Plenary Session 6
| Friday, April 16, 2027 |
| 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM |
| Arena 1B |
Speaker
Prof David Spanswick
Professor Of Neuroscience
Monash University
In search of therapeutic strategies for neuropathic pain: from rodent to human and back again
10:45 AM - 11:30 AMPresentation Overview
Neuropathic pain, resulting from damage or insult to the nervous system, comes in many forms and affects an overwhelming number of people globally. Functional re-organisation of the sensory nervous system and abnormal neural activity are characteristic features of neuropathic pain. Here, mechanisms contributing to neuronal hyper-excitability at the level of the human, non-human primate and rodent dorsal horn of the spinal cord will be described, providing new insights into potential strategies to target this debilitating condition. Examples of strategies designed to suppress aberrant electrical activity in neuropathic pain, at different stages of clinical development, will also be described.
Biography
Dave Spanswick graduated from University of East Anglia, UK in 1986 (B.Sc).
He then obtained his PhD at University of Birmingham, studying neurophysiology. He remained in Birmingham as a Post-doctoral research fellow in Steve Logans group before moving to work in Canada with Leo Renauds group and Japan with Syogoro Nishi, Hideho Higashi, Hiroe Inokuchi and Megumu Yoshimura. He subsequently returned to the UK as a lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Aberdeen before taking a sabbatical at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge and Parke-Davis.
He was appointed a senior lecturer, University of Warwick in 2000 and Professor of Molecular Neuroscience at Warwick Medical School in 2004. He arrived at the Department of Physiology, Monash University in October 2011.
Dr Michelle Meiring
Head Of Division
University of Cape Town - Paediatric Palliative Care division
Cry the Beloved Continent: Research and Reflections on Paediatric Pain Management in Sub-Saharan Africa
11:30 AM - 12:15 PMPresentation Overview
Hailed as one of the greatest South African novels ever published, Cry the Beloved Country was written by Alan Paton in 1948 in pre-apartheid South Africa. This poetic book (initially published in the USA and banned in SA) has been turned into plays, films and musicals and remains widely read across the world. It follows the story of two fathers- a black father whose son is hanged for the murder of a white man’s son. United in their grief, the book tells the story about a deeply compassionate relationship that ends up developing between the two fathers as they both seek to make sense of their shared pain and loss. The book is on one hand a lament and sorrowful cry for the situation in South Africa and on the other hand a yearning cry to the international community for a better future.
What if the pain of Africa’s children was lamented in the form of real-life stories and the compassionate responses to pain management led by passionate champions told to provide glimmers of hope?
This plenary presentation reviews the results of scoping reviews and research studies that appraise the current status of paediatric pain management in Africa. These numbing statistics are brought to life by real-life stories of children in pain from the coalface interspersed with stories of hope from the practitioners that are seeking to change this narrative across the continent.
The presentation ends with a call to action, for a global response to end the inequalities in access to pain management for children across the world by coming together in our shared empathy for the beloved continent.
What if the pain of Africa’s children was lamented in the form of real-life stories and the compassionate responses to pain management led by passionate champions told to provide glimmers of hope?
This plenary presentation reviews the results of scoping reviews and research studies that appraise the current status of paediatric pain management in Africa. These numbing statistics are brought to life by real-life stories of children in pain from the coalface interspersed with stories of hope from the practitioners that are seeking to change this narrative across the continent.
The presentation ends with a call to action, for a global response to end the inequalities in access to pain management for children across the world by coming together in our shared empathy for the beloved continent.
Biography
Dr Michelle Meiring is a Palliative Care Paediatrician who has worked in this field for over 20 years. She is the founder and outgoing CEO of Paedspal, an NGO that provides a consultative paediatric palliative care service to public and private hospitals in Cape Town. Michelle has just moved into a fulltime Academic post at the University of Cape Town where she heads up the Division of Paediatric Palliative Care overseeing under and postgraduate training and research in PPC. She has presented at several local and international conferences and is one of 4 editors of the next edition of the Oxford Textbook on Palliative Care for Children. A long-standing child health and palliative care advocate since her “Paeds HIV-days”. Dr Meiring is on the advocacy portfolio for the SA Children’s Palliative care network known as PatchSA. She is also involved at provincial, national land hospital levels in policy making in Paediatric Palliative Care in South Africa.
