Robert J. Trainer, DO, serves as Vice Chair of the ASPN Military Leadership Council for the American Society of Pain & Neuroscience. He is a board-certified anesthesiologist and pain medicine physician affiliated with the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, where his clinical and research work focuses on pain management for veterans and service members, including patients with amputation-related and combat-related pain. Dr. Trainer holds triple board certification in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, and Addiction Medicine. He earned his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed his anesthesiology residency at Stony Brook Medicine/University Hospital.
Dr. Trainer’s research bridges military and veteran pain care. Early in his career, while affiliated with the Department of Pain Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, he co-authored a widely cited case report describing lumbar radiofrequency facet denervation performed on soldiers in a wartime theater, allowing them to return to full combat duty. At the Richmond VA, he has been part of a multi-institutional research team, alongside investigators including Dr. Denise Lester and Dr. Steven Cohen, studying percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation for chronic pain following amputation, with findings published in Military Medicine. His broader academic contributions include authoring textbook chapters on anesthesia topics, developing CME lecture series, and serving as an examiner for board certification candidates.
Through the ASPN Military Leadership Council, Dr. Trainer brings this VA- and military-facing pain management experience to the Society’s broader mission of advancing interventional pain care for service members and veterans.