Cindy Steinberg
Director, Policy & Advocacy US Pain Foundation
Cindy Steinberg is the Director of Policy and Advocacy for the U.S. Pain Foundation and a nationally recognized leader in pain policy. She became an advocate after sustaining a severe crush injury that left her living with daily back pain.
Cindy has spent years working to ensure that the experiences and needs of people with pain are represented in state and federal health policy. In Massachusetts, she has served on Governor Charlie Baker’s Opioid Working Group and as a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Drug Formulary Commission.
Nationally, Cindy has testified before the U.S. Senate HELP Committee, served on the federal Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force, and was appointed to the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee. Her work has earned numerous honors, including the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s Presidential Commendation Award and a Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship.
Seminars
- Understand how patients define treatment success through improved function, independence and quality of life, rather than pain reduction alone
- Explore the benefit-risk trade-offs patients are willing to accept in exchange for meaningful improvements in daily living
- Challenge assumptions around what constitutes a clinically meaningful outcome and how these perspectives should influence trial design and regulatory decision-making
- Hear directly from patient advocates and individuals living with chronic pain on what developers should prioritize when designing the next generation of pain therapeutics
- Assessing the policy and reimbursement barriers that continue to limit access to innovative pain treatments
- Understanding why patients are urgently seeking new treatment options in the wake of reduced opioid prescribing and limited chronic pain alternatives
- Exploring successful advocacy initiatives that have expanded payer coverage and influenced pain-related healthcare policy
- Identifying how drug developers, patient organizations and policymakers can work together to improve both commercial uptake and patient access for future therapies
