A Summary of the Joint Annual Scientific Meeting of the Irish and Northern Irish Pain Societies, 2024
A joint Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) of the Irish Pain Society (IPS) and Northern Ireland Pain Society (NIPS) took place on the 19th October at the O’Brien Centre for Science, University College Dublin, with the central theme of ‘Sex and Gender Disparities in Pain’, reflecting the 2024 Global Year theme of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). The meeting was opened by IPS President, Dr Michelle Roche (Associate Professor in Physiology, and Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research, University of Galway), and NIPS Convenor, Dr. John O’Hanlon (Consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, Belfast Trust), who welcomed invited speakers and delegates to the meeting and thanked all of the meeting exhibitors for their generous sponsorship. Dr Roche also thanked the local organiser, Dr Olga Baron (Assistant Professor, University College Dublin), as well as the members of the IPS Council and administrators Nicola Knowles and Juliana Davis Gonzalez.
Chaired by Dr Brona Fullen (Associate Professor at UCD), the first scientific session began with Prof. Cormac Ryan, Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation at Teeside University UK, giving a passionate and engaging talk emphasising the importance of a public health approach centred around education of patients with chronic pain and presented on The Flippin’ Pain campaign (run by Connect Health, a private provider to the NHS www.flippinpain.co.uk).
Dr Rianne van Boekal (University Lecturer and Care Manager Radboud Expertise Centre of Pain and Palliative Medicine, Netherlands) presented a talk on the incidence and risk factors for development of chronic postsurgical pain and persistent opioid use. Following a comprehensive review of current evidence, she focused on how the introduction of a transitional pain service, predominantly run by nurses given their holistic training alongside anaesthetists and physiotherapists, could identify and address many of the risk factors for chronic postsurgical pain.
Prof. Mark Tully (Professor of Public Health at Ulster University, Belfast) discussed how moving in a setting with social encouragement and accountability led to improved outcomes. His research had shown that older adults were more active due to the personal enjoyment of being in a group, the relief from social isolation, the sense of achievement after exercise, and the change in social identity and development of real friendships.
Highly anticipated developments to pain services across the island dominated the second session, chaired by Dr Hugh Gallagher (Dean of the Faculty of Pain Medicine at the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland). Dr. Lori Lindsay’s (Consultant in Pain Management and Anaesthesia, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast) presentation, ‘It’s a man’s, man’s, man’s world’, focused on enhancing services for chronic pelvic pain, a highly prevalent, female predominant condition, which affects 1 million people in the UK.
Dr. David Moore, (Consultant in Pain Management, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin) followed with a presentation on ‘The Future of Pain Management in Ireland: Designing a Model of Care.’ Echoing the words of Dr Lindsay, Dr Moore stated the inefficiencies and frustration of the traditional pathways of care. He explained that now is the ideal time for redesigning the system, alongside new structural developments, and leadership appointments in the HSE.
Session 3 consisted of a rapid-fire short oral session chaired by Prof David Finn (Established Professor and Head of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Research, University of Galway) and hosted the Irish Pain Research Network. This session, primarily delivered by early-career researchers, reinforced the strong research efforts ongoing across the island of Ireland. It covered a breadth of basic science and clinical pain research, featuring topics such as the beneficial effects of environmental enrichment on pain in rodents, augmented reality for procedure pain, pain assessment strategy for athletes, molecular profiling of intervertebral discs to support precision medicine approaches in low back pain, national survey of screening and referral for depression in patients with low back pain presenting to physiotherapists, sexually dimorphic associations of negative affect in chronic low back pain, auditing of analgesic efficacy and alignment of perioperative analgesia, and evaluation of a virtually delivered interdisciplinary chronic pain education programme.
The fourth session, chaired by Dr Jason Brooks (Consultant Anaesthetist, specialising in Pain Medicine, Belfast Trust), provided insight into pain research in basic science, clinical and translational domains. Prof. Esther Berrocoso (Professor of Pharmacology, University of Cadiz, Spain) presented on ‘Noradrenaline in neuropathic pain and comorbid affective disorders: a double-edged sword.’ Her group interrogates the shared neuroanatomy between chronic pain and emotional-related disorders, using chemogenetic and pharmacological methods, to analyse the impact on functional connectivity and resultant behaviour.
Prof. Edmund Keogh (Professor of Psychology, University of Bath UK) queried how gender identity manifested itself in pain; whether the identity is fixed or whether more fluid and context dependent, and whether there are roles and expectations around how people should display/manage pain. He finished by imploring that in future research, terms are defined, and it is stated clearly when gender, sex, or sex/gender are used.
Dr David Gibson (Senior Lecturer, Ulster University, Derry) described how his data-driven research across chronic disease areas focused on biomarker discovery and development of novel interventions in drugs and devices. Dr Gibson explained the current research in pharmacogenomics with the iMPROVE programme that is addressing increased polypharmacy and poor response/side effects with pharmacogenomic actionable drugs.
The meeting programme also included a series of lively parallel discipline-specific meetingsof (1) Pain Nurses, (2) Pain Physiotherapists, (3) Pain Psychologists, (4) Basic Scientists, as well as workshops focused on Pain Medicine Procedures including neuromodulation, radio-frequency lesioning of facet joint, ultrasound-guided sympathetic block and ultrasound-guided injection of platelet rich plasma into the knee joint. Researchers across Ireland also presented their research at the meeting in poster format, which were on display over the entire conference.
The final session, chaired by Dr Joanne O’Brien (Advanced Nurse Practitioner in the Department of Pain Management, Beaumont Hospital) featured an inspirational presentation from Dr. Shelagh Wright (Chartered Psychologist, Autogenic Trainer, Retired Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife), who spoke about the importance of clinical nurse specialist roles in pain management, and her self-funded work in developing the IASP nursing curriculum into a textbook co-published by SAGE with IASP in 2015.
In recognition of her immense contributions to nursing practice, and to the Irish Pain Society, Dr. Wright was awarded an Honorary Life Membership of the IPS.
