James P. Rathmell, M.D.
Chief, Division of Pain Medicine Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Professor of Anesthesia Harvard Medical School
 The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine is honored to present James P. Rathmell, M.D.. as the 2011 John J. Bonica Lecturer. Nominees for this award, like Dr. Bonica, have demonstrated their passion for pain medicine through their contributions by way of research, teaching and/or clinical practice.
Dr. Rathmell is currently Vice Chair and Chief, Division of Pain Medicine, at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Pain Medicine and an Associate Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. He devotes the majority of his time to direct clinical care of patients with acute, chronic, and cancer-related pain.
Before moving to MGH/Harvard in 2006, Dr. Rathmell spent the majority of his academic career as a member of the faculty in the Department of Anesthesia at the University of Vermont, where he rose through the academic ranks to become a Professor of Anesthesia.
Dr. Rathmell completed his medical studies at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and his internship in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the North Carolina Baptist Hospitals. He continued his training at North Carolina Baptist Hospital with a residency in anesthesiology, where he concentrated in cardiovascular anesthesia and pain management during his final year of training.
With a focus on education, both at the local and national level, Dr. Rathmell has been a leader in medical school, residency, and fellowship training programs. He has served as the President of the Association of Pain Program Directors. He led the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) task force in the 2006 revision of the Program Requirements for Training guidelines for pain management. He is active in the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA), serving on the Board of Directors, as an oral board examiner, and as a member and co-chair of the pain exam editors committee. He lectures widely in the U.S. and internationally and has delivered several hundred lectures to audiences of students, medical professionals, and the public.
Dr. Rathmell’s research work has included a mixture of investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored trials examining the effectiveness of new and emerging treatments for pain. He has published widely, including two recent textbooks: Atlas of Image-Guided Intervention in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine and Complications in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. |
The John J. Bonica Award honors the abundant contributions that Dr. Bonica made to the field of pain medicine. Dr. Bonica developed a deep empathy for patients afflicted with intractable pain. He was determined to help them manage their pain better. He was one of the first scientists to realize that acute pain and chronic pain were distinct entities and should, therefore be treated differently. He acknowledged that managing a patient’s suffering was not the same as treating a patient’s pain. He championed the collaboration of specialists from multiple disciplines in the evaluation and treatment of patients with chronic pain. Dr. Bonica truly believed that all practitioners involved must understand the anatomy, physiology, and psychology of the patient with chronic pain in order to provide the most comprehensive and appropriate care. He earnestly believed that education of the professionals caring for patients with chronic pain was a vital force for favorably changing the quality of the patient’s life.