March 18, 2015

OHSU Family Medicine researcher Richard Deyo, M.D., MPH, has been awarded the 2015 Wiltse Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS).

The annual award, which includes $15,000, is presented to one outstanding scientist, clinician or researcher who has demonstrated exceptional achievement and made a major contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the field of spinal disorders. The award will be formally presented to Dr. Deyo at the 42nd ISSLS Annual Meeting in June in San Francisco.

"This is a real honor, but of course all good research is a team effort," Dr. Deyo said. "I've been lucky enough to always be on the best team and to be in a great research environment."

Dr. Deyo is board certified in internal medicine and is the Kaiser Permanente Professor of Evidence-Based Family Medicine and Professor of Medicine at OHSU Family Medicine. He practiced primary care medicine in an academic medical center for more than 25 years, and has a national and international reputation for research on low back pain.

Dr. Deyo has authored two books: Watch your Back!  How the Back Pain Industry is Costing Us More and Giving Us Less (2014) and Hope or Hype: The Obsession with Medical Advances and the High Cost of False Promises (2005). He is a deputy editor of the scientific journal Spine, a member of the editorial board of the Back Group of the Cochrane Collaboration, and co-editor of the book Evidence-Based Clinical Practice: Concepts and Approaches. He has authored or co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific articles, mostly concerning back pain. Read more about Dr. Deyo.