KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 — Malaysian anaesthesiologist Dr Mary Suma Cardosa has become the first Asian president of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), a global organisation dedicated to advancing pain research, education, and treatment.
Dr Cardosa assumed the two-year presidency today during the closing of the 2026 World Congress on Pain in Bangkok, Thailand, succeeding Andrew Rice of the United Kingdom. Her term runs until 2028.
An anaesthesiologist and pain medicine specialist, Dr Cardosa has spent more than three decades developing pain management services and education in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia.
She helped establish the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) first acute pain service in 1993 and Malaysia’s first multidisciplinary pain clinic in 2000. She also spearheaded the Pain Free Hospital initiative, launched in 2011 to improve the recognition and management of pain in health care settings.
