Joshua Prager (doctor)

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For other persons of the same name, see Joshua Prager.

Joshua Philip Prager MD MS (December 4, 1949 – ) is an American physician. Dr. Prager specializes in pain medicine. He is the current president of the North American Neuromodulation Society.^[1]^[2] He is on the Board of Directors of the International Neuromodulation society and is Vice Chair of the Pain and the Sympathetic Nervous system (PSNS) Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain.^[3]

1 Life and research
2 Current position
3 In popular media
4 Trivia
5 Select articles
6 References
7 External links

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.^[4]

[edit] 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^[5] as well as ABC News^[6], Lifestyle Magazine ^[7], the Wall Street Journal, USA today, Dateline NBC, and the National Geographic Television.

Dr. Prager has also been cited in medical media including Medscape^[8] and CE Medicus.^[9]

[edit] Trivia

Dr. Prager is an award winning amateur blues harmonica player who goes by the name of Dr. Lester “Les” Payne. He proposed to his wife on stage while playing at a blues concert in Memphis, Tennessee.
First person to perform a spinal cord stimulator trial in People's Republic of China

[edit] Select articles

Prager JP (2002). "Neuraxial Medication Delivery: The Development and Maturity of a Concept for Treating Chronic Pain of Spinal Origin". Spine 27 (22): 2593-2605. PMID 12435999.

Oakley JC, Prager JP (2002). "Spinal cord stimulation: mechanisms of action". Spine 27 (22): 2574-83. PMID 12435996.

Prager JP, Jacobs M (2001). "Evaluation of Patients for Implantable Pain Modalities: Medical and Behavioral Assessment". Clin J Pain (3): 206-214. PMID 11587110.

Prager J (1996). "Invasive modalities for the diagnosis and treatment of pain in the elderly". Clin Geriatr Med (3): 549-61. PMID 8853945.

Prager JP, DeSalles A, Wilkinson A, Jacobs M, Csete M (1995). "Loin pain hematuria syndrome: pain relief with intrathecal morphine". Am J Kidney Dis 25 (4): 629-31. PMID 7702062.