Joseph Neal to Receive Gaston Labat Award at ASRA Meeting in Las Vegas

Newswise — Dr. Joseph M. Neal will receive ASRA’s 2019 Gaston Labat Award at the 44^th Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Meeting in Las Vegas, NV. A former president of ASRA (2012-2015) and editor-in-chief of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (2002-2012), Dr. Neal has been an active member of ASRA for many years and is widely respected in the field. He will present his lecture, entitled “Auld Lange Syne,” on April 13 at 11:45 am.

The Gaston Labat Award is given annually to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding contributions to the development, teaching, and practice of regional anesthesia in the tradition of Gaston P. Labat, MD (1843-1908).

Dr. Neal received his undergraduate and medical training at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and the West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown. He returned to Bowman Gray/Wake Forest University to complete residencies in emergency medicine and anesthesiology. After fellowship training in regional anesthesia at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, WA, he joined that group in 1989. He directed the Virginia Mason regional anesthesia fellowship for over a decade as well as its anesthesiology residency program. He served as director of research from 2013-2017.

Kevin E. Vorenkamp, MD, who worked for many years with Dr. Neal at Virginia Mason Medical Center, wrote in his nomination that “Dr. Neal has long established himself as an international leader in regional anesthesia, with too many publications to list. He remains active clinically as well as academically. He has instructed hundreds of anesthesiology residents and regional anesthesia fellows at Virginia Mason, and his presentations and publications have easily reached thousands more. I can think of nobody more qualified in this regard for the Gaston Labat Award.”

Dr. Neal has been a researcher on 12 grants, presented at hundreds of national and regional meetings, organized 24 meetings, authored over 74 peer-reviewed articles, and published four books on various topics in the regional anesthesia and pain medicine field.

He is the 43^rd recipient of the award, which was created to recognize those who have fostered the art and science of regional anesthesia in the tradition of Gaston Labat by contribution to the performance of research that has furthered the specialty, innovative teaching traditions, organizational contributions, or simply exemplary clinical practice of regional anesthesia that has encouraged its expanded application.

The 44^th Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Meeting will be held April 11-13, 2019, in Las Vegas, NV.