Office bearer role
The FPM board has re-appointed Dr Dilip Kapur as FPM Dean, with his second term to commence in May 2025 and conclude in May 2026.
FPM Board call for nomination and election
The call for nominations for three elected vacancies has concluded. As the number of nominations received exceeded the number of vacancies, the faculty will proceed to an election from Saturday 18 January to Monday 3 February 2025. Further information about the election can be found here.
FPM by-laws
By-law 20 and associated handbook and policy documents for the Procedures Endorsement Program have undergone a thorough review to ensure that the processes are rigorous.
By-law 4, ‘FPM Training Program’ has been updated as part of the faculty’s annual review of its training program.
Hong Kong
The FPM Dean Dr Dilip Kapur and the Executive Director FPM Ms Martina Otten, along with the ANZCA Vice-President Dr Tanya Selak attended the Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists annual scientific meeting with the FPM Dean visiting three training units.
The Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists has expressed a strong interest in increasing its engagement with the faculty. There is a proposal to develop an international training network which would report to the FPM Training and Accreditation Executive Committee.
From 2026, FPM fellows from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia will be invited to apply to attend the Emerging Leaders Conference, in addition to Australian and New Zealand fellows.
Australian Standards for Health Practitioner Pain Management Education
From mid-August, stakeholder consultations were held across Australian state capitals and after an analysis of the stakeholder data by the project management team, seven key themes have been identified. The next phase will involve ‘scoping the standards landscape’ by mapping other key policies, guidelines, frameworks and relevant legislation against the focus and themes within the set of standards to determine how these documents may relate to the standards being developed. More information about this project can be found on the website.
Pain Device Implant Registry (PDIR)
FPM is still waiting on a response from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) to a project grant application to develop a pain device implant registry.
The FPM Board has recommended that the FPM Professional Affairs Executive Committee seek expressions of interest to develop a position statement on spinal cord stimulators in 2025.
FPM Continuing Medical Education meetings
The 2025 Spring Meeting will be held in Fremantle, WA, from 24-26 October 2025, with the program under development.
Registrations for the 2025 Cairns ASM are now open, and fellows are encouraged to book flights early due to the location and limited flight availability.
Dr David (Buzz) Boothman Burrell has been appointed the scientific convenor for the 2026 FPM Symposium/ASM in Auckland.
Professional documents
A review of PS10(PM) Statement on "Medicinal Cannabis" with particular reference to its use in the management of patients with chronic non-cancer pain will be undertaken in 2025.
PS15 Statement on the clinical approach to persistent pelvic pain, including endometriosis-associated pain is piloted until January 2025.
ANZCA professional document PS45 Rights to pain management and accompanying background paper (PS45BP) is being circulated to key FPM stakeholders during the initial six-week consultation period.
The factsheet for the ‘Off-label prescribing in pain medicine’ document has been endorsed by the FPM Professional Affairs Executive Committee and will be promulgated in the next edition of Synapse and featured as an article in the Autumn 2025 ANZCA Bulletin.
Exams
The board thanked Associate Professor Charles Brooker for his time as chair of the FPM Examination Committee and approved Dr Aarathi Vaska as its new chair.
Assessment review
The board approved the new draft assessment framework and implementation plan. This will become a living document maintained by the FPM Learning and Development Committee.
The committee has reviewed the assessment philosophy and structure of the training program to identify where changes are required to ensure it remains aligned with contemporary medical education practice and in consideration of the assessment load both on trainees and fellows. The review also considered the requirements identified by the Australian Medical Council and Medical Council of New Zealand during the college reaccreditation process in 2022, in particular, adopting a more competency-based medical education approach to assessment and embedding cultural safety training.
Some minor changes are being introduced into the training program for 2025 while work on structural changes is progressing.
2025 board meeting dates
Sunday 23 February (Zoom)
Sunday 13 April (F2F, Melbourne)
Sunday 4 May (Annual Business Meeting, F2F Cairns)
Thursday 15 May (New Board Meeting, via Zoom)
Sunday 20 July (F2F, Melbourne)
Sunday 21 September (Zoom)
Wednesday 19 November (Zoom)
Sunday 7 December (Zoom)