Thomas E. Elliott, MD, is a Medical Director in the Pain Management Center at the Miller Dwan Medical Center, SMDC Health System, in Duluth, Minnesota. He is also a Chief of the Division of Education and Research at the Duluth Clinic. In addition, Dr. Elliott is a Clinical Professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Duluth, MN.

Dr. Elliott received his medical degree from the University of Kansas in Kansas City, Kansas, and completed his internship and part of his residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa and the remainder of his residency at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In addition, Dr. Elliott completed a fellowship in Hematology-Oncology at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa Hospitals, Iowa City, Iowa.

Dr. Elliott has written more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and is a journal manuscript reviewer for the American Family Physician, the European Journal of Pain, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management as well as others, and he is an Editorial Board member for the Journal of Cancer Education. Dr. Elliott's research interests include cancer pain management, hospice care and continuing medical education. In addition, he is the Primary Investigator/Co-Investigator for various clinical trials funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dr. Elliott is the recipient and honoree of numerous awards that include Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare, Who's Who in American Education, International Directory of Distinguished Leadership, Best Doctors in America, and the 1997 Arthur C. Aufderheide Scientific Award from the Lake Superior Medical Society. In addition, Dr. Elliott has served as a General Medical Officer in the U.S. Navy.

Perry G. Fine, MD, completed medical school in 1981 at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. He served an internship in 1982 at the Community Hospital of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa, California, and completed his residency in 1984 at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center in Salt Lake City. In addition, Dr. Fine completed a fellowship in 1985 at the Smythe Pain Clinic of the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Fine is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology of the School of Medicine at the University of Utah, where he serves on the faculty in the Pain Research Center, and is an attending physician in the Pain Management Center. He teaches the first- and second-year medical school courses in social medicine and the fourth-year medical school course in medical ethics. Currently, he serves on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the Society for Arts in Healthcare, and the American Pain Foundation. Dr. Fine serves as the External Strategic Advisor for Capital Hospice, Washington, DC and is a consultant to the Center for Advanced Illness Coordinated Care, based in Albany, New York, developing and educationally supporting self-sustaining models of prehospice palliative care in community settings, as an integrative component of disease management and advanced illness coordinated care. He is very pleased to have been selected to serve as the Chair of the National Initiative on Pain Control for 2003 to 2008.

Dr. Fine is widely published in the fields of pain management and end-of-life care. He serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed medical journals. As a medical avocation, he has worked as a team physician for the University of Utah football team for the last 18 years and was a medical officer for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He is the recipient of the 2007 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Distinguished Hospice Physician Award, and the 2008 American Pain Society John and Emma Bonica Public Service Award.

Vadim Kushnerik, MD, is an Attending Director in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Surgery in Pain Management Services at New York Downtown Hospital. He received his medical degree from the Stony Brook School of Medicine in Stony Brook, New York, and completed his internship at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New Hyde Park, New York. In addition, Dr. Kushnerik completed his residency and his fellowship at the Columbia/Cornell Medical Schools at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York, New York.

Dr. Kushnerik is the recipient of numerous awards that include the 2008 ANS Physician Recognition Award, the 2007 America’s Top Anesthesiologists in Pain Management Award, the 2006 and 2005 Physician of the Year Awards by the National Republican Congressional Committee Physician Advisory Board, and the 2005 Ronald Reagan Republican Gold Medal Award. He often appears as a guest lecturer and he has written several peer-reviewed journal articles on neuropathic pain and pain management.