Inpatient Pain Services Leadership Announcement

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Matthias Behrends, MD, as the Medical Director of Inpatient Pain Services at UCSF Health and Director of the Acute Pain Service in the Division of Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care. He will be joined by Assistant Professor Christopher Abrecht, MD, the newly appointed Associate Medical Director of Inpatient Pain Services and Director of the Inpatient Chronic Pain Service in the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care.

Drs. Behrends and Abrecht will work closely to provide operational oversight of pharmacologic, interventional, and other subspecialty inpatient pain medicine services integrated to care for patients with acute, acute on chronic, and chronic painful conditions. Specifically, Dr. Behrends will focus on the care of patients with acute pain issues, while Dr. Abrecht will support inpatient chronic pain management services. Drs. Behrends and Abrecht are helping to establish safe opioid prescribing, identify and manage patients at risk for opioid use disorder, and recommend alternatives to opioid therapy.  Their services will also help with easing the transition from inpatient to outpatient care. 

Dr. Behrends has served as the interim Medical Director of Inpatient Pain Services at UCSF Health since September of 2017. He is a medical graduate of the University of Gottingen, Germany, and completed his anesthesia residency at the University of Essen. He began his UCSF career in 2004, with clinical and research activities focused on acute pain. He is also a member of the Regional Anesthesia team and is actively engaged in other clinical services that work closely with the Pain team, such as providing anesthesia for orthopedic and spine surgeries, and consulting in the Prepare Clinic and the Post Anesthesia Care Unit.

Dr. Abrecht received his medical degree from New York University, and completed his anesthesia residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He completed his pain medicine fellowship here at UCSF in 2017, and is board certified in pain medicine.  His clinical activities include work at the outpatient Pain Management Center, the acute and chronic inpatient pain services, and the regional anesthesia team.  He is also the department’s QI leader for pain medicine with research interests in QI and risk mitigation in pain medicine.

Please join us in welcoming Drs. Behrends and Abrecht to their new roles, and in supporting their efforts to provide safe and effective pain management care to our UCSF Health inpatients.