Editor’s note: IASP will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024. Even though the anniversary is still a few years away, it already has us thinking about the history of IASP and the evolution of pain research over the past five decades. So we have begun a new series of podcasts that will cover both of those topics, featuring senior leaders in the field who have made major contributions to pain research and care, including those with major roles at IASP.
Our latest such podcast features Eija Kalso, MD, DMedSci. Dr. Kalso is a specialist in anesthesiology and has a special competence in pain medicine. She works at Helsinki University Hospital with a main affiliation at the University of Helsinki, Department of Pharmacology, and the SLEEPWELL research program. She has been a full professor in pain medicine at the Faculty of Medicine since 2004 and served as vice dean for the faculty from 2010 to 2013. She was elected to the Finnish Academy of Sciences in 2010, and to the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters in 2017.
Dr. Kalso is also the founding president of The Finnish Association for the Study of Pain and a former president of the Scandinavian Association for the Study of Pain, which was replaced by the national Scandinavian IASP chapters. She has served on several committees and on the Council and Executive Committee of IASP, and served as president from 2010 to 2012. Her main research interests include both basic and clinical pharmacology of pain, multidisciplinary pain medicine, genetics of pain, and recently the role of sleep in pain.
In the podcast below, Dr. Kalso speaks with freelance science writer Fred Schwaller, PhD, to discuss her career in the pain field, multidisciplinary pain care, translational research, and her involvement with IASP. The podcast is also available on Spotify here and on Apple Podcasts here. (To listen to other PRF podcasts, visit our podcasts homepage on Spotify here and on Apple Podcasts here.)
Fred Schwaller, PhD, is a freelance science writer based in Germany.