A report from the first regional pain medicine symposia in East, Central and Southern African region. (ECSA-R)-“The Rhino Model in Pain Education in Africa.”

T Sharif, J Bugo

Introduction
The 1st Regional pain medicine symposia were held  between the 14th and 18th of November 2011 in 3  cities (Nairobi, Mombasa and Dar-es-salaam), across 2  countries, Kenya and Tanzania. It was funded by the  International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP),  through the IASP developing country education grant  for 2011 and The Aga Khan University Hospital Nairobi (AKUHN). It was organized by faculty from the Pain  Management Unit (PMU) AKUHN. The Pain medicine  educators were from PMU, AKUHN and from Specialists in Pain International Network (SPIN).

The aims of the symposia were to introduce the Rhino  model concept, the theoretical and clinical concepts of  pain medicine, as well as create awareness and stimulate  an interest in pain medicine education and pain research  in ECSA region. At each of the 3 different locations, the same topics and workshops were presented by the speakers, thus ensuring uniformity of the message delivered