Leadership
Harold Gelfand, MD
Harold Gelfand, MD
Executive Program Director & Principal Investigator
CAPT Harold Gelfand is the newly appointed Executive Director and Principal Investigator (PI) of the Defense and Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management (DVCIPM) within the Department of Anesthesiology at the Uniformed School of Health Sciences and has been the Director of the Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Fellowship since 2017. Previously he was Director of Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Management at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Bethesda served as Managing Director of the Surgical Services Product Line (3SL) and Director of at Walter Reed. Originally from Silver Spring, Maryland he received his commission via the Health Professions Scholarship Program in 1998.
CAPT Gelfand earned his Bachelors of Arts Degree in Philosophy from the University of Virginia (Class of 1997) and Doctor of Medicine Degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School (Class of 2001). He completed his Internship in Pediatrics at Naval Medical Center San Diego in 2002 and his Residency in Anesthesiology at National Capitol Consortium in 2009. He has a dual Fellowship in Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine and Obstetrical Anesthesia from Johns Hopkins University (2010). He received his board certification in Anesthesiology in 2010, was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 2012, Associate Master Clinician at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in 2015 and Fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists in 2018.
CAPT Gelfand served as the 12th Marines Regimental Surgeon from 2002-2005 where he supported deployments to Thailand and South East Asia and as the Naval Coastal Warfare Group Two Surgeon from 2005-2006 where mobilized on missions related to the Global War of Terrorism. He deployed with 2nd Medical Battalion to Forward Operating Base Edinburgh in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (Jan-Sep 2011).
In addition to his service, above CAPT Gelfand has been Junior Editor for the American Board of Anesthesiology Joint Council on Anesthesiology Examinations Written Board Exam since 2012, Anesthesia Representative to BUMED Women's Health Continuum of Care Advisory Board since 2013 until it transitioned to the Defense Health Agency Woman and Infant Clinical Community where he continues to serve, DoD/VA Health Executive Committee Clinical Care Business Line Pain Management Work Group, , Chronic Pain Management Program Panel (CPMPP) of the United States Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), and Reviewer for the journals Pain Medicine and Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. His awards include the Navy Commendation Medal and Joint Service Achievement Medal.
About
DVCIPM History
The impact of poorly managed pain on the US general population is estimated by the Institutes of Medicine at $560 billion annually in increased health care expenses, lost income, and lost productivity. The military is not immune to this disease burden. The DoD chartered the Pain Management Task Force in 2009 to review current military pain practice and make recommendations for a comprehensive pain management strategy. The PMTF Report (May 2010) summarized MHS pain management as lacking synchronicity and plagued by unwarranted variation. The Defense and Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management (DVCIPM) has been the sole DoD organization focused entirely on pain management. DVCIPM has evolved from its original structure/focus of an Army team working primarily on the battlefield trauma aspects of pain medicine, to the current tri-service/VHA, multidisciplinary effort working on application of a truly integrative approach to addressing challenges in pain management.
The PMTF Report clearly defined the need for a DoD and VHA central pain management advisory organization to provide the necessary platform for policy development, research, and curriculum development to move pain care within the federal system toward a more patient-centered approach addressing pain over the continuum of care; from the onset of pain (battlefield or home) through DoD health centers to VHA centers and the community (PMTF Report - 4.4.7). More specifically, the PMTF recommended that DVCIPM (then called the Defense & Veterans Pain Management Initiative) provide these advisory and coordinating roles, facilitate tri-service development of pain care clinical standards and pain management education, as well as develop recommendations for pain research priorities (PMTF Recommendations – 4.4.7.1, 4.4.7.2). In 2013, DVCIPM was realigned under the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Department of Military and Emergency Medicine (MEM) and was later aligned under the Department of Anesthesiology.
In 2016, DVCIPM was officially designated as the seventh Department of Defense Center of Excellence.
The Pain Management Task Force
The Army Surgeon General, Lieutenant General Eric B. Schoomaker, chartered the Army Pain Management Task Force in August 2009 to make recommendations for a comprehensive pain management strategy that would provide optimal quality of life for soldiers and other patients dealing with pain. The PMTF included representatives from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Veterans Health Administration.
The task force's final report contains 109 recommendations for a holistic, multidisciplinary and multimodal pain management strategy that utilizes state of the art/science modalities and technologies to address acute and chronic pain of service members.
Download the Pain Management Task Force Report