On the 10th and 11th March 2026, WSAVA, in collaboration with Animals Asia, held a Pain Summit at the Chengdu Bear Rescue Centre, Chengdu, China. The summit formed the second part of the Teach the Teacher Scholarship, a program run by WSAVA to promote improved pain management in animals globally.
The 2025/2026 recipient of this scholarship was Jing (Max) Wang, a Chinese veterinarian working in Beijing, China. During the 1st part of this program Max spent one month working with Dr. Jo Murrell at Bristol Vet Specialists, UK to learn different approaches to pain management and some time working with Professor Paulo Steagall at Hong Kong City University, Hong Kong to upskill in pain management. Max is already seen as a key opinion leader in pain in China, but the aim of the summit was to promote her knowledge further to the Chinese veterinary community.
On day 1 of the summit Max opened a series of lectures by addressing a group of around 50 Chinese Vets about why managing pain is important and how it can be improved in China. This was followed by lectures from Dr. Tamara Grubb (from the USA), Dr. Jo Murrell (from the UK), Dr. Mandala Hunter Ishikawa (from Vietnam) about managing acute pain, chronification of pain and behavioural assessment of pain respectively. In the afternoon Na (Donna) Tang, and Nan (Irene Ye) spoke about palliative care in China and presented a series of challenging pain cases that they had seen in their clinics recently. The day was a great success, promoting active discussion between the audience and the speakers about pain management practices in China.
On day 2 of the summit a round table discussion was held between the international speakers and the Chinese key opinion leaders, including Max, about challenges that we all face in managing acute and chronic pain in our patients. This provided a great learning opportunity for everyone, particularly for the international speakers to learn from the Chinese experts on how to reduce their reliance on opioids as the backbone of their analgesic strategies.
In the afternoon of day 2 all speakers were lucky to have a tour of the Chengdu Bear Rescue Centre and the Giant Panda Facility in Chengdu.
The Pain Summit was only made possible through financial support from WSAVA, Animals Asia, and the companies Hisun and Nannong Animal Pharmaceutical. We are very grateful for their support of this exciting opportunity to promote best practice in pain management in China.