Thomas E. Buchheit, MD
Pain Medicine Specialist
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About Me
I’ve practiced interventional pain and musculoskeletal medicine for the past 20 years, and re-joined Duke in 2010 to build a program that sheds new light onto the treatments for nerve and arthritis pain. I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with many talented clinicians and researchers in the United States and Europe, allowing us to build a program in the Center for Translational Pain Medicine that moves beyond traditional pain medications and avoids many of their risks and complications. Our treatments center around the application of regenerative therapies that promote the active resolution of inflammation and pain for several arthritic conditions. I find it extremely rewarding to watch patients progress during their treatment course and meet their goals. I’m currently the Division Chief for Pain Medicine, a member of Duke’s Center for Translational Pain Medicine, Director of Regenerative Pain Therapies, and serve on the Editorial Board of Pain Medicine.
- Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Anesthesiology, Pain Management 2024
- Director, Duke Regenerative Pain Therapies Program, Anesthesiology, Pain Management 2012
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Ratings and Reviews
The ratings and reviews are based on patient responses to the overall provider rating question from the survey. The question reads: “Using any number from 0 to 10, where 0 is the worst provider possible and 10 is the best provider possible, what number would you use to rate this provider?” Responses are converted to a 5-point rating system and applied consistently to all providers. Learn more about our survey process. Patients who see some types of providers receive a different version of the patient satisfaction survey. Those results are not available on DukeHealth.org.
Training and Education
In the News
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Clinical Focus and Research
My research and clinical focus is on the mechanisms that drive pain in arthritis and degenerative conditions. Our team has spent years investigating the inflammatory mechanisms that lead to chronic pain after injury. This research has led to the development of our regenerative pain therapies program. Studying the body’s response to injury, we’ve been able to move beyond opioids, steroids, and anti-inflammatory medications to develop effective, biologically-based treatments, particularly in the treatment of non-surgical arthritis.
- Development of Adrb3 Antagonists for the Treatment of Pain awarded by National Institutes of Health 2023 - 2025
- Duke Pain Early-phase Research Clinical Center (PERC) awarded by National Institutes of Health 2019 - 2024
- Clarke, Collin, David R. Lindsay, Srinivas Pyati, and Thomas Buchheit. “Residual limb pain is not a diagnosis: a proposed algorithm to classify postamputation pain.” Clin J Pain 29, no. 6 (June 2013): 551–62. https://doi.org/10.1097/AJP.0b013e318261c9f9.
- Buchheit, Thomas, Thomas Van de Ven, and Andrew Shaw. “Epigenetics and the transition from acute to chronic pain.” Pain Med 13, no. 11 (November 2012): 1474–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-4637.2012.01488.x.
- Buchheit, Thomas, and Srinivas Pyati. “Prevention of chronic pain after surgical nerve injury: amputation and thoracotomy.” Surg Clin North Am 92, no. 2 (April 2012): 393–x. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.suc.2012.01.005.
- Buchheit, T. “Platelet-Rich Plasma and Autologous Conditioned Serum: Non-Cellular Biologic Therapies for Neuroimmune Modulation and the Treatment of Arthritis Pain.” In Neuroimmune Interactions in Pain: Mechanisms and Therapeutics, 287–303, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29231-6_12.
- Ganesh, A., and T. E. Buchheit. “Opioid Tapering for Acute on Chronic Non-cancer Pain.” In Hospitalized Chronic Pain Patient: A Multidisciplinary Treatment Guide, 249–54, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08376-1_45.
- Ray, Neil, and Thomas Buchheit. “Improving Pain & Outcomes in the Perioperative Setting.” In Perioperative Medicine Managing for Outcome, edited by Mark Newman, Lee Fleisher, Clifford Ko, and Michael Mythen. Elsevier, 2021.
- Anderson, Jennifer, Kathryn Komaki, Steven Prakken, Lance Roy, Thomas Buchheit, John Hunting, and Padma Gulur. “ROLE OF PAIN SPECIALISTS IN REDUCING HEALTHCARE COSTS FOR PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC PAIN.” In ANESTHESIA AND ANALGESIA, 126:452–54. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS, 2018.
- Pleticha, Josef, Steven Prakken, Thomas Buchheit, Padma Gulur, Scott Bearrows, Julie Westover, and Solomon Aronson. “Financial Impact of Intensive Outpatient Pain Management of Duke Health System High Utilizers.” In ANESTHESIA AND ANALGESIA, 124:786–88. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS, 2017.
Insurance Accepted
Duke Health contracts with most major health insurance providers. At Duke Innovative Pain Therapies at Brier Creek, all services may not be covered. Please contact Duke Innovative Pain Therapies at Brier Creek at 919-660-9000 to confirm that we accept your insurance plan, and what (if any) co-payments, co-insurances and deductibles will be your responsibility. For services at other locations, please call your insurance company to confirm your access to health care services.
External Relationships
- Bull Publishing
- Mainstay Medical
- North Carolina Medical Board