The Community Focus Channel is supported with funding from Johnson & Johnson (Gold).
The Non-Malignant Channel is supported with funding from Agios (Gold).
The Sickle Cell Disease Channel is supported with funding from Agios (Gold).
VJHemOnc is an independent medical education platform. Supporters, including channel supporters, have no influence over the production of content. The levels of sponsorship listed are reflective of the amount of funding given to support the channel.
ASH 2025 | Improving equity in pain management for SCD
Daniel Sop, PhD, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, discusses disparities in access to pain management for adults with sickle cell disease (SCD), highlighting the need for system-level changes to improve equitable care. Dr Sop emphasizes that education and access to resources are crucial, as SCD predominantly affects underserved communities with limited access to trained providers and adequate reimbursement rates. This interview took place at the 67th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition, held in Orlando, FL.
These works are owned by Magdalen Medical Publishing (MMP) and are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All rights are reserved.
Transcript
We think education and resource access. You know, sickle cell disease is a condition that mostly affects the black community, 99% of the patients that we see at our center are African-American, and they are underserved, underemployed, or unemployed. And even when you look at the reimbursement rates from the payer side, the reimbursement rate for sickle cell disease patients is much less compared to someone that has private insurance because they rely on public insurance...
We think education and resource access. You know, sickle cell disease is a condition that mostly affects the black community, 99% of the patients that we see at our center are African-American, and they are underserved, underemployed, or unemployed. And even when you look at the reimbursement rates from the payer side, the reimbursement rate for sickle cell disease patients is much less compared to someone that has private insurance because they rely on public insurance. So that being the case, from an institutional perspective, there’s not necessarily a good incentive for them to invest a lot of resources because they say it’s a condition that may not generate as much money. And the lack of resources then trickles down to patients not being able to receive the type of care that they need because they don’t have the people available to deliver that care. And not having that makes it even harder for them to get well and get better faster. So having resource access will make a huge difference. And when you look, even those resources, not only do you need them, but you need those that are appropriately trained.
You know, you have a huge amount of providers in the emergency room, for example, but not all of them are well trained when it comes to sickle cell disease specifically, and much less also when it comes to specifically pain management, because as you may know, patients that have sickle cell disease take huge amounts of opiates. That sometimes classifies them in the group of patients that they consider to be drug-seeking because they need those high amounts of opiates, but that’s not necessarily the case. They have built a huge tolerance because it’s a genetic disorder that you have at birth. From a very young age, you have to start taking opiates to mitigate your pain. And over time, you build tolerance. So it makes sense that by the time you reach maybe 30 years old, 35 years old, you will need a little more opiates to appease your pain than someone that was not exposed to a high amount of opiates at an early age.
This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.
Read more...
