Dr. Sean Mackey is the Redlich Professor and Chief of the Division of Stanford Pain Medicine. He is a physician-scientist trained and experienced in neuroimaging, psychophysics, public health, health policy, patient outcomes and medical education. Dr. Mackey is guided by his group’s mission “To Predict, Prevent and Alleviate Pain” which encompasses their three goals: (1) define the factors that cause pain to become chronic after injury or surgery, (2) discover and implement novel methods to prevent the persistence or chronification of pain, and (3) discover and test novel therapies to alleviate chronic pain. This vision statement informs the multidisciplinary group Dr. Mackey has assembled and the tools that he and his team use: advanced neuroimaging, psychophysical and neurobehavioral assessment, genomics, patient- and clinician-reported outcomes, and assessment of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

He has served as principle investigator on multiple NIH awards (PO1, multiple R01’s, U01, K24, T32). Additionally, he holds two endowments that provide the flexible research funds to pursue innovative projects and support our junior investigators. Dr. Mackey is the author of over 200 journal articles and book chapters in addition to numerous national and international lectures. Broadly, some of his current research falls into two categories: (1) Characterizing CNS mechanisms of the human pain experience and its modulation and using this to develop biomarkers and (2) development and use of an open-source learning healthcare system (CHOIR) to transform the care of people with pain, and serve as a platform for innovative research in real-world clinic patients. Additionally, they are investigating novel therapies for pain including: transcranial magnetic stimulation, virtual reality, psychological and pharmacological therapies.