Friedhelm Sandbrink, MD
National Program Director for Pain Management, Specialty Care Services; and Veterans Health Administration, Director Pain Management, Dept of Neurology, VAMC
Dr. Friedhelm Sandbrink is the National Program Director for Pain Management in the Veterans Health Administration. He joined the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2001 and since then has been leading the comprehensive interdisciplinary Pain Management Program at the Washington VA Medical Center. He became the National Program Director in September 2018, after serving previously as Deputy Director and Acting Director.
He completed his residency in Neurology at Georgetown University in Washington DC, and fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. He is board-certified in Neurology, Clinical Neurophysiology and Pain Medicine. He is Clinical Associate Professor in Neurology at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD and Assistant Clinical Professor of Neurology at George Washington University in Washington DC.
He participates in many VHA and national Pain Management initiatives including the workgroups for the VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines for Opioid Therapy for Chronic Pain (2017) and for Low Back Pain (2017). He was a member of the Pain Management Best Practices Task Force by the Department of Health and Human Services. He is active within the National Pain Strategy Implementation workgroups and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Opioid Collaborative. He is co-chair of the VA/DoD Pain Management Work Group under the Health Executive Committee.