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Introduction The 2019 Annual Meeting of the Eastern Pain Association provided a clear foundation for the future of pain medicine as it heralded the year 2020. The best way to optimally manage chronic pain patients of the future is for pain professionals to go back  to our past as a multidisciplinary discipline. The multimechanistic, multimodal and multidisciplinary approach lies at the heart of  Eastern Pain Association's mission as a multidisciplinary society that is dedicated to disseminating scientific knowledge as it relates to pain medicine through improved pathophysiological understanding, discovery of new therapeutic targets and interventions to improve patient outcomes.Moderation and a combination approach are key. We are not allowing the field of pain to be reduced to pro vs anti-opioid or pro vs anti-interventional pain wars. The focus is to gain a deeper understanding of our patients' pain through improved knowledge, and the abstracts presented at the Eastern Pain Association's 2019 Annual Meeting are a small step in that direction.The three award-winning abstracts that are presented here give us a glimpse into what the future holds, from improved understanding of chronic pain mechanisms to further progress in the field of regenerative medicine. Enjoy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the case of a 27-year-old male with grade II knee osteoarthritis (OA) that was intraarticularly injected with a 2 mL umbilical cord-derived Wharton's jelly (UC-derived WJ) formulation. The patients' baseline radiographs were taken and baseline numeric pain rating scale (NPRS), knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS), 7-point Likert scale, and a 36-item short form survey (SF-36) were recorded. The NPRS was re-recorded immediately after the injection, and at 24 h, 48 h, 1 week, 6 weeks, and at 3 months follow-up post-injection. The KOOS and 7-point Likert scale was re-recorded at the patients' 1week, 6 week, and 3month follow-up, and SF-36 was re-recorded at 3 months. A final set of X-rays were also performed at 3 months follow-up post-injection. No adverse effects from the injection were reported over the duration of the study. No significant difference nor progression in OA on X-rays compared to baseline was observed. NPRS decreased by 50% and the 7-point Likert scale increased to Extremely Satisfied. KOOS increased overall by 10% and the SF-36 overall change was 25%. These results indicate the potential application of UC-derived WJ in the treatment of knee OA. Larger, long term, non-randomized and randomized control trials are warranted to adequately assess the safety and efficacy of UC-derived WJ and ultimate clinical use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]