The Honorable Dr. Winston C. V. Parris, MD, SLC, well known internationally for his work on pain management, will be giving a public lecture at the Folk Research Centre on Wednesday April 13th at 7 pm. This lecture will be held under the auspices of The Harold Simmons Folk Academy, the educational and research arm of the FRC.
The topic of Dr. Parris’ lecture will be “Pain Medicine: yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
Dr. Winston Parris is a native of St Lucia. In 1962, he was awarded a Government scholarship to study Medicine at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and he graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Degree (MB.BS) He did a rotating Internship at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau, Bahamas. He did a residency at the University of the West Indies graduating in 1970 with the Diploma of Anesthetics degree (DA). He returned to St Lucia in 1971 and served with distinction as the only Consultant Anesthesiologist at Victoria Hospital for four and a half years. In 1975, he emigrated to the USA and did a residency at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He joined the faculty and served in that capacity for 23 years rising through the ranks to become a full-tenured Professor of Anesthesiology in 1989.
While at Vanderbilt, he published extensively on the Anesthetic management of many complex disease processes including Carcinoid syndrome, Polymyositis, Hypertensive Crises, Tracheomalacia, Chronic Renal Failure syndrome and others. Dr. Parris single-handedly developed a protocol for the Anesthetic management of Systemic Mastocytosis, a disease that was usually associated with death during surgery. His recommendations have been adopted worldwide and have significantly reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with Systemic Mastocytosis.
Dr. Parris developed an early interest in Pain Management and as early as 1979 recognized the major deficiency of Pain Management in USA in general and Tennessee in particular. He was a founding member of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the American College of Pain Medicine, the American Board of Pain Medicine and the Tennessee Pain Society. He served as President of the American Board of Pain Medicine, American College of Pain Medicine, the Tennessee Pain Society, the Leukemia Society of America-Tennessee Chapter and as Secretary of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. He also served as President of the World Society of Pain Clinicians for 6 years and during that time helped develop Pain Clinics in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Far East and Eastern Europe. Dr. Parris founded the Vanderbilt Pain Control Center in 1982 and served as its Medical Director from 1982 to 1997. Dr. Parris served on the Advisory Committee for Anesthesia, Pain and Life support Drugs of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 1998 to 2002.
Dr. Parris went into Private Practice after the death of his late wife and became the CEO of Universal Anesthesia Care, Universal Management Anesthesia Company and Universal Pain Institute in Tampa, Florida. From 2003 to the present time, Dr. Parris was the Director of Clinical Research at Anesthesia Pain Care Consultants in Fort Lauderdale. In July 2005, Dr. Parris accepted the position as Professor of Anesthesia and Chief of the Pain Programs at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina but continues to run the St Lucia Pain Institute and the St Luke’s Clinic for the underprivileged in St Lucia.
In 2004, Dr. Parris was honored by Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain with the Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for his service and accomplishments in the field of Pain Medicine.
In 2010, he received the St Lucia Cross from the Government of St Lucia for his contributions in Pain Medicine.
Dr. Parris is the author of 3 textbooks, 28 book chapters, 81 refereed publications and 147 abstracts.
The Honorable Dr. Parris’ lecture at the Folk Research Centre is open to the public.