Christopher Abrecht, MD, Appointed Chief of Pain Medicine and Director of the UCSF Pain Management Center

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Abrecht, MD as chief of Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care and as medical director of the UCSF Pain Management Center, effective January 1, 2023.

We created this inaugural combined position given the increasing complexity of pain care within our department, which includes multiple consultservices at each campus and an outpatient center with multiple satellite locations. This position’s main goal is ensuring coordinated delivery of safe and effective pain care spanning outpatient and inpatient settings.

Abrecht graduated from Dartmouth College and attended New York University School of Medicine. After completing an anesthesiology residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a pain medicine fellowship at UCSF, Abrecht joined our department in 2017.

His clinical work has covered the full spectrum of pain medicine: interventional and non-interventional, outpatient and inpatient, acute and chronic. He has a particular interest in bridging the gap between hospital-based and ambulatory care settings and caring for patients at risk of transitioning from acute to chronic pain. He is focused on growing inter-departmental collaborations, as evidenced by integrated satellite clinics he has developed between our department and the departments of orthopedic surgery and neurological surgery.

Abrecht has taken on several roles in the department. As associate medical director of the Pain Management Center, he has improved clinic operations and finances and overseen the implementation of multiple new interventional offerings at the center. He has also been associate director of Inpatient Pain Services, director of the inpatient Chronic Pain Service, and the QI director for Pain Medicine in our department. In this latter role, Abrecht has presented annually to the UCSF Clinical Performance Improvement Committee on our pain services and chaired Root Cause Analyses related to pain care UCSF Health. His dedication to pain care throughout UCSF Health is also reflected in his participation in multiple departmental and university-wide committees, including the clinical competency committees for the departmental fellowships in Pain Medicine and Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain medicine, both the UCSF and Mount Zion OR Committees, the UCSF Pain Committee, and the APeX Clinical Content Committee. 

Abrecht is a recognized leader in the field of pain medicine. He has been an invited speaker at multiple regional and professional organizations, including the UCSF Pain and Addiction Research Center (PARC) and the UCSF Spine Symposium. He is also academically prolific, with multiple award-winning presentations at pain and surgical professional conferences, book chapter publications, and dissemination of work in high-impact journals such as Anesthesia & Analgesia, Pain Medicine and Neurosurgery. His academic work has centered on quality improvement in pain medicine, risk factors for chronic post-surgical pain, and transitional pain services.

In his new role as chief of Pain Medicine, Abrecht will oversee clinical operations of all pain medicine services within the Division of Pain Medicine, which encompasses outpatient and inpatient as well as acute and chronic pain care. He will also take on medical direction of the Pain Management Center. Abrecht will report to Mark Schumacher MD, PhD, who will continue to lead the Division of Pain Medicine in a new role as vice chair of Pain Medicine.

In this role, Schumacher will focus on strategic planning, resource development, academic growth of pain faculty, and represent the Pain Division on the department’s Executive Committee and across UCSF. Leveraging his ongoing role as director of UCSF’s PARC, Schumacher will accelerate efforts to bring together clinicians and scientists to advance evidence-based pain and addiction care. Together with Abrecht’s leadership and with the support of the pain service-line directors and outstanding faculty, Schumacher will support the continued growth and delivery of world class pain care at UCSF.

We would like to express our appreciation to Mario De Pinto, MD, for his dedication and service as the prior medical director of the Pain Management Center which under his leadership facilitated the growth of interdisciplinary chronic pain care at the Pain Management Center, and to Lawrence Poree, MD, PhD, for chairing the search committee for this position.

We are confident that Abrecht’s enthusiasm and dedication will result in the advancement of pain care within our department and the greater health system.