painSTAR 2024 Delegate Report

By Meredith Smith

Meredith is a physiotherapist who recently submitted her PhD the topic “Tailoring Chronic Pain Assessment to Children and Young People with Cerebral Palsy” at the University of Adelaide. Meredith works clinically at Novita and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and is a lecturer in Physiotherapy at the University of Adelaide.

I had the great privilege of attending painSTAR 2024 in the Barossa Valley. I had heard great reports of painSTAR from previous attendees and was keen to attend and learn as much as I could. I didn’t really know what to expect in terms of the format and experience, so my goals for attending were quite basic. Firstly, to learn more about the general pain research world in Australia and secondly, to meet others who were at a similar career stage to me. At the time of painSTAR I was finishing off my PhD thesis and becoming acutely aware of the need to think more actively about future opportunities, so it seemed to come at a good time.

A highlight of painSTAR for me was meeting the other attendees and faculty. The diversity in the group was extraordinary and one of the real strengths of the time away. I am a clinician and academic, so loved meeting those who were doing clinical research and hearing about some of the challenges and privileges of their contexts. At the same time, I (unexpectedly!) loved learning more about basic science and particularly meeting colleagues in these areas. It helps so much to understand the research pipeline and the importance of having great researchers at every stage to ensure findings can eventually be successfully embedded in clinical practice.

painSTAR really helped me to start thinking properly about post PhD opportunities, including non-traditional pathways such as clinical academia or industry research. The opportunity to chat with others about some of the unique challenges and privileges of different areas (i.e. clinical research, traditional academic roles, industry roles) and to hear from the faculty who have worked in those fields was a unique opportunity and perfectly timed for me.  

painSTAR provided an easy and natural way to ‘network’ – which is not usually my favourite activity! It is lovely to now have authentic connections with people across Australia who are also passionate about progressing pain research, and to know there will likely be opportunities in the future to collaborate.

Declaration
Meredith Smith has nothing to declare.