About ASEAPS

The original 5 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, are chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). After a meeting of the chapter presidents of these countries at the World Congress of Pain in San Diego, California, United States in 2002, a confederation of IASP chapters for the Southeast Asian region was formed, with the aim to improve pain service provision, education, and research in Southeast Asia. The new entity, called the Association of Southeast Asian Pain Societies (ASEAPS), was inaugurated at a meeting of the Pain Association of Singapore in 2004. Biennial regional conferences linked to existing national conferences were organised by ASEAPS members on a rotational basis, with the first ASEAPS congress being held in Manila, Philippines in 2006. In 2011, the Myanmar Society for the Study of Pain became the sixth member of ASEAPS.