Editor’s note: The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), PRF’s publisher, recently made the difficult decision to postpone the World Congress on Pain until next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the following message to the PRF community, IASP President Lars Arendt-Nielsen, Dr. Med., PhD, discusses the decision and its effect on IASP members, which include many PRF readers, as well as the work IASP will be doing in the interim to provide content and resources to the community. See his message below.
Recently, IASP announced that the 2020 World Congress on Pain has been rescheduled for 27 June – 1 July 2021, after careful evaluation of the options and issues. In early March, we began to weigh the risks of continuing to plan a global meeting in the midst of this uncertainty. Foremost in our thoughts was the health and well-being of the global pain community at this unprecedented time, including all IASP members, many of whom are also PRF readers, as well as the entire PRF community. PRF is a vital resource for pain investigators and a highly valued part of the IASP family of publications, and we were intensely aware that the pandemic was greatly affecting the researchers who form the core of the PRF audience.
On the clinical side, we had received regular reports from IASP members in the virus epicenters that they were being redirected to the front lines of fighting the virus in their communities, and we watched local and federal governments begin to shut down commercial, scientific, and sporting events. On the research side, we also recognized the effects the pandemic was having on labs throughout the world, with many of them having to indefinitely curtail or shutter their activities. Like everyone, we have been keenly aware of global health experts projecting months of disruption due to the pandemic.
We see how incredibly collaborative and generous our community is, so we were not surprised to hear stories of our clinicians and other members assisting in any way they could with this crisis, from shifting their pain clinic work to telemedicine, and volunteering to assist in the emergency rooms and ICUs with stricken patients. We are also appreciative of how quickly research labs, including those that are so well represented on PRF, are adjusting on the fly to this new reality, and working hard to ensure the continuity of the labs and keeping lab members connected to each other until normal operations can resume.
Despite it all, IASP remains committed to sharing information and education on pain even in this extraordinary time when face-to-face meetings are not possible, including through IASP's Pain Education Resource Center (PERC) and PRF. For example, IASP will begin to provide regular virtual offerings this fall, with workshops, posters, and symposia. While they will not replace the volume of information that attendees would get at the World Congress, nor the networking opportunities that are available there, these initiatives will provide information on some of the cutting-edge science and offer opportunities for interaction until we are all able to meet again in person in June 2021. They will also nicely complement the online educational opportunities that PRF provides to all of you, including PRF’s new series of weekly seminars to be launched next month. As another example, PAIN has just released a freely available, expedited review article on factors to consider in using eHealth approaches to the management of patients with chronic pain during the pandemic.
It is clear that the pandemic is having direct and indirect effects on all disciplines in pain care and research around the world; these effects are familiar to all of you by now. At this time it is imperative that we as the global pain community stay united and explore ways in which we can help and support each other, and ensure that pain management and pain research remain on the political agenda.
IASP remains deeply committed to our members and the entire PRF community, and will continue to provide you with updates in this unprecedented time. As the global organization for the pain community, we take our leadership role seriously, and will continue to meet our mission of working together for pain relief around the world.
Finally, I would like to thank those of you who have sacrificed time with loved ones, self-care, and your safety to provide care to those infected. Your hard work is much appreciated.
As always, thank you for your continued support of IASP and the IASP Pain Research Forum, and we look forward to sharing updates on the World Congress and fall programs.
Lars Arendt-Nielsen, Dr. Med., PhD