Dear Colleagues and Friends

This last year was a very traumatic time when the World Institute of Pain had to cancel the World Congress in Seoul, Korea. It was going to be one of the best but circumstances of international events and nuclear concerns over the unknown extent of the earthquake-related nuclear disaster in Japan raised concern over the issues of travel. It certainly is our hope and determination to keep the possibility of going back to Seoul very much alive. However, one problem led to looking for rapid solutions and through the leadership of the president, Ricardo Ruiz-Lopez, and the local arrangement chairman, Ira Fox, the replacement site turned out to be a remarkable triumph for our WIP membership, cohesiveness and the important task of continuing to learn, teach and listen for ways to improve taking care of our patients. Through the hard work of all involved, a potential major loss in wasted time and finances was converted into a major victory largely due to leadership of Dr. Richard Rauck, chairman of the Scientific Program Committee, and other key people, Jose Rodriguez, Maarten van Kleef, Sang Chul Lee, James Rathmell and Tony Yaksh.

I am happy to report that the Fellow in Interventional Pain Practice (FIPP) has continued to flourish and grown. We are now 702 strong.

The stories we hear from our growing number of Fellows indicate the amazing growth of knowledge, confidence and respect that is given by our medical communities and patients alike. The WIP website makes the list of FIPPs names readily available, especially to patients that wish to be reassured about the qualifications of physicians. The Examination Board has in the person of Miles Day a true leader for quality, evaluation of knowledge and confirming all the above through the awarding of the FIPP.

The 17th Annual Advanced Interventional Pain Conference and Practical Workshop September 3-4, 2012, in Budapest is going to be a new excitement for those that have the FIPP or the ones that are purely expanding their knowledge base. New information is coming all the time. New evidence through prospective randomized studies and multi-center studies confirms the effectiveness of interventional pain procedures. This year has also been the time of maximum awareness of the large mortality from prescription narcotic medications. Also, the relevance of monitoring has resulted in reduced mortality and diversion; therefore, the topic is included in the Scientific Program.

Dr. James Heavner is again heavily involved in the Scientific Program, planning and organization. The local arrangements chairman, Dr. Edit Racz, is the motor behind the success of the Budapest Conference. Our sponsors deserve our maximum “thank you” as we must work together to bring out the knowledge and information for the safety and efficacy of the techniques and equipment used. New and exciting developments are coming to us and our patients from neuromodulation. In order to bring the participants up on the most recent information, we are including a new program where the major sponsors and participants in the field of Neuromodulation will be given an opportunity to present technical information directly to the audience.

We have always been extremely conscious of budgetary considerations and concerns; however, our days are so busy working that the social interaction at the dinners has become an important aspect of meeting old friends and making new friends and contacts. One example of such activity is when through the magic of the internet, a doctor can contact a doctor that he knows to be expert and ask for advice about a patient’s severe pain problem and several months later, the feed back comes that the patient has done extremely well as a result of that communication with a friendship formed in Budapest.

The Budapest Conference is also the site for the meetings of the WIP Executive Board and the WIP Foundation. Prithvi Raj, the president of the Foundation is forever busily pushing for outreach activities to improve the treatment of patients suffering from intractable pain with Serdar Erdine, our immediate past president, as well as the WIP Board, ably assisting him. I am mentioning this because we can all play a role in matching serious need with unappreciated potentially available resources. We can all join in helping our friends and colleagues to better take care of suffering pain patients. For the first time, at the World Congress in Miami, we had industrial contributors to the Foundation. We must look for sponsors and contributors, financial and otherwise, to help to solve the forever need.

I fully expect that the quality of our Scientific Program and the desire to learn, teach and share information among ourselves will produce another successful Budapest Advanced Interventional Pain Conference program as well as expand our growing numbers of FIPPs worldwide.

Budapest is still vivacious, beautiful and is waiting for you to come back again. See you there!

With best personal wishes to all of you,