Cite as: Machi, A. Editor’s corner: the global community of pain medicine. ASRA Pain Medicine News 2024;49. https://doi.org/10.52211/asra080124.003.

As I sit to write to you all, it is June and the beginning of summer. My laptop is open on the tray of an airplane seat traveling 32,000 feet at 500 mph/800 kph. Summer means travel for many of us, and I hope you had the opportunity to have enjoyable travel by the time you read this article in August. This sort of travel reminds me that the world is small, and we are all connected in small ways, including through a global professional community.

With great pleasure, we bring you a historical, global issue of the newsletter incorporating the first truly global article published in the ASRA Pain Medicine News. Teams and individuals representing pain medicine societies from each continent collaborated and contributed to the content of this special problem-based learning discussion. Each section reveals many similarities and interesting differences. The details of each reflect how we all strive to provide the best pain medicine for our patients within the context of our communities, and through these windows, we can begin to appreciate each other’s practices. Going forward, we aim to strengthen our collaboration with our sister societies and grow in practice together.

Against this backdrop, the newsletter presents two additional global health articles by Lena Dohlman and colleagues. These contributions share information and perspectives on regional anesthesia education in developing areas and the practice of regional anesthesia and pain medicine in austere environments. If you find these articles inspire you to action, consider joining the ASRA Pain Medicine Global Health Special Interest Group and connect with colleagues as you venture forth to improve the practice and delivery of pain medicine globally.

The issue also contains several core articles, such as a practice management update regarding changes to coding and payment for neuromodulation procedures and a commentary on the role of anesthesiologists supporting diversity through deliberate organizational and community engagement. There is also a review of the controversial research article Opioid Analgesia for Acute Low Back Pain and Neck Pain (OPAL) by Jones and colleagues. In the review, the authors dissect the study and offer thoughts on limitations, considerations relevant to current practices, and potential future directions.

You will also find an article on the validity and usefulness of nociceptive monitoring. As various devices enter the marketplace, understanding how they operate and what they can deliver is increasingly important.

To round out the issue, there are articles detailing information on research grant awardees and the literature review. Sharing knowledge on a global platform provides a unique opportunity to learn from each other and appreciate the diversity of perspectives. We hope you enjoy reading and learning from these articles as much as we have enjoyed preparing them for you.

As always, please email me at ASRAeditor@asra.com with your ideas and comments.