Welcome Letter

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to invite you to participate in the upcoming 4th European Congress on Clinical Trials in Pain (SOPATE2020) which will take place on 16-17 November 2020 in Vienna, Austria.

Chronic pain is a complex biopsychosocial phenomenon with a variety of heterogeneous clinical manifestations, pain phenotypes and co-morbidities. The management of chronic pain is still a challenge and we desperately need novel therapeutic approaches. In recent years many clinical trials addressing chronic pain failed to meet the trial endpoint despite encouraging data from preclinical research. One reason for this is that clinical trials have deficits in defining the correct inclusion/exclusion criteria, the correct endpoints and measures for clinically meaningful improvement. Furthermore, the concept that a specific treatment is only beneficial for a subgroup of patients and not for the entire group comes more and more into the focus of clinical trial design.

This Congress will bring together researchers, clinicians, industry professionals and other related experts to look at ways of improving the situation by developing better ideas and practices in clinical trials on pain and address medical devices and other interventions in the treatment and management of chronic pain.

The SOPATE2020 program will include a wealth of knowledge from our world renowned panel of experts.

We look forward to seeing you at SOPATE2020 in the beautiful city of Vienna.

Sincerely,

Prof. Ralf Baron & Prof. Elon Eisenberg
Congress Co-Chairs