Episode 173 | Pain Care In Low And Middle-Income Countries With Saurab Sharma

Thanks for joining me. We'll be talking about effective pain management in low and middle-income countries. I had touched base on this topic with Dr. Felipe Reis. He's a physical therapist and a researcher in Brazil, where we discussed initiatives for improving pain education in developing countries. I realized at that moment it was such an important topic that I wanted to reach out across the globe and find other professionals, other physiotherapists and other health professionals that are working on safe and effective pain management in low and middle-income countries. You may think to yourself, “I don't live in a low-income area. I don't live in a country that's developing,” but many of the social determinants of health that we grapple with in Western countries are also problems in developing countries. There's something for all of us to learn about this topic.

As we work our way into this topic and we meet our expert guest, let me share a couple of bullet points with you about what's happening with regard to pain management in low and middle-income countries. The first to note is that musculoskeletal pain disproportionately affects people these countries. About 20% of the general population of those countries experience chronic musculoskeletal pain. This estimate increases by 2 or 4 times among the working populations. It is the leading cause of disability in people between the ages of 50 to 70 years old. It's the second-leading cause in people aged 70 or above. Joining us to discuss pain in low and middle-income countries is Saurab Sharma. He's an assistant professor at Kathmandu University of Medical Sciences in Nepal, and also works at its affiliated hospital as a consultant musculoskeletal physiotherapist.

He is pursuing a PhD in researching pain at the University of Otago in New Zealand and his research aims to improve pain care in low and middle-income countries. Saurab is also providing a free white paper on this topic that you can download. It includes how we can strengthen health systems and respond to the burden of pain in low and middle-income countries and to support healthy aging. To download this free white paper, all you have to do is text the word, 1733 Download, to the number 44222, or you can open up a browser on your computer and type in the URL, www.IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/173download. Let's begin and let's meet Saurab Sharma.

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