Multi-Modal Pain Management
December 3
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Multi-Modal Pain Management
Presented By: Drew Michael Donnell, MD
Pain Medicine/ Anesthesiology, Beacon Health System
While taking part in biomedical engineering research during high school at the local university, Drew M. Donnell, MD, initially elected to study business and sports administration. He then transitioned to studying applied mathematics in the context of health care. Ultimately, he decided there wasn’t enough interpersonal contact with patients. “I did not choose medicine until I firsthand experienced transformations in quality of life from various high-intensity surgeries during graduate school, prior to matriculating into medicine,” he says.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Movement Science at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. This was followed by a Master of Science degree in Biostatistics from University of Pittsburgh. It was here that he also graduated from the university’s School of Medicine as an MD. He completed a General Surgery Internship and Anesthesiology Residency at Ohio State University, and a Multidisciplinary Pain Fellowship at Northwestern University.
Dr. Donnell is the first medical doctor in his family, although his mother is a clinical psychologist. He chose the field of anesthesiology because of its complexity and frequent utilization of advanced technology. “I’ve administered anesthesia for everything from liver transplants to simple ankle reductions, but ultimately it all comes down to protecting the patient and their physiology.”
In addition, he practices interventional pain management, to improve the quality of life for individuals affected long term by serious discomfort. “Pain management is a natural extension of anesthesiology that offers more face time with patients and an array of rapidly evolving interventions,” he says.
Dr. Donnell delivers care to help patients be more comfortable and he works to enable them to be able to do more of the activities that give their lives meaning.
Through the years his patients have taught him that complex problems often have simple solutions, but the opposite also holds true, he says. “Medicine is one of the toughest jobs around, but is unmatched in its ability to affect others,” he says.
