"John Bonica was an anesthesiologist and is recognized as the father of pain management, a field that has now evolved into the well-recognized medical specialty called Pain Medicine. After completing residency in 1944, Bonica joined the United States Army and was appointed Chief of Anesthesiology at Michigan Army Medical Center in Fort Lewis, Washington. For the next three years, he gained first hand experience while treating painful injuries in World War II veterans. As an anesthesiologist, Bonica found that the tools at his disposal, opioid analgesics and peripheral nerve blocks using local anesthetics, were just a small part of what was needed to adequately diagnose and treat patients with complex, chronic painful disorders. He went on to pioneer the concept of bringing multiple medial specialists together to evaluate patients and and construct a comprehensive treatment plan for each patient. Thus, the multidisciplinary approach to pain management was born."