Q&A Panel Discussion
Part of Too Little, Too Late: Rethinking IDDS as a First-Line Strategy in Cancer Survivorship
Details
- Date
- Saturday, January 23, 2027
- Time
- 7:45 AM – 7:55 AM
- Session type
- Breakfast Session
- Schedule
- See this day
About
More than 18 million Americans are living with a history of cancer, and that number is rising. Yet intrathecal drug delivery systems (IDDS), one of the most powerful tools in the neuromodulation arsenal, remain dramatically underutilized in cancer survivors. Deployed late, often after years of inadequate systemic analgesia, IDDS is still widely treated as a last resort rather than a proactive, function-restoring intervention. This 60-minute expert panel challenges that paradigm directly. Convening leading neuromodulation specialists, the session draws on the landmark 2024-2025 Polyanalgesic Consensus Conference (PACC) cancer pain guidelines, which explicitly recognize a growing survivorship population with stable disease and decades of predicted survival, to make the clinical, pharmacological, and ethical case for deploying IDDS earlier in the treatment algorithm. Through real patient cases and interactive panel discussion, faculty will address the questions that keep clinicians up at night: When does waiting for IDDS become clinically indefensible? Who among our survivors is the right candidate, and how do we identify them earlier? What drug strategies are uniquely suited to patients who may live with a pump for 20 years? And how do we build the referral pathways that make earlier intervention possible? This is not a theoretical debate. With published research showing a 54% decline in IDDS use for cancer pain between 2014 and 2024, and survivorship pain representing one of the fastest-growing unmet needs in the field, this session delivers actionable clinical guidance that attendees can implement immediately.
Presenters
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Dr. Ori is an academic Pain Physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. After completing an internship year in General Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Ori graduated from the Anesthesiology residency program at the Brigham. She then completed the Pain Medicine Fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital . Dr. Ori’s interests include intrathecal pump therapy as well as spinal cord, DRG and peripheral nerve stimulation, minimally invasive surgical techniques, and treatment of pelvic pain and cancer pain. She is also interested in addressing racial disparities in Pain Medicine and her passion lies in issues pertaining to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. She enjoys teaching and mentoring and is involved in the Pain Medicine Fellowship Program.
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Tammy L. Dann, DO, MPH
Attending Anesthesiologist
Pain Evaluation & Management Center of Ohio, Kettering Health Network · Spring Valley, Ohio
Tammy Dann, DO, MPH is a Dayton, Ohio based interventional pain physician who is board
certified in both anesthesiology and pain management. She completed her pain fellowship at
the University of Iowa and has been in private practice in both West Virginia and Ohio since
that time. She is faculty for the Kettering Health Dayton anesthesiology program and is the
current Treasurer of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians and Treasurer/
Founding Member of Women Innovators in Pain Management. She has served as a speaker
for a wide variety of meetings throughout the US and takes an active role in teaching residents
and fellows. Her passion is the use of intrathecal pumps in the management of chronic pain. -
Elizabeth M. Rickerson, MD
Physician
Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute · Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Elizabeth McCann Rickerson, MD
Dr. Rickerson completed her anesthesia residency and pain management fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital and then a palliative care fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospiital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute in 2011. She is a member of the palliative care staff at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the anesthesia staff at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and acts as a liaison between the palliative care and interventional pain management programs. She is the Clinical Director of the Inpatient Palliative Care Unit at the DFCI/BWH Cancer center and received the Dana Farber Exemplary Physician of the Year award in 2021. She is especially interested in interventional options for cancer pain patients.
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Matthew Chung, MD
Director, Interventional Pain Management
MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER · HOUSTON, Texas
Dr. Chung is the director of the interventional pain management within the department of pain medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is the former chair of the NANS Young Neuromodulators Committee and is passionate for the growth and development of early career physicians into the expansive space of intrathecal pump delivery. His interests include cancer pain, education and neuromodulation.