Halena Gazelka, M.D., is appointed by Department of Health and Human Services to serve on new Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force

Halena Gazelka, M.D. (ANES ’10, PAIN ’11, PLM ’15), Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, was appointed by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to serve on the newly established Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force. Established by the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016, the task force will identify and propose strategies to resolve inconsistencies in pain management best practices among federal agencies.

Dr. Gazelka has dedicated her career to pain and palliative medicine and serves in multiple capacities that focus on opioid management, acute and chronic pain management, neuromodulation, intrathecal drug delivery systems, spine care, and cancer pain management. She chairs the Mayo Clinic Opioid Stewardship Program, a multidisciplinary team formed to achieve safe, consistent opioid prescribing across the organization.

Dr. Gazelka is an assistant professor of anesthesiology in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.