Pain Medicine and Anesthesiology

Donna Kalauokalani, M.D., MPH
Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine
Director of Health Outcomes Research
UC Davis Medical Center

Dr. Donna Kalauokalani received her medical degree from the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School Of Medicine. She has completed post-graduate training in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, Preventive Medicine, Public Health, and Health Services Research. She completed a prestigious fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar’s program and obtained her master’s degree in Public Health, both at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Her current clinical interests focus upon health care for low back pain and the management of pains related to injuries of the nervous system. She is particularly interested in multidisciplinary pain management for chronic pain including that associated with cancer, HIV, and other conditions. She also provides oversight for the UC Davis Medical Center’s Acute Pain Service for post-operative and other pain problems experienced by hospitalized patients. Her research interests focus on understanding factors that influence need, demand and utilization of both conventional and alternative pain management services, and how these factors affect clinical services and outcomes.

Dr. Kalauokalani lectures nationally and internationally on a wider range of topics in pain medicine. Honored for her award-winning research methodology, Dr. Kalauokalani frequently consults with colleagues on design and methods for their proposed studies. She serves as reviewer for various medical journals, publishes on a broad range of pain medicine topics, and serves as Editor for Resource Reviews for Pain Medicine, journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. As Vice-Chair for the Disparities in Pain section of the American Pain Society, she advocates for equal access to treatment and educates practitioners and policy makers in various settings about optimal pain treatment.