Dr. John Clark is not only a member of our Advisory Panel, he is medical director for the Calgary Health Region Chronic Pain Centre, and an international expert on chronic pain. He was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to give us a "web interview". Hope you find it as interesting as I did.


You started out as an anesthetist. Can you tell us what led you into the field of pain medicine from there?

Exposed as a resident in anesthesiology to chronic pain, had previously worked as family doctor and it was what was available as a job when I wanted to return to Halifax.

How has the practice of treating pain changed from when you first started out to the present day?

Originally very focused on physician only care, no resources available to provide care, pain was just ignored. This is still an issue to some degree but it is now recognised that working as a team with a person with chronic pain and their family is a much better way to help - interdisiplinary teams.
Resources and wait-times are still a major issue.

Can you define chronic pain, for anyone who might not really understand the term?

Any pain that lasts longer than it should based on why pain initially occurred

What frustrates you most about the field of pain medicine or treating pain?

The lack of education provided to all health care professional about pain during their eduaction. Less than 1% of education is directed to pain management but pain is the most common reason we see a physician!

Do you have any words of advice for people out there who are suffering chronic pain?

Become advocates, join consumer groups like the Chronic Pain Association of Canada to advocate for more resources and better care and better education

How did you get involved in the Pain Diaries Advisory Committee?

This is a unique way to bring the issue of pain and how to help those with pain to a much broader audience, to raise awareness and to advocate for better care and more timely access to care. Empowerment.

What sort of impact do you feel a play like this could have? Can art and science help each other out, or will they always just be opposite sides of the brain?

We need innovative ways to highlight and focus on pain as a disease - this is one way

What do you hope that people involved with and/or viewing this play and documentary will get from the experience?

Better understanding about what those with pain and their families go through and the impact it has on so many peoples lives.

A desire to donate to the Calgary Health Trust to further research into how best to treat pain and set up a Trust to establish a Research Chair in Chronic Pain at the University of Calgary. The Calgary Health Region's clinical program is a world leader in the management of chronic pain, lets make Calgary a world leader in research in this area as well!



Thank you.