Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 09 August – Andrew S.C. Rice of Imperial College London (UK) assumed his new role as the 20th President of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) at the 2024 World Congress on Pain. He will serve as the first English based president in IASP’s 50-year history.
Professor Rice is a clinical academic active in translational research in neuropathic pain. He is Professor of Pain Research at Imperial College London and Hon. Consultant in Pain Medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He received his medical degree from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1982 and his research doctorate from St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School in 1991 where his supervisor was Prof Steve McMahon. He underwent specialist training in Oxford and at St Thomas’ before joining the academic staff of Imperial College London in 1995, establishing the university’s first pain research group. He leads an interdisciplinary research group which focusses on translational research in neuropathic pain in the context of infectious disease (HIV, leprosy, HTLV-1 and herpes zoster), diabetes, military conflict-related trauma and non-freezing cold injury. Having been active in pre-clinical pain research, he now works on improving the experimental rigour and external validity of animal models and innovating pre-clinical evidence synthesis. Andrew’s clinical research embraces collaborative approaches to multi-modality deep profiling/stratification of neuropathic pain patients with a view to personalised medicine. He is also active in clinical trials and evidence synthesis. He also collaborates with historians on the military medical history of neuropathic pain. Over the years, his research has been funded from many sources, but notably by the European Commission, Wellcome Trust and UKRI (Medical Research Council).
Professor Rice was elected by IASP members to serve as President-Elect from 2022 for a two-year term, and the successful candidate automatically becomes IASP President. He has also had the privilege of serving as liaison to IASP’s chapters in Southeast and South Asia, Chair of IASP’s task force on cannabinoids and pain relief and as Chair of the 2020 World Congress Scientific Programme Committee. During their term, the President-Elect serves as an important voice on the IASP Executive Council, the managing body of the association. Over the last two years, the IASP staff has had the opportunity to work closely with Professor Rice as developed the priorities for his Presidency.
“Andrew has been a great part of IASP’s Council and various committees for many years and his presidency comes and a critical time for IASP. He’s a great partner and leader for the organization and I’m personally looking forward to working with him,” said IASP CEO, Steve Gardner.
As President M. Catherine Bushnell, PhD, handed the gavel over to Professor Rice, marking the end of her term at the IASP World Congress on Pain’s General Assembly, she remarked, “I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the next President of IASP, Andrew Rice. It has been an immense pleasure working with Andrew for the last two years, watching him develop a set of outstanding initiatives that he will now be able to implement. I look forward to continuing working with Andrew as he shapes a new dynamic future for IASP.”
Professor Rice then addressed the assembled body of IASP members and outlined his three primary initiatives for the organization:
- The 2025 Global Year theme will be Pain Management, Research and Education in Low- and Middle-income Settings. The IASP Global Year focuses on a selected aspect of pain to provide resources and to increase awareness within the pain community and beyond.
- The creation of a Presidential Task Force on environmental sustainability in pain research, education and clinical management. This Task Force will create environmental sustainability guidelines for clinical practice, research and education in the pain field. They will also be tasked with assessing the environmental impact of IASP’s institutional activities and recommending mitigation strategies to IASP’s leadership.
- The Presidential Task Force on guidelines for the use of laboratory animals in pain research. This task force will build on the existing work done by IASP members to establish the highest ethical and experimental standards for using animals in a laboratory setting.
The International Association for the study of Pain is the leading international professional association dedicated to study of pain and to translate the knowledge into improving pain relief, with 6,500 members around the world, 24 Special Interest Groups, and 98 national Chapters. For 50 years, IASP has been a leading global authority on pain and continues to be the largest multidisciplinary association in the field of pain.