cancer Pain Initiative. He was a member of the drafting committee of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws for revising the uniform controlled substances act, organized 12 workshops for state medical board members, and served on the task force of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States to draft model guidelines for the treatment of pain with controlled substances. He has advised the World Health Organization Programme on Substance Abuse, the International Narcotics Control Board, and several national governments.

In the United States, Mr. Joranson has published research that addresses the legal and regulatory aspects of pain management, as well as trends in state pain-related policy, such as medical board guidelines and "intractable pain treatment acts." Mr. Joranson has been recognized by the American Pain Society, the American Society for Pharmacy Law, the National Association of State Controlled Substances Authorities, and the State Cancer Pain Initiatives. In 2002 he received the Marie Nyswander Humanitarian Award for his "extraordinary efforts to enhance the compassionate care of [patients struggling with] addiction and pain."

The Pain & Policy Studies Group sponsors a website (See Resources and Tools page of this issue) that contains numerous resources on national and international pain policy, including the pain statutes, regulations and guidelines for each US state, as well as a criteria-based evaluation of those policies.