McGill Pain Day is the flagship annual event of the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain. It was first started in 1997, some 7 years before the Centre was formally inaugurated, by Catherine Bushnell as a way for the then growing number of pain researchers and trainees at McGill to come together and share their research in a relaxed social environment. It was an immediate hit, and has been very well attended by not only McGill staff and students, but those working in other universities in Quebec and by many healthcare professionals treating patients throughout the province.

While the event is centered on a public lecture given by a leading international pain researcher, it also includes trainee workshops and a poster session, and is intended as a way of bringing the research and clinical communities together to discuss the various challenges of chronic pain.