In 1964 Dr. B. Berthold Wolff and Dr. Thomas G. Kantor started an informal New York Pain Group, which met monthly at the NYU Medical Center. About 30 pain clinicians and researchers from the Greater New York Metropolitan area began to meet to discuss various pain-related research projects and clinical topics. Following the formation of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) in 1973, Dr. John J. Bonica recommended to Dr. Wolff that the group be enlarged to include the New England States, with the additional participation of the Middle Atlantic and the Southern States. Dr. Wolff formed the Eastern Pain Association in 1974, which included all states east of the Rockies. In 1975, the Eastern Pain Association (EPA) as a pain organization became one of the first chapters of the IASP