Joshua Prager (doctor)


Joshua P. Prager M.D., M.S. is a United States physician. Prager specializes in pain medicine and is the director of Center for the Rehabilitation Pain Syndromes at UCLA Medical Plaza.

Early life and education

Joshua P. Prager was born in New York City, the son of a NYC police officer who later became a public school teacher, and a United Cerebral Palsy shelter workshop supervisor. He was educated in the NYC public school system
He studied as an undergraduate at Stony Brook University, completed his premedical education, and was a graduate student at Harvard University. Prager graduated from Stanford University with M.D. as well as M.S. in Management/Health Services Research in 1981.
Prager financially put himself through college and medical school. He was a Resident Fellow at Stanford running an undergraduate residence.
He completed training in internal medicine at University of California, Los Angeles before completing training in anesthesiology at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine.

Career

Prager served on the full-time faculty at MGH at Harvard Medical School and at UCLA School of Medicine where he served as Director of the UCLA Pain Medicine Center. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine.
In 2005, Prager was elected as president of the North American Neuromodulation Society, and served two consecutive, one-year terms as President until 2007. Until 2012, he served as Director at Large of the International Neuromodulation Society.
He has served two consecutive 2-year terms as Chair of the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain. He is also the Editor and Chair of the Pain and End-of-Life CME program from the California Society of Anesthesiologists.
Prager is one of the few physicians in the US to perform Dorsal Root Ganglion Stimulation for CRPS.
Prager is a recognized expert who speaks nationally and internationally in the administration of Ketamine for depression, CRPS and other pain problems. In 2016, he was involved in writing guidelines for Ketamine treatment under the aegis of the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association. Prager is one of the few physicians in the US to perform Dorsal Root Ganglion Stimulation for CRPS.
He has been interviewed on ABC News, CBS News, The Doctors, Lifestyle Magazine, LA Times, National Public Radio, and Medscape.

Public service

In 2005, he organized the first meeting of a coalition of pain organizations and all three manufacturers of spinal cord stimulator systems to collaborate on issues of patient access and reimbursement for neuromodulatory procedures. The same year, Prager joined the Medical Evidence Evaluation Advisory Committee, a group appointed by the Governor of California to develop treatment guidelines for medical care of the injured worker. He continued in the role for six years.
He is a Medical Expert for the Medical Board of California, the California Attorney General and the District Attorney of the County of Los Angeles.
He helped establish or reorganize several inner-city health centers, provided volunteer internal
medicine care at Haight Ashbury Free Clinics. He also provided volunteer anesthesia for children in the developing world who need corrective surgeries for congenital anomalies.

Personal life

Prager plays blues harmonica under the pseudonym Dr. Lester "Les" Payne. He has played with the late James Govan in Memphis, as well as with Jimmy Burns in Chicago. He lives in Los Angeles and has three children.

Awards and distinctions

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