Equitable Pain Care: Cultural Consideration from High-Income to Low-Income Settings

Dr. Gauhar Afshan is The Tajdin Hussein Jaffer Endowed Professor of Anaesthesia & Pain Medicine

Aga Khan University (AKU), Pakistan. She is the founder of the multidisciplinary pain setup in Pakistan & former chair, Department of Anaesthesiology and is currently heading section of Pain Medicine, at AKU. She is Deputy Chair of the Pain Management Committees, World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA), member 2025 Global Year Task Force IASP, and Convener Pain Medicine, College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP).  

She is the recipient of many national & international grants and is involved in several leading multi-disciplinary pain research projects.  She is the author of more than 170 peer reviewed publications and serves as reviewer and member, editorial board of many national and international journals.

Dr. Razia Bhatti-Ali has worked in a variety of job roles in the NHS and private sector as well as working as an academic in a University. Razia is also a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with a Pain Management service and has successfully developed an ACT-based Urdu Pain Management Program (PMP) for Muslim service users.

Razia also created a digital Urdu version to increase access to the intervention and published the work as a book chapter and, more recently, as a book for clinical practitioners working in chronic pain. Razia is also an author of several children’s books.

Dr. Bernadette Brady is a clinician-researcher with expertise in musculoskeletal and pain physiotherapy at Liverpool Hospital, SWSLHD. Named Allied Health Professional of the Year at the 2024 NSW Health Excellence in Allied Health Awards, Bernadette’s clinical and research interests hold a dual focus on health equity and translational research. Supported by a Clinical Research Fellowship awarded from SPHERE (2020-2023) and conjoint senior lecturer affiliations with The University of Sydney and Western Sydney University, Dr Brady leads a team of clinicians, consumers and multicultural health officers to embed research in their clinical practice and explore initiatives focused on equity, service navigation and consumer empowerment. Bernadette’s research expertise is largely focused on community participatory methods, codesign and qualitative research and she is a developing implementation scientist. 

Dr. Onica Tiffany Higgins-Gill is an Anaesthesiologist, Intensivist, and Pain Management Specialist at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation(GPHC) and the University of Guyana, where she serves as Adjunct Professor of Anaesthesia, Pain Management, and Palliative Medicine.

She brings over thirteen years of combined clinical and academic experience in anaesthesia, critical care, and pain medicine, with a strong focus on advancing equitable and culturally sensitive models of care in resource-limited settings. A Chronic Pain Management Fellow (McMaster University, Canada), Dr. Higgins-Gill integrates clinical expertise, education, and mentorship to strengthen patient-centred practice and healthcare systems.

Her professional interests include pain education, interventional pain therapies, critical care development, and health policy formulation. She has contributed to institutional protocol development at GPHC, supervised research on pain and perioperative care, and actively promotes context-specific, team-based approaches to improving pain management and patient outcomes in low-and middle-income countries.

Dr. Lakha is a researcher and educator specializing in global health, chronic pain, and digital health. She lead studies on digital tools for marginalized communities and self-reported healthcare data. She has served on the IASP ECN Governance Task Force and co-authored the IASP Fact Sheet on pain research in LMICs. Her work combines evaluation, research, and patient-centered care to advance healthcare equity.

Dr. Lawange is mentor for Fellowship Program in Pain at Same College. She is also a visiting Consultant at Max Hospitals. Dr Sunita passed her MBBS and completed MD in Anaesthesiology in 1991. She is Fellow of Indian Academy of Pain Medicine(FIAPM), Fellow of Interventional Pain Medicine(FIPM), FIPP, CIPM. 

Dr Sunita was President of Indian Society For Study of Pain (2024-25) at National Level. She is President of Society for Study of Pain , Nagpur City Branch. She has represented India at IASP as President of ISSP at Amsterdam last year. 

She has many chapters in Chronic Pain to her credit and many publications at various national and international Pain Journals.

Dr. Mendis is a Consultant in Pain Management at Spire Hartswood and Spire Wellesley Hospitals in Essex and has been a Consultant in Pain Medicine and Anaesthetics at Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust since 2005. He is Regional Advisor to the North Thames Region of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, Royal College of Anaesthetists, and Clinical Director for Pain Services at Mid and South Essex University Hospitals.

He provides a wide range of interventional pain treatments, with a patient-centred approach focused on thorough assessment, diagnosis, and care. Trained in London, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine, he graduated from Vinnitsa Medical Academy in 1990, completed an MD in Anaesthesia in 1998, and obtained his CCST and Fellowship in Pain Medicine in the UK.

He serves on international advisory boards, speaks at global scientific meetings, and contributes to awareness campaigns on chronic pain.

Dr. Zinbonyahgoon completed medical school at Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand in 2001. His residencies include Anesthesiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA (2015) and Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University (2007). He also completed a fellowship in Pain Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine in Portland, OR (2016). He is board certified in Pain Medicine (2016) and Anesthesiology (2015) by American boards, and holds a Thai Board certification in Anesthesiology (2007).