2. Highlights of Curriculum Vita
• Current Position: Richard B. Patt, M.D. developed Houston’s Patt Center for Pain Management during the last quarter of 1998, where he serves as its President and Chief Medical Officer. Until recently he maintained privileges at Kelsey-Seybold Clinics, Memorial Hermann Hospital, Select Specialty Hospitals and Plaza Specialty Hospital. Recruited to develop the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s Anesthesiology Pain Program in 1993, he completed 5 years of service as Deputy Chief of Anderson’s Pain and Symptom Management Section, Director of its Anesthesia Pain Programs and Fellowship and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Neuro-Oncology. After leaving Anderson Dr. Patt was Medical Director of Inpatient Services at the Hospice of the Texas Medical Center for 18 months, and consulted at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and Methodist Hospital between 1998 and 2005.
• Education: After completion of a B.A. degree in Philosophy at the University of Maryland (College Park), medical school training was undertaken (basic sciences in the Dominican Republic, where fluency in Spanish was established; clinical rotations in the United States, graduation Montserrat, W.I.). Following a surgery internship in Baltimore, Dr. Patt completed anesthesiology residency at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, under the tutelage of then Chairman Louis Orkin (one of E.A, Rovenstine’s original residents), James Marin and Sol Hershey (one of the first Editors-in-Chief of the journal Anesthesiology), Elizabeth A.M. Frost (Neurosurgical Anesthesia), Yasu Mehta (Critical Care) and Gertie Marx (Obstetric Anesthesia). An approved Pain fellowship was completed at Einstein under the supervision of I. Cary Andrews (deceased) and Paul Goldiner with a regular rotation at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center under the mentorship of Drs. Paul Goldiner and Subhash Jain. As part of preparation for his own Anesthesiology board examination, Dr. Patt co-authored one of the earliest published guides for residents taking the ABA examination.
• University of Rochester: Hired by Chairman Dr. Ron Gabel (prior fellow of Dr. John Severinghaus and former Assistant to Dr. Leroy VanDam) at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Dr. Patt helped establish a comprehensive Pain Treatment Center and developed one of the world’s first Cancer Pain Initiatives and Cancer Pain Programs. He progressed through the rank of Associate Professor of Anesthesiology with joint appointments in Medicine and Psychiatry, and established an ACGME accredited Pain Fellowship that trained nearly 200 residents and well over a dozen fellows while serving as the Pain Clinic’s Medical Director. He was awarded the Visiting Nurse Association’s Second Annual Physician of the Year Award in 1992, established an annual Teaching Day on Cancer Pain in the memory of a grateful patient, and helped initiate a program to establish an endowed chair in Pain Medicine by garnering over $250,000 in development funds from grateful patients, the community, industry and other traditional sources. During his tenure at Rochester he also served under incoming Chairman Denham Ward, edited the textbook, Cancer Pain, was awarded an American Cancer Society start-up grant and wrote and served as Primary Investigator for an educational grant awarded by the National Cancer Institute.
• University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center: Along with Dr. Sam Hassenbusch, Dr. Patt was recruited to the faculty of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center by Drs. Richard Payne, C. Stratton Hill, Jr., Robert L. Jones and Charles Balch. He was appointed as an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Neuro-Oncology, and assumed the administrative roles of Deputy Chief of the Pain and Symptom Management Section and Director of Anesthesia Pain Programs (chronic and acute). Here he hired a Research Nurse, a Clinical Nurse Specialist, and additional faculty, including a former trainee from Rochester, Dr. Suresh Reddy, whose successful application for new immigration status he championed. Dr. Patt established around-the-clock coverage and an ACGME accredited Pain Fellowship. As its Director and Medical Director he personally supervised the training of 20 fellows, 50 resident rotators (UTMB Galveston, the University of Texas, Baylor and Texas Tech), and over 50 observers from Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, Australia and Latin America. He wrote and obtained a $40,000 grant for an observership program and with Dr. Payne organized educational outreach programs that included a quarterly newsletter, videotaped grand rounds and a five module CME program on assessment and treatment of pain, all of which were distributed to 25,000 U.S. physicians including all practicing oncologists. Other CME activities included the development of an annual hands-on interventional cadaver workshop that, more than ten years later continues successfully, and co-directing a Houston-based Satellite Conference of the 8th triennial IASP World Congress on Pain, the proceedings of which were published as Payne R, Patt RB, Hill CS Jr. (eds): Assessment and Treatment of Cancer Pain: Progress in Pain Research and Management, Vol 12. IASP Press, Seattle, 1998.
• Clinical Care: With the transition from the part time practice of anesthesia to the full time academic practice of Pain Medicine, Dr. Patt balanced administrative, research and educational responsibilities, ultimately maintaining a 50% clinical commitment. During his administrative tenure at MDACC, the number of interventional procedures for pain treatment increased from an average of 20/yr to over 200/yr and the number of pain consultations performed by anesthesiologists increased from about 20/yr to 400/year (Patt RB, et al: Changes in clinical activity at a major cancer center associated with integration of dedicated anesthesiology personnel. IASP 8th World Congress on Pain, Vancouver, 08/96.). Despite nonclinical responsibilities, over 800 billable services (nerve blocks, pumps, consultations, follow ups) were rendered in his name in each of his last three years at MDACC, which concluded with a transition in departmental leadership from that of Dr. Jones to incoming Division Chief, Dr. Thomas Feeley.
• Research — Agency funded projects: American Cancer Society startup grant awarded in 1989 (budget 10K) to study intrathecal alcohol block; National Cancer Institute educational grant (An Educational Program to Reduce Cancer Pain, RFA CA-91-25; budget 220K) awarded in 1992 to study the influence of a teaching program on clinical care and prescribing practices.
