Joshua Prager (doctor)

Joshua Philip Prager MD MS (December 4 1949 – ) is an American physician. Dr. Prager specializes in pain medicine. He is the immediate past president of the North American Neuromodulation Society. [ [http://neuromodulation.com/boardmember.php?id=19 International Neuromodulation Society website] ] [ [http://neuromodulation.org/nans_newsletter_fall2006.pdf Neuromodulation newsletter] ] He is Chair of the Pain and the Sympathetic Nervous system (PSNS)(Complex Regioanl Pain Syndrome) Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). [ [http://www.iasp-pain.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=3185 IASP PSNS group] ]

Life and research

After undergraduate and graduate studies in New York 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.

In his spare time Dr. Prager has served as a volunteer at the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic (Internal Medicine) and with Interplast, providing anesthesia for Third World children undergoing correction of congenital anamolies.

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. [ [http://www.csahq.org/xtpl.php?tpl=internal.xtpl&section=cme&name=cme_page&idx=66 California Society of Anesthesiologists CME] ]

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 [ [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4583253 NPR Interview] ] as well as ABC News [ [http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2722954&page=1 ABC News Interview] ] , Lifestyle Magazine [ [http://www.lifestyle.org/media/MCD_02/MCD_02_21/MCD_02_21_768K_Stream001.ram Lifestyle.org website] ] , the Wall Street Journal, USA today, Dateline NBC, and the National Geographic Television.

Dr. Prager has also been cited in medical media including Medscape [ [http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/531729_3 Medscape article] ] and CE Medicus. [ [http://www.cemedicus.com/paincme/ CE Medicus] ]

Trivia

* Dr. Prager is an award winning amateur blues harmonica player who goes by the name of Dr. Lester “Les” Payne.
* First person to perform a spinal cord stimulator trial in People's Republic of China

elect articles

*

*

*

*

*

References

External links

* [http://www.cmeed.com/pain/Theater.asp?title=Neuropathic%20Pain%20and%20Non-Narcotic%20Pharmacology&presenter=Joshua%20Prager,%20MD,%20MS&type=presentation&loc=pragers1 CME Lecture Presentation on Neuropathic Pain]

* [http://www.orthoeri.net/v2_0/Theater.asp?title=Complex%20Regional%20Pain%20Syndrome%20(Reflex%20Sympathetic%20Dystrophy)&loc=videos/pain/pragers2&name=Joshua%20Prager,%20MD,%20MS CME Pain Management Symposium Lecture on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)]

* [http://rsds.org/2/library/CRPS%20%20for%20RSDSA_Prager.pdf Presentation on CRPS]

* [http://www.cmeed.com/pain/Theater.asp?title=Complex%20Regional%20Pain%20Syndrome%20(Reflex%20Sympathetic%20Dystrophy)&presenter=Joshua%20Prager,%20MD,%20MS&type=presentation&loc=pragers2 CME article on pain]

* [http://aapm.confex.com/aapm/2007am/techprogram/S1348.HTM AAPM presentation]