so it's a really important issue, and it gives me great pleasure to introduce christine veasley, who is a dedicated advocate and executive adviser of the national vulvodynia organization. she happens to be a resident of north kingstown, rhode island. krissin received her batch or of signs before coming to the association, she worked in the department of neurology at the john hopkins school of medicine, investigating the physiological mechanisms of pelvic pain and inflammation. i am pleased to announce that chris was recently pointed to the nih's new interagency pain research coordinating committee. her personal and professional experience will be a great asset to the committee whose mission is to identify gaps in basic and clinical research on the symptoms, causes, and treatment of pain. so chris, congratulations on that achievement, and that important assignment. we look forward to hearing your testimony today. and i'll close again with gratitude to the chairman for allowing me to recognize a native rhode islander who we're very proud of. >> thank you, mr. whitehouse and for your op

those suffering from some of the diseases that christin veasley and others have spoken about are disproportionately affected by their pain. that needs we need a different care model and a different distribution of providers, both primary care physicians working together with specialists, nurses, pharmacists and others on the frontlines, who might work in tandem with those centers, creating new partnerships between them. and we need to pay for those services in a different way. right now there is a disincentive to -- that happens because of our current fee-for-service health care model which doesn't allow enough time for physicians or nurses or others to spend with patients to listen to their stories, gather the information and developing portfolio or planned that is really going to be meaningful for them. that is another area. we think about how the payment system is restructured so we we are notched just paying for expensive services but those that fit the patient. the reality is there are lots of therapies available today. not one particular one is best for all patients and not all are good for a