Researchers at WashU are using machine learning to better predict who will experience persistent pain after surgery.
Predicting pain with machine learning (Links to an external site)

Researchers at WashU are using machine learning to better predict who will experience persistent pain after surgery.
Alexander Chamessian, MD, PhD, assistant professor of anesthesiology at WashU Medicine, has been named a 2025 recipient of the Rita Allen Foundation Scholars Award in Pain.
WashU Medicine researchers, including Drs. Robert Gereau, Bryan Copits, and Juliet Mwirigi, were recently featured for their groundbreaking chronic pain research, advancing precision treatments and non-opioid therapies to improve patient care.
Neuroscientist Juliet Mwirigi, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Anesthesiology at WashU Medicine, has been named a Hanna H. Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
Burel R. Goodin, a professor of anesthesiology at WashU Medicine, has received more than $3 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support postdoctoral training.
Dr. Sarah Buday, a clinical psychologist specializing in pain psychology and an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at WashU Medicine, explains the concept of the “October Slide”—a seasonal decline in well-being affecting people with chronic illnesses.
Dr. Nahman-Averbuch is leading two studies to help predict who is at risk of developing migraine disorder, and to identify the changes in brain connectivity and hormone levels that precede the onset of migraine headaches in adolescents.
The Pain Management Center at Missouri Baptist Medical Center was designated as a Top Performer in the 2024 Professional Research Consultants (PRC) Excellence in Healthcare Awards.
The Initiative on Methods, Measurement, and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials (IMMPACT), including Simon Haroutounian, PhD, MSc, and Katie Holzer, PhD, LCSW, brought together a diverse group of participants from academia, industry, funding and regulatory agencies, and people with lived experience (PWLE) of pain, to developed recommendations for advancing patient engagement in clinical pain research.
Lidocaine is mostly known as a topical pain reliever, sold over the counter in a skin cream or patch. In recent years, it’s been increasingly used intravenously to treat chronic pain.