— Industry sponsored multicenter drug trials: Served as primary investigator on a Phase IV study of transdermal fentanyl, 3 trials of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC/Actiq), studies on controlled release oxycodone, and IV regional guanethidine (for RSD). Assisted with the introduction of Duragesic (transdermal fentanyl) in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Canada and Europe.
— Interventional trials: With Dr. Hassunbusch, participated in a phase I/II feasibility study of the conotoxin, intrathecal SNX-111 (Prialt) and of intrathecal and epidural clonidine, all in terminally ill patients. Medical device studies included service as Primary Investigator in multicenter trials that led to the approval of the DuPen implantable epidural catheter, as well as the DuPen subcutaneous portal system, and a novel implanted patient-activated intrathecal reservoir (PAR or Algomed, by Medtronic, Inc.). He recently completed work with subcutaneous sufentanil intended to lead to the investigation of a miniature osmotic pump for subcutaneous drug delivery.
— Neural Blockade: Coauthored peer reviewed papers introducing superior hypogastric plexus and blockade of the ganglion impar, and engaged in collaborative (unfunded) retrospective descriptive studies on subarachnoid neurolytic block and neurolysis of the celiac axis, lumbar sympathetic chain and psoas compartment.
• Publications: —Books: As a resident, coauthored Keywords and Concepts for Anesthesia Boards (New York, Keywords Press, 1986), and in Rochester, edited the first comprehensive textbook on cancer pain, (Patt RB (ed): Cancer Pain. Lippincott, 1993), reviewed favorably in NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Anesthesiology, Anesth Analg, J Natl Cancer Inst, Clin J Pain, Am J Hospice Pall Care, J Pain Symptom Mgmt, APS Bull, Arch Neurol. and others. Coauthored the first comprehensive self help book for patients with cancer pain and their families (Lang S, Patt RB: You Don't Have to Suffer: A Family's Guide to Cancer Pain Management. Oxford University Press, 1994), released in paperback in 1995, in Japanese (1996) and Chinese (1997) translations and audio cassete (1998). Coedited proceedings of the Houston Satellite Conference of the IASP’s 8th Triennial World Congress on Pain (Payne R, Patt RB, Hill CS Jr. (eds): Assessment and Treatment of Cancer Pain: Progress in Pain Research and Management, Vol 12. IASP Press, 1998). Coauthored a revised self help book for cancer patients and their family members, The Complete Guide to Relieving Cancer Pain and Suffering (Oxford, 2004), release in paperback 2006. Coedited Cancer Pain part of a four volume textbook of international scope, Clinical Pain Management (Arnold, 2003),
— Other Publications: Over sixty textbook chapters, over sixty peer reviewed articles, over thirty non-peer reviewed articles, 27 abstracts, 16 letters to the editor, 8 invited editorials, 15 book reviews, numerous interviews and multimedia teaching aides, including the development of current web site, www.cancerpain.org.
— Editorial: Editorial board membership on 17 journals, invited reviewer for 15 journals and 5 publishers of textbooks, series editor for 5 journals, and journal guest editor on 7 occasions (Am J Hospice and Palliative Care, Pediatric Annals, HemeOnc Annals, Analgesia).
• Invited Lectureships (Intramural): 46 invited intramural presentations over seven years while at the University of Rochester; 40 invited intramural presentations at UTMDACC over 5 years, including Institutional Grand Rounds, Grand Rounds in Medicine, Surgery, ICU, Gyn Surgical Oncology, Gyn Medical Oncology, Anesthesiology, Diagnostic Radiology, Dental, and Nursing. Other presentations included the Supportive Care Forum (three times) and the Annual Cancer Survivors’ Conference (three times), Telemedicine broadcasts (multiple occasions), the Volunteer/Auxiliary Staff (twice), the Annual Pharmacy Symposium (twice), the Annual Medical Oncology Review three times, the Annual Medical Oncology Review in Spanish (three times), as well as Grand Rounds in Anesthesiology at Baylor and Hermann Hospital, Medical Grand Rounds at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, and regular teaching duties.
• Invited Lectureships (Extramural): Of around 500 invited presentations, more than fifty have been keynote addresses, named lectureships or components of the annual meetings of professional societies (American Society of Anesthesiologists, American College of Surgeons, American Pain Society, Academy of Family Practice, etc), and over another fifty have been conducted outside the U.S. (Canada, Mexico, France, U.K., Greece, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Kenya, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, etc). Related events include participation in over 30 interactive workshops (including hands-on certification programs for implantable devices) and service as the originator and director of over ten CME events of one or more days.
• Service to Professional Associations: Active participation in professional societies is detailed in cv; includes completion of a 3 yr term on the Board of Directors of the American Pain Society, co-chairmanship of the Int’l Association for the Study of Pain's Task Force on Pain & AIDS, representation of the American Board of Pain Medicine to the Texas Board of Medical Examiners, and board member of Houston’s Nati’l Chronic Pain Society, a patient based- not for profit entity.
• Awards, Certifications, Licensure: Dr. Patt is fellowship-trained in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, has passed boards in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, and was nominated as a fellow of the International Neuromodulation Society. Historically, licensure has included Texas, New York, California, and Georgia and Singapore. Passage of all certification and licensure examinations accomplished on first attempt, with no history of involvement in any medical malpractice actions other than as an invited expert witness. Honors include the Visiting Nurse Association Physician of the Year Award (Rochester, 1992), American Cancer Society Certificate of Merit (1994), keynote speaker for various named lectureships, and inclusion in various Who’s Who publications.
