February 26, 2004
Murphy Memorial Lecture: Chronic low-back pain and the evidence
Dr. Alf L. Nachemson will present the Seventh Annual Terence M. Murphy Memorial Lecture at 5 p.m., Tuesday, March 9, in room T-747 of the Health Sciences Center. His lecture is titled “How to Treat Chronic Low Back Pain in the Era of Evidence-Based Medicine” and is open to the public. A reception will follow in the foyer.
Nachemson, who received his medical degree from the University of Uppsala, in Sweden, in 1956 and a Ph.D. in orthopedics in 1960 from the same institution, is currently research professor of orthopaedics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He was professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedics at Göteborg University in Sweden, from 1971 until his retirement in 1996.
He continues to supervise Ph.D. students in orthopaedics at Göteborg. At Georgetown University, he has started two new projects studying chronic pain, working with collaborators in orthopaedics and rheumatology.
He has been active at an international level in pain medicine for many years, focusing primarily on low-back pain and spinal deformities. He has ties with the UW Multidisciplinary Pain Center and was a member of the Back Pain Outcomes Assessment Team from 1990 to 1995. He is a member of numerous editorial and scientific boards, and is senior editor for the European edition of Spine.
The annual lectureship, funded by public contributions, honors Dr. Terence M. Murphy, a member of the UW Department of Anesthesiology faculty and Multidisciplinary Pain Center from 1971 until his death in 1996. Murphy was known as a superb clinician and teacher who made major contributions to the field of pain medicine and regional anesthesia.
