Interventional Pain and Physical Medicine Clinic in Sartell, Minn., has received an Excellence in Pain Practice Award from The World Institute of Pain, according to a St. Cloud Times report.

Rockville, Md.-based National Spine & Pain Centers has announced the opening of two new offices — in Germantown, Md., and in Harrisonburg, Va.

Boston Scientific Corporation announced that it is introducing its FDA-approved Precision Spectra Spinal Cord Stimulator System at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., April 11-14, 2013.

The Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children's National Medical Center in Washington announced that it has opened a new Pain Medicine Care Complex.

Martin Schiavenato, PhD, RN, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar, has invented a machine to assess pain in premature infants and potentially protect them from its negative developmental effects, according to a press release from the foundation.

According to a national public opinion poll commissioned by Research!America, only 18 percent of respondents believe that chronic pain is a major health problem whereas 50 percent believe that addiction to prescription painkillers is a major health problem.

The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa will receive a $1.27 million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to study different psychosocial treatments for chronic pain management, according to a report by The Crimson White.

Sham Vengurlekar, MD, an interventional pain specialist, announced that he is relocating his practice, Premier Pain Institute, from Phoenix to a new facility in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Dale Klein, MD, has joined Performance Plus in St. Joseph, Mo., according to a St. Joe Channel report.

A study, published in the Clinical Journal of Pain, found that people suffering from chronic and acute pain experience mental defeat, and targeting this sense of mental defeat can prevent anxiety and depression among the patients, according to a Health Canal report.

Catalyst Physical Medicine, a physical medicine and pain relief clinic, has opened its office in Alpharetta, Ga., according to a North Fulton report.

A pain clinic regulation bill was passed by the Georgia Senate last week, according to a report by The Washington Post.

Austin, Texas-based Advanced Pain Care announced the opening of its office in Cedar Park, Texas.

The Neuromedicine Pain Management Center at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center's department of neurosurgery has announced that it has been named a clinical care center of excellence for pain management by the American Pain Society.

Leonardo Kapural, MD, was lead clinical investigator for a double-blinded randomized controlled trial comparing cooled radiofrequency with the Kimberly-Clark TransDiscal Cooled Radiofrequency System for patients with discogenic and sacroiliac joint pain. He found that patients who underwent cooled radiofrequency experienced significant improvements.

Minneapolis-based Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota announced that it has been named a 2013 Center of Excellence in Pain Management by the American Pain Society.

A research letter, published online in JAMA Internal Medicine, states that in a study of 1,000 requests for MRIs of the lumbar spine, nearly half were ordered for indications considered inappropriate or of uncertain value, according to a Medscape Today report.  

Tampa, Fla.-based Padgett Medical Center announced the opening of The New Pain Center in Ocala (Fla.) – Padgett Medical Center.

Waldorf, Md.-based Kure Pain Management announced that Christina M. Abraham, MD, has joined its team of physicians.

Vigilant Anesthesia Care & Pain Management in Glen Carbon, Ill., has added Kui Yang, MD, to the practice, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report.