ASRA Pain Medicine annually recognizes someone who has made important contributions to our specialty through our Distinguished Service Award (DSA). Past recipients of the DSA have made extraordinary contributions to the science, teaching, or practice of regional anesthesia and/or pain medicine and often have had active involvement in ASRA Pain Medicine.
The DSA celebrates individuals who have made broad contributions over time. The individual's contributions may have resulted in any one (or several) of the following:
- Growth of a subspecialty of regional anesthesia or pain medicine
- Evolution of the knowledge base that guides practice
- Enhancement of education programs
- Significant changes in governance or the political milieu for regional anesthesia or pain medicine
- New understanding of pain mechanisms or of regional anesthesia
- Improved patient care, satisfaction, and outcome.
As noted above, these contributions could include scholarly activity (remember that the Gaston Labat and John Bonica Awards specifically recognize scholarly activity), but may also celebrate clinical teaching or service to ASRA Pain Medicine or the scientific and medical
specialties practiced by members. Individuals who have received ASRA Pain Medicine’s Gaston Labat or John Bonica Awards are not disqualified from receiving
the DSA. Current members of the Board of Directors are not eligible (see full list here).
Nominations must be made using the DSA nomination form. Two to three reasons why the candidate meets the criteria for the award are required, along with a copy of the individual's CV. If necessary, ASRA Pain Medicine can request a copy of the CV from the nominee.
Hariharan Shankar, MD
2024 Distinguished Service Award Recipient
Colin McCartney, MBChB, PhD, FRCA
2024 Distinguished Service Award Recipient
Past Winners
| 1988 | B. Raymond Fink, MD |
| 1989 | L. Donald Bridenbaugh, MD |
| 1990 | Gertie Marx, MD |
| 1991 | Harold Carron, MD |
| 1992 | John A. Hinckley & Jess B. Weiss, MD |
| 1993 | Jordan Katz, MD |
| 1994 | Albert Van Steenberg, MD |
| 1995 | Hans Nolte, MD |
| 1996 | John A. DeKrey, MD & Gerard W. Ostheimer, MD |
| 1997 | Terence M. Murphy, MD |
| 1998 | Boardman C. Wang, MD |
| 1999 | Michael Stanton-Hicks, MD |
| 2000 | Narinder Rawal, MD, PhD |
| 2001 | Stephen E. Abram, MD |
| 2002 | Jose C.A. Carvalho, MD, PhD, FANZCA |
| 2003 | Andre Van Zundert, MD, PhD |
| 2004 | Denise J. Wedel, MD |
| 2005 | P. Prithvi Raj, MD & Alon P. Winnie, MD |
| 2006 | Lynn M. Broadman, MD |
| 2007 | John C. Rowlingson, MD |
| 2008 | David Brown, MD |
| 2009 | Terese Horlocker, MD |
| 2010 | Honorio Benzon, MD |
| 2011 | Guy Weinberg, MD |
| 2012 | James Eisenach, MD |
| 2013 | Richard Rosenquist, MD |
| 2014 | F. Michael Ferrante, MD |
| 2015 | Manbir Batra, MD |
| 2016 | Santhanam Suresh, MD |
| 2017 | Vincent W.S. Chan, MD, FRCPC |
| 2018 | Greg Liguori, MD |
| 2019 | Mark J. Lema, MD, PhD |
| 2020 | Joseph M. Neal, MD & Marc Huntoon, MD |
| 2021 | F. Kayser Enneking, MD |
| 2022 | Ban C.H. Tsui, MD |
| 2023 | Edward R. Mariano, MD, MAS, FASA |
| 2024 | Colin McCartney, MBChB, PhD, FRCA & Hariharan Shankar, MD |