Brian Ilfeld, MD, has been named the 2022 Gaston Labat Award recipient and lecturer by the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA Pain Medicine). Dr. Ilfeld is a professor of anesthesiology at the University of California San Diego, where he also serves as director of Regional Anesthesia Clinical Research and site director of the Outcomes Research Consortium.

“When one considers the huge advance that perineural catheters have been to regional anesthesia and analgesia, Dr. Ilfeld’s name and work should be revered,” wrote nominator Joseph M. Neal, MD, past president and former editor-in-chief of Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine (RAPM). “No physician scientist has contributed as much to this technique – which has become a daily staple of many anesthesiologists’ practice,” he wrote, adding “Although Dr. Ilfeld has moved on to newer scientific contributions to our literature, his legacy with regard to perineural techniques alone is worthy of celebration and the legacy of Gaston Labat.”

Given annually, the award honors Gaston P. Labat, MD (1843-1908), a pioneer in regional anesthesia and the first president of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia founded in 1923 (later abandoned and then “re-founded” in 1975). Labat’s Regional Anesthesia: Its Technique and Clinical Application was first published in 1922.

Dr. Ilfeld expressed sincere appreciation upon receiving word of his selection, noting that “It is the honor of a lifetime.”

“’Honored’ does not begin to express my feelings receiving the Gaston Labat award,” he said. “The ASRA Pain Medicine members have been so much more than colleagues—they have been my professional family for over two decades. So, to have my professional family honor me with this award is deeply moving and meaningful on so many levels.”

Dr. Ilfeld received his MD at the University of California San Francisco where he also completed an anesthesiology residency. He completed his regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine fellowship at the University of Florida, where he additionally earned an MS in clinical investigation.

Dr. Ilfeld is a diplomat for the American Board of Anesthesiology, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense Grant Proposal Reviewer, and an editor of RAPM. He also serves as a reviewer for Anesthesiology, Anesthesia and Analgesia, and the Clinical Journal of Pain. With the exception of two years, Dr. Ilfeld has been continuously funded with federal grants since 2005, as both principal investigator on five NIH and Department of Defense grants as well as Consortium Principal Investigator on four additional clinical trials funded by the Department of Defense. All of these projects involved the treatment of acute and chronic pain with non-opioid regional analgesic techniques.

Dr. Ilfeld’s commitment to the field is clear. When asked what he enjoys most, he said, “I enjoy taking away patients’ pain.  It’s truly as simple as that—it will never get ‘old’.  It can be on a personal level caring for a single patient, or, hopefully, touching the lives of thousands around the globe through the publication of clinical research—I simply cannot imagine a more rewarding career.”

Dr. Ilfeld has served ASRA Pain Medicine for many years including on several meeting program and other committees and as a frequent faculty member. He has authored well over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, editorials, letters to the editor, and invited publications and articles and presented hundreds of lectures and workshops over his prolific career.

The 47^th Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Meeting will be held March 30-April 2, 2022, in Las Vegas, NV.