A little over a decade ago, Dr. Ira Gottlieb was taking part in a roundtable discussion trying to figure out the best way to study new pain medications.

The group was looking for a surgery that is relatively predictable, repetitive, that creates a pretty good amount of pain but may be simpler than a total hip or total knee replacement.

"And the bunionectomy was thought of."

The surgery, which corrects structural deformities between the big toe and foot, is now the standard procedure used for studies of new acute pain medications.

"As we started to do these studies and we started to refine them more and more, it...