The Pain Relief Foundation started the Annual Lecture as a Millennium project. Each year an eminent pain physician or scientist is invited to lecture on a topic currently of interest, in pain research or management. The lecture is given each year in honour of a person who contributed much to the field of pain treatment or research during his or her career. A short presentation about their life and work is given before the lecture by a fellow academic or clinician.

The inaugural lecture was given by Russell Portenoy in the year 2000.

Continuing with the theme of Annual Lectures in which we explore all aspects of chronic pain, the 2021 Lecture

56 Years On – Are We Nearer to Closing the Pain Gate? will be presented by Professor Claudia Sommer who is Professor of Neurology at the University of Wurzburg, Germany. She is currently the President of the International Association for the Study of Pain. She holds Neuropathic Pain Clinics and her main research interest is in the pathophysiology of neuropathic  pain. She is active in the development of national and international guidelines, for example on the fibromyalgia syndrome, on neuropathies, neuropathic and facial pain, and on the use of opioids. She has written more than 250 original research papers and more than 100 reviews and book chapters and has edited books on neuropathic and facial pain.

The 2021 Annual Lecture will take place on Thursday 2nd December  and will commence at 5.50pm. Click here to see the full announcement

The Lecture will take place this year virtually via the Zoom platform and you are invited to join the meeting from 5.30pm.  This Lecture will honour the life and work of Professor Ronald Melzack

If you wish to attend, please register with:

Mrs Brenda Hall, Pain Relief Foundation, Clinical Sciences Centre, Aintree University Hospital , Liverpool  L9 7AL

T: 0151 529 5822  F: 0151 529 5821

b.hall@painrelieffoundation.org.uk