Ben A. Rich, J.D., Ph.D.

 Brief Professional Summary

Ben Rich is Professor of Internal Medicine, Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, and School of Medicine Alumni Association Endowed Chair of Bioethics at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. He is also Visiting Professor at the UC Davis School of Law. Prior to becoming a full time academic, he was an attorney specializing in health care and higher education law and civil litigation.

Dr. Rich’s many activities in the field of pain and palliative medicine include the following. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Pain Foundation, Chair of the Ethics Committee of the American Pain Society, and a member of the Council of Ethics of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. He is on the Advisory Council of the Northern California Pain Initiative and a member of the Advisory Board for the California Coalition for Compassionate Care. Dr. Rich served on the American Pain Society/American Academy of Pain Medicine Interdisciplinary Panel developing Clinical Practice Guidelines on Prescribing Opioid Analgesics for Chronic Noncancer Pain. He was among the original group of Mayday Faculty Scholars of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics conducting work on legal and public policy issues in pain management.

Dr. Rich is editor of the Forsensic Section of the journal Pain Medicine, heads the Pain and the Law department of the American Pain Society Bulletin, and is section editor of the Caduceus in Court of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. He is also editor of a new section in the forthcoming 4^th edition of Bonica’s Management of Pain on ethical, legal, social, and public policy issues. Dr. Rich has authored numerous articles and chapters in medical, legal, and bioethics publications on topics in pain management and end-of-life care and is a frequent presenter to academic and professional organizations.