Recipient of the 2017 Legacy Lecture
Co-founder on Neuromodulation: The Science Conference
Elliot S. Krames, MD, is a board-certified anesthesiologist who has been practicing pain medicine solely since 1982. He is a pioneer and one of the leading experts in the field of intraspinal analgesia. He is a worldwide-recognized leader and educator in the field of neuromodulation for pain control. He has written extensively on implantable technologies for pain management and has conducted national and international symposia related to this topic.
Co-founder of Neuromodulation: The Science Conference, Elliot Krames, MD, established the journal Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface in 1998 as the preeminent journal to advance basic science research in the field of neuromodulation.
Dr. Krames received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina in 1966 and graduated from medical school in 1971 from the University of Maryland. He received his Anesthesiology training at UCSF and completed a fellowship in Obstetrical Anesthesia at UCSF, graduating in 1975.
He was the Director of Obstetrical Anesthesa at Mount Zion Hospital from 1975 until 1978 and the Director of Cancer Pain Management at Mount Zion Hospital from 1978 until 1985. From 1987 to 2014, Dr. Krames was the Medical Director of Pacific Pain Treatment Centers in the San Francisco Bay Area, an organization of pain clinics dedicated to interdisciplinary pain medicine.
He is co-founder of the National Pain Foundation, a founding member of the North American Neuromodulation Society and has participated on the Boards of the North American Neuromodulation Society, the International Neuromodulation Society, the World Institute of Pain, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, and the American Board of Pain Medicine. Dr. Krames was Past President of the International Neuromodulation Society (INS) and the founding Editor of Neuromodulation, journal of the INS. He serves as scientific adviser and is on the speaker’s bureaus of several major medical corporations.
Among the more than 25 meetings he has chaired, Dr. Krames was the Chairman of the Worldwide Pain Conference of the International and North American Neuromodulation Societies, the World Institute of Pain and the World Society of Pain Clinicians, held July 15 – 21, 2000 in San Francisco, California; Co-chairman of the 6th World Congress of the International Neuromodulation Society, June 25 – 28, 2003, Madrid, Spain; and Chairman of the 7th and 8th INS World Congresses in 2007 in Acapulco, Mexico and 2009 in Seoul, Korea, respectively; as well as co-chair of the inaugural meeting on Electrical Stimulation Of The Nervous System: Mechanisms of Action, held March 28 – 31, 2014 in Orlando Florida. He is co-founder of Neuromodulation: the Science, an annual conference advancing the field of neuromodulation.
Among his awards and honors, he received the President’s Award for Outstanding Service from the North American Neuromodulation Society in 2003 and Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, the International Neuromodulation Society’s Giant of Neuromodulation Award in 2013, and the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s President’s Award for Promoting the Science of Pain Medicine in 2014.
Dr. Krames served as INS President from 2006 to 2009, as Immediate Past President from 2009 to 2011, and since 2011 has been Emeritus Director-at-Large. He is now retired and travels the world giving talks on the science of neuromodulation.
Sessions at Neurovations Events
2017 Napa Pain Conference
2015 Napa Pain Conference
- Mechanisms of Action: Neurostimulation
2014 Napa Pain Conference
- Mechanisms of Action of Electrical Stimulation of the Central Nervous System
Select Publications
Dr. Krames has published more than 180 research papers, serves on several editorial boards, and co-edited a number of books, including Operative Neuromodulation: Volume 1: Functional Neuroprosthetic Surgery in 2007 with Professor Damianos Sakas and Brian Simpson, MA, MD, FRCS, and Neuromodulation, Volumes 1 – 2 in 2009 with professors P. Hunter Peckham and Ali Rezai.
Dr. Krames was the founding editor of Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, the journal of the International Neuromodulation Society, serving as Editor-in-Chief from 1998 until September 2009, when he became Emeritus Editor-in-Chief.