Drawn to the Pain Field Not by the Science, but by the Patients

<p><strong><em>Editor’s Note</em></strong><em>: 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 are beginning 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 and/or to IASP.</em></p> <p><em>In our first such podcast, pioneering pain researcher and IASP honorary member <strong>Howard Fields, MD, PhD</strong>, an emeritus professor at the University of California, San Francisco, reminisces about the International Symposium on Pain, a 1973 meeting held in Issaquah, Washington, that would lead to the formation of IASP; the advent of the gate control theory of pain and what the pain research landscape was like at that time; his career path; and why he’s excited about the future of pain research.</em></p>