The Genesis Of The Unequal Burden Of Pain: A Selective Review Examining Social Inequities And Unheard Voices

Carmen Renee Green, MD is Dean of the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Medicine, the Bert Brodsky Chair, Medical Professor of Community Health and Social Medicine, and Professor in the Colin Powell School of Global and Civic Engagement. Green received her MD from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. She completed an Anesthesiology residency, subspecialty training in Ambulatory and Obstetrical Anesthesia, and a Pain Medicine fellowship at the University of Michigan Health System.  Dr. Green is a Professor Emeritus Anesthesiology and OB/GYN, at the University of Michigan’s Schools of Medicine. Dr. Green holds faculty appointments at the UM’s Institute for Social Research and Institute for Health Policy and Innovation, and the Program for Research on Black Americans. A pain medicine physician, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy fellow at the National Academy of Medicine. She drafted the National Pain Care Policy Act and an elected fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, Gerontological Society of America, and Association of University Anesthesiologists. 

At the nexus of public health and healthcare quality, equity, and policy, her pioneering health services and policy research focuses on pain and the social determinants.  She authored of geminal and seminal papers poignantly revealing unequal treatment, disparities, variability in decision-making, and diminished healthcare quality; revealing suboptimal access to care across the life course for women, minorities, and low-income people.  Her federal and state board service includes NAM’s Healthcare Services Board, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee and HHS Oversight Committee for the national Pain Strategy (Disparities Co-Chair) as well as NIH’s Advisory Committee for the National Institute of Child and Human Development, Advisory Committee for Research on Women’s Health, and National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research as well as the American Cancer Society’s Council for Extramural Affairs.  She Has made invited presentations at U.S. congress and Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center (Italy).

Building the Case for a Value-Based Approach to Low Back Pain

Christine Goertz, DC, PhD, is a Professor in Musculoskeletal Research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Director of System Development and Coordination for Spine Health in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University. She is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Spine Institute for Quality and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health at the University of Iowa. Her 25-year research career has focused on working with multidisciplinary teams to design and implement clinical and health services research studies designed to increase knowledge regarding the effectiveness and cost of complementary and integrative healthcare delivery.s

Marion Couch, MD, PhD, MBA, serves as co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of IntoValue Group. She possesses a sophisticated understanding of healthcare with her extensive senior leadership experience serving in different healthcare sectors: multiple large healthcare systems, the federal government, and a regional commercial insurer with a venture capital arm. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Duke University School of Medicine. As CEO, Marion’s 30+ years as a physician and business executive drives her to directly engage employers in collaborating with clinicians to improve care.

The Intersection of Science and Spirituality

Scarlet Soriano, MD is an integrative medicine physician, health and wellness consultant, and dynamic speaker. She is the former medical director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Tanya I. Edwards, MD Center for Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine. Soriano has a special interest in energy medicine, lifestyle medicine, and the impact of consciousness on health. She has a uniquely joyous way of bridging science and spirituality through her teaching and workshop facilitation. Soriano graduated from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Pain Reprocessing Therapy

Yoni K. Ashar, PhD is a clinical psychologist, neuroscientist, and father of three. Yoni’s research uses functional MRI brain imaging, natural language processing, and other tools to understand how mind and brain processes influence health, especially chronic pain. Yoni is an NIH-funded postdoctoral associate at Weill Cornell Medicine, and he completed his doctorate at the University of Colorado Boulder. He conducted the first randomized trial testing Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and leads PRT clinician trainings as well. His research in chronic pain has been featured in several news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Vox, and the Coloradan.