Lynn Webster
Lynn Webster, MD, (born November 10, 1950) is a pain researcher and physician. From 1990 to 2010, he headed Lifetree Pain Clinic with approximately 15 healthcare providers. In 2010, Webster left the pain clinic to focus full-time on clinical research. Dr. Webster is the immediate past President of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM).
His research work centers on the development of safer and more effective therapies for chronic pain and addiction prevention. He has studied The Effects of opioids on sleep, the testing of new opioid formulations designed to deter misuse and effective screening methods to prevent opioid misuse. He is best known for developing the Opioid Risk Tool (ORT) and for his public campaign to reduce overdose deaths from prescription medications. Webster is currently the Vice President of Scientific Affairs at PRA Health Sciences.
In 2013 it was revealed that the [...] Enforcement Agency (DEA) opened an investigation related to overdose deaths at the Lifetree Pain Clinic, beginning with a raid on the clinic in 2010. After nearly four years, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah declined to pursue charges and the case was dropped.
Education and training
Webster received a doctorate of medicine from the University of Nebraska in 1976 and began an internship with the University of Utah Medical Center shortly after. At the end of his internship, he started a fellowship in the Division of Artificial Organs and the Department Of Surgery at the same medical center. Webster later moved from his fellowship to complete a residency at the University’s Department of Anesthesiology. He went on to receive numerous certifications including board certifications in anesthesiology and pain medicine and certification in addiction medicine.
Organizations
Once in practice, Webster co-founded Lifetree Clinical Research (now part of PRA International) with Alice Jackson in 2003. Jackson and Webster developed the specialized clinic to provide [...] development services, clinical trial management and site services for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. In 2010, Lifetree Clinical Research merged with CRI Worldwide to create CRI Lifetree. On November 13, 2013, CRI Lifetree was acquired by PRA International<http://www.praintl.com/pra-acquires-cri-lifetree>. Today Dr. Webster is the Vice President of Scientific Affairs at PRA International.
Webster was named a co-recipient of a National Institutes of Health research grant to conduct the first-ever genome-wide association study into the characteristics of patients who develop addiction after being treated with opioids for chronic noncancer pain. Webster is to serve as a co-investigator of the study alongside research teams from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Washington.
Webster also co-founded a non-profit organization, LifeSource, in 2006. The organization’s goal was to educate physicians and patients on health issues while funding and conducting research to find solutions for pain-related social and scientific issues. For the next six years, LifeSource worked within the pain community on the “Zero Unintentional Deaths” project and other endeavors aimed at improving patient quality of life. The LifeSource organization closed in 2012 to re-direct support to the American Academy of Pain Medicine Foundation (AAPMF).
Publications
Webster’s work was first published in 1978 by the Southern Medical Journal. He worked with four other medical professionals to publish the article, "Plasma cortisol and antidiuretic hormone concentrations after artificial heart implantation.” Since then, Webster’s work has appeared in over 100 scientific abstracts and journals. In 2007, he published the book, Avoiding Opioid Abuse While Managing Pain: A Guide for Practitioners. Webster currently serves as a senior editor for Pain Medicine, a medical journal and news source with a focus on pain research.
Recent awards
- Mayday Fellowship, Awarded by the American Academy of Pain Medicine in August 2010.
- “Presidential Excellence Award for Education], Awarded by the American Academy of Pain Medicine on February 25, 2012