Doris K. Cope, M.D., leads one of the top pain medicine programs in the country at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). A professor in the department of anesthesiology, she is a noted authority on the history of anesthesiology. She has written dozens of articles and abstracts on anesthesiology, chronic pain and pain medicine in the top medical journals.
The UPMC Pain Medicine Program is a multidisciplinary clinical, teaching, and research endeavor that is committed to the evaluation and treatment of the entire range of pain, disability, and rehabilitation problems. It offers an interdisciplinary approach that includes dedicated health care professionals from a range of specialties, such as anesthesiology, internal medicine, physical medicine, psychiatry, neurology, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy and psychology.
The treatment team develops and coordinates programs to reduce pain and suffering whenever possible and assist patients in coping with any remaining discomfort; reduce disability to restore a more normal, meaningful and satisfying life; reduce emotional distress caused by chronic pain; reduce dependency on drugs and on the health-care system; and facilitate, as appropriate, the patient's return to gainful employment and usual household and leisure activities.
Dr. Cope has served as editor of the Bulletin of Anesthesia History since 1994 and from 1993 to 1995 was editor-in-chief of the American Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists’ newsletter, Interchange. In addition, she has been invited to be a reviewer for several other journals, including Anesthesiology, Anesthesia and Analgesia, European Heart Journal, Journal of Applied Physiology and Critical Care Medicine.
She is the past president of the C.F. Reynolds Medical History Society at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Cope is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Anesthesia Foundation and the Wood Library-Museum of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. She is the president of the Anesthesia History Association.
Board certified in anesthesiology as well as subspecialty boarded in pain medicine, Dr. Cope is a life member of the Academy of Anesthesiology and has been listed among the "Best Doctors in America" every year since 1998.
She has published 76 scientific papers and abstracts, and has had visiting professorships at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tex; Louisiana State University, Shreveport, La; State University of New York at Buffalo; Southwest Medical Center, Dallas, Tex; Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Ga and the University of Connecticut, Bridgeport, Conn. Dr. Cope was recently visiting professor in Tianjin, Chengdu, and Shanghai, China.
An active member of the America n Society of Anesthesiologists, Dr. Cope serves on the association’s committees on pain medicine and newsletter, as well as the subcommittee on local anesthesia and pain and the subcommittee on patient safety, practice management, history and education.
Dr. Cope received her medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and completed her residency at the University of South Alabama. She is a graduate of Augusta College and has been awarded a master’s degree in clinical psychology.
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