Joshua Prager (doctor)

For other people of the same name, see Joshua Prager (disambiguation).

Joshua P. Prager File:Joshua Prager portrait.jpg President, North American Neuromodulation Society In office 2005–2007 Preceded by Richard North, M.D. Succeeded by Jaimie Henderson, M.D. Chair, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)SIG, International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) In office 2008–2012 Preceded by Michael Stanton-Hicks, M.D. Succeeded by Candida McCabe Ph.D, R.N. Chair, Neuromodulation Therapy Access Coalition In office 2005–2010 Preceded by (was Founding Chair) Succeeded by David Kloth, M.D. President, Board of Governors, Stanford Medical Alumni Association In office 2001–2002 Preceded by Hewlett Lee, M.D. Succeeded by Newt Harband, M.D. President, UCLA House Officers Association In office June 1982 – December 1983 Preceded by Lawrence Presant, M.D. Succeeded by Pamela Boyer, M.D. President, Harvard Graduate Student Council In office 1974–1975 Preceded by Robert Sorbello Succeeded by John Byrne Personal details Born (1949-12-04) December 4, 1949 New York, New York Nationality American Occupation Physician

Joshua Philip Prager MD MS is an American physician. Dr. Prager specializes in pain medicine. He is a past president of the North American Neuromodulation Society(NANS). and serves as Senior Advisor to the Executive Board of the society. He served two consecutive two year terms as Chair of the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). He served on the Board of Directors of the International Neuromodulation Society (INS). He was founder of the Neuromodulation Therapy Access Coalition (NTAC), a coalition of national and international physician organizations and other stakeholders dedicated to insuring patient access to neuromodulation. He serves as Liaison Board Member between NANS and the INS.

Life and research

After undergraduate and graduate studies in Stony Brook University, and Harvard where he served as the President of the Harvard Graduate Student Council, Dr. Prager graduated from Stanford University with M.D. as well as M.S. in Management/Health Services Research in 1981. He completed training in internal medicine at UCLA before completing training in anesthesiology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) at Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine. He has served on the full-time faculty at MGH at Harvard Medical School and at UCLA School of Medicine where he served as Director of the UCLA Pain Medicine Center. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine.

Dr. Prager has authored numerous scientific publications and book chapters in pain management, especially on complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), intrathecal pumps, and spinal cord stimulators. He directs a comprehensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation program for treatment of CRPS, integrating physical therapy, behavioral treatment, neuromodulation, ketamine infusions, and occasionally hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

For ten years Dr. Prager has been administering ketamine infusions for treatment of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), neuropathic pain, other pain syndromes, as well as depression . He recently published two reviews on the use of ketamine in peer reviewed journals. He is currently researching functional MRI (fMRI) changes as a result of ketamine treatment, and managing side effects of ketamine infusions.

Current position

Dr. Prager is the current director of California Pain Medicine Center and Center for Rehabilitation of Pain Syndromes at UCLA and is also the Editor of the California Society of Anesthesiologists Pain and End-of-Life CME Program.

Current and recent public service

Dr. Prager recently completed six years of service on the Medical Evidence Evaluation Advisory Committee (MEEAC), a group appointed by the Governor of California to develop treatment guidelines for medical care of the injured worker. He is a Medical Expert for the Medical Board of California, the California Attorney General and the District Attorney of the County of Los Angeles. He has advised Medicare on the local level as reimbursement expert and as a member of the Clinical Advisory Committee (CAC) and currently holds an appointment on the national level on the Clinical Advisory Committee.

Public service has been an important aspect of Dr. Prager's career. He helped establish or reorganize several inner-city health centers, provided volunteer internal medicine care at Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, and provided volunteer anesthesia for children in the developing world who need corrective surgeries for congenital anomalies. He has held numerous positions with other medical organizations. Most recently, he organized the first meeting of a coalition of pain organizations and all three manufacturers of spinal cord stimulator systems to collaborate on issues of patient access and reimbursement for neuromodulatory procedures

In popular media

Dr. Prager has been interviewed extensively in lay media for expertise in pain medicine. This includes extended interviews in the National Public Radio as well as ABC News, Nightline, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, Lifestyle Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, USA today, Dateline NBC, the National Geographic Television, and The Doctors. CBS News

Dr. Prager has also been cited in medical media including Medscape CE Medicus, and PainClinician.com

Awards and Distinctions

• Bounty of Hope Award, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Society of America (RSDSA) for Patient Care and contributions to the RSD community. (2007)
• California Society of Anesthesiologists (CSA), for contributions to the education of anesthesiologists. (2007)
• Decade of Pain Lecture, American Academy of Pain Medicine. (2007)
• Texas Pain Society, Samuel Hassenbusch Lecture. (2009)
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Presented at the 16th Annual Meeting of the North American Neuromodulation Society (2012)
• Award for Dedication and Contributions to the field of Neurmodulation at the Scientific Meeting of the International Neuromodulation Society, Berlin, Germany (2013)
• UCLA Department of Anesthesiology, Outstanding teaching and contributions to the Pain Fellowship. (2002 and 2003)

Trivia

• Prager is an award winning amateur blues harmonica player who goes by the name of Dr. Lester “Les” Payne. He often sits in with James Govan and the Boogie Blues band at the Rum Boogie Café on Beale Street in Memphis, as well as with Jimmy Burns at multiple blues venues in Chicago.
• During his undergraduate years at Stony Brook, he organized popular concerts for their Student Activities Board, attracting artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Dizzy Gillespie, and Joni Mitchell among many others.
• First person to perform a spinal cord stimulator trial in the People's Republic of China
• Placed second in his age group at the inaugural Palisades Reverse Sprint Triathlon, 2011.

Credo

For many years Dr Prager ended every lecture with his credo, "No one should ever wish for death because of the unwillingness of a health care provider or third party payer to provide the most appropriate medication delivered by the optimal route to provide pain relief without untoward side-effects"

Books

• Prager, Joshua P. Binney St. Bridge: A study exploring the implications of a bridge connecting Longwood area Harvard teaching hospitals. Beth Israel Hospital Association (1977). ASIN B0006YNXPE

External links

• CME Lecture Presentation on Neuropathic Pain
• CME Pain Management Symposium Lecture on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)
• Presentation on CRPS
• CME article on pain
• AAPM presentation
• California Pain Medicine Center