PAINWeek 2026: Weaving the Threads of Pain Management

There is something special about PAINWeek beyond the obvious Vegas setting and the usual conference buzz of caffeinated colleagues sprinting from session to session, having hallway catchups, poster discoveries, and so on. Maybe it is because PAINWeek understands something fundamental about pain management: there is no single thread that tells the whole story. Hence the 2026 theme, Weaving the Threads of Pain Management. Twenty solid years of interprofessional pain management conferencing, and they are obviously doing something right.

Opening Strong With a Transformative Keynote and Reception

Michael Oshinsky, PhD, kicked off the conference with the keynote "Transformation of Pain Medicine" to look at the advances shaping pain research and clinical care, while raising a bigger question: Where exactly are we going?

Directly afterwards, invigorated attendees strolled into the opening reception in the exhibit hall to end up talking about pharmacology at one booth, neuromodulation at another, and digital therapeutics around the corner, only to then discuss the practical realities of implementing any of it in an actual clinic. Pain management is no longer simply about choosing a medication. It is about connecting it all as different threads, all leading to helping one patient.

New Faces, Familiar Voices, and Fresh Perspectives

Part of the annual gravitational pull to PAINWeek resonates as the returning faculty, the clinician educators who have become part of the conference's DNA. These folks bring something uniquely valuable: continuity and vibrance. They know the audience and the questions clinicians are asking. They know which controversies refuse to die, and they return each year with new evidence, new cases, and new perspectives. Mix in some fresh faculty faces, and you have yourself a conference adventure.

Did the conference address our minds and movement? You bet. Les Aria, PhD, and David Cosio, PhD, ABPP, represented pain psychologists with their decades of experience while being no strangers to a conference stage. Mai Huong, PT, DPT, led an invigorating movement workshop where fellow clinicians literally got their bodies moving (talk about a great way to start a conference day) along with various interprofessional efforts.

Everyone is talking about psychedelics, yet who actually spoke about them? Eugene Vortsman, DO, has become one of the sources for all things pain, addiction, overdose, psychedelics, and the list goes on. Peter H. Addy, PhD, LPC, LMHC, joined the conference stage to also review ketamine in clinical practice, along with some pearls regarding technology and communities.

Did you know that pins on our ears could help with pain? Well, Michael Salas, MD, and colleagues went there to discuss auricular acupuncture, deeper than the needles themselves.

Was there any faculty with television experience? Of course. Mel Pohl, MD, known for authoring several pain books and his PBS documentary, "The Pain Antidote," joined colleagues to discuss interprofessional care amongst various pain and addiction themes. Jeff Gudin, MD, brought medication television ad appearance experience (and vast expertise) to the PAINWeek stage throughout the week as usual.

Think you can find the pain specialist who has been an integral part of (or even led) just about any international interventional pain management effort without traveling any of West Virginia's country roads (go ahead, let the song ring in your ears for a bit). You guessed it, Tim Deer, MD, was on stage at PAINWeek, and many enjoyed the chance to meet up.

Would you agree that the odds are in one's favor of being quite the expert if they teach at Harvard? Perhaps that is jumping to conclusions, yet Paul Mathew, MD, brought a wealth of knowledge from Cambridge to not only crack the code of team-based pain care but also provide a hands-on workshop for migraine injections.

Speaking of amazing docs, Sergey Motov, MD, FAAEM, took center stage for many presentations, including interprofessional weaving with Gudin; Martha Roberts, ACNP-BC; Jessica Geiger, PharmD, MS, BCPS; and Cosio to provide attendees with a scope of how interprofessional care can prevent acute pain from turning chronic, amongst many other pearls.

Pharmacists: Weaving Medication Management Into the Tapestry

Because medications remain one of the biggest, and most tangled, threads in pain management, PAINWeek 2026 once again puts pharmacists front and center.

Elicia DeParolesa, PharmD, IHP, came in hot to navigate attendees through integrative-health perspectives from acute pain to chronic pain and everything in between, even pharmacogenetics.

Paige Mathew, PharmD, BCPS, BCGP, brought another important pharmacy thread: translating opioid stewardship into actual patient care. She translated her vast Veterans Affairs health system experience and leadership to tackle multidisciplinary care, pediatrics, and geriatrics, while also presenting a poster involving suzetrigine (Journavx) prescribing patterns.

William Amarquaye, PharmD, took on another rapidly changing dimension of care: opioid use disorder and overdose. He dynamically collaborated on stage to bring impactful pearls focusing on buprenorphine, naloxone, and beyond, taking on stigma head-on.

Returning PAINWeek favorite Jeffrey Bettinger, PharmD, kept one foot firmly planted in today's complicated patient scenarios while putting the other into tomorrow's therapeutics through a handful of team presentations along with Gudin and Bob Raffa, PharmD—seriously some of the most incredible sources of novel pain therapeutics data.

Speaking of well-known pain pharmacist voices, Geiger dissected opioid stewardship and multimodal pain treatment and even teamed up with Paul Christo, MD, MBA, the host of Aches and Gains on SiriusXM, yes, the satellite radio available across our planet. Need any more evidence of PAINWeek being the "room where it happens" for all things pain management?

Yours truly, Mark "Pain Guy" Garofoli, PharmD, once again decided that sleep in Las Vegas was overrated while being a part of 8 distinct presentations and an artificial intelligence pain education poster. This included talking about opioid optimization (how Motov best describes opioid stewardship), pain management across the lifespan (pediatric, adult, and the older years), cannabis (did you really think no one would talk about Bruno in Vegas nonetheless?), interprofessional pain care, and substance use disorder (addiction), all while teaming up with amazing experts including MDs, DOs, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, PhDs, and, of course, pharmacists. This is the absolute essence of PAINWeek.

Posters: Where the Next Thread Begins

Joe Pergolizzi, MD, and Raffa have done a fantastic job organizing PAINWeek's poster session for the past 20 years. All conference poster sessions have some basic components, but only a handful proceed like PAINWeek to connect attendees with the companies, researchers, academics, and even patients alike in one happening room tucked away from the glitz and glamour of the strip, yet just as exciting.

The Wrap-Up Keynote

And after a week of education, networking, caffeine, hallway conversations, exhibit-hall discoveries, and probably a few "I can't believe I just learned that" moments, PAINWeek closed with Elvis Francois, MD, attempting to harmonize the future of pain care to include medicine, collaboration, emerging technology, and, of course, music—an epic ending, to say the least.

Vegas, Baby

All that diversity matters. The future of pain management will be woven together by all clinicians, researchers, technologists, and patients alike. That is the PAINWeek thread that fills the venue year after year, and that is what PAINWeek does best. It does not hand us one answer or thread. It helps us weave a better one. The Vegas menus, incredible shows, relaxing spas, and whatever else in the world one could want after a day at a conference are all footsteps away, but it is the people who bring folks year after year. See you at PAINWeek 2027 on the Vegas Strip.