Lifetime Achievement Award

Each year, the Texas Pain Society gives out a lifetime achievement award to recognize the outstanding work of an individual who has dedicated their life to  advancing pain medicine and made significant changes in the world of pain medicine.  

2024 Winner

Carl Noe, MD

Dr. Noe graduated from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in 1984. He served as an anesthesiology categorical rotating intern at Texas Tech Health Science Center and Lubbock General Hospital from 7/1/84-6/30/85. He was a resident at Texas Tech from 7/1/85-6/30/86 and Chief resident from 7/1/86-6/30/87. He then completed a one-year residency at Stanford University in cardiothoracic anesthesia and critical care medicine on 6/30/88.

He was a critical care fellow under Myer Rosenthal from 7/1/88-12/31/88 and was a pain management fellow at Texas Tech under Gabor Racz from 1/9/89-6/30/89. He then practiced at Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas from July 1989 – May 2009. Along with Dr. Robert Haynsworth and others, he helped start the Baylor Center for Pain Management and served as the co-medical director from the opening in October 1992 until 2009.

Dr. Noe has been board certified in pain management since 1993. He also served as the Medical Director of the Eugene McDermott Center for Pain Management at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas (“UT Southwestern”) in a joint program venture from 1998-2002, and 2009 to the present. He was an Assistant Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology at Texas Tech University Health Science Center from 1990-1993 and was also volunteer faculty as Clinical Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at UT Southwestern Medical Center from 1991-1997 and was recruited to full time faculty at UT Southwestern where he began instructing as Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Management in 1998.

Dr. Noe has been a Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Management and Chief of the pain division in the department of Anesthesiology at UT Southwestern since 2009. Under the chairmanship of Dr Charles Whitten, they have developed an interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation program and a multi specialty pain program at UT Southwestern.  Dr. Noe has also been an Associate in the Psychology Department at UT Southwestern since 2019. 

Past Winners

C. Stratton Hill, Jr., MD - (1928-2015) - 2023 Winner

C. Stratton Hill Jr., M.D. passed away at the age of 87 on December 21, 2015 in Houston. He was born in Humboldt, TN on July 28, 1928. He graduated from and was long term trustee of Rhodes College. He spent a year at the University of Virginia Law School before finding his calling in medicine. He graduated from the University Tennessee School of Medicine in 1954 and served an internship at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He spent 2 years in US Air Force as Chief of Professional Services and Chief Medical Officer for Air Force Hospital before completing his medical training at Cornell University, Bellevue Hospital, and Seton Hall College of Medicine in New Jersey. He completed his clinical training in the emerging field of endocrinology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

In the 1970’s he took on an administrative role at M.D. Anderson and helped to operate the outpatient pain clinics. Always dedicated to patient care, during this time he established the Pain Service and served as its chief until 1994 and continued as a clinician until his retirement in 1996. He had tireless efforts as a pioneer and international leader in the movement to improve the treatment of pain. He organized a seminal conference in 1988 inviting key pain experts to discuss the Drug Treatment of Cancer Pain in a Drug-Oriented Society which was subsequently published as the 11th volume of Advances in Pain Research and Therapy. He worked with the legislature and Governor Bill Hobby to pass the nation’s first Intractable Pain Treatment Act of 1989, a model followed by many other states.

In 1991 the Texas Cancer Pain Initiative was founded under Dr. Hill’s leadership leading Governor Ann Richards to commemorate the event by declaring “Freedom from Cancer Pain Day.” He drafted a bill requiring the state’s medical schools to submit pain management curriculum to the Higher Education Coordinating Commission for review, which was also passed. He was a founding member and past president of the Texas Pain Society.

C.M. Schade, MD, PhD - 2022 Winner

Dr. Schade started his medical career in the United States Air Force. He completed his internship in Internal Medicine at David Grant United States Air Force Medical Center in California. He then relocated to San Antonio, Texas, and completed his residency in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Wilford Hall United States Air Force Medical Center, where he received invaluable experience treating soldiers and veterans at the Air Force’s largest hospital. Dr. Schade completed his ten – year military career as a Lieutenant Colonel and Flight Surgeon at the School of Aerospace Medicine.

Dr. Schade started his private practice in the Dallas metroplex in 1981 and remains today a leader in Pain Medicine. He is the past president of the Texas Pain Society, currently serves as Director Emeritus of the Texas Pain Society and was the Texas Pain Society delegate to the Texas Medical Association for 20 years.

Dr. Schade specializes in the treatment of patients with Chronic Pain as a result of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) (also known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD)) and back injuries.

Dr. Schade actively collaborates and works with the Texas Legislature, the Texas Medical Board, and the Texas Department of Insurance Workers Compensation Division developing laws and rules that benefit pain patients in the state of Texas.

Gabor B. Racz, MD - 2021 Winner

Dr. Racz filled numerous assignments, such as respiratory consultant in the neurosurgical head injury unit and Associate Professor at SUNY, until 1977 when he moved to Lubbock, Texas to become the first Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at the new Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He held that position until March 1, 1999 when, as Director of Pain Services, he focused full attention to treatment of patients, expanding the operations of pain services, and the future development of an international pain institute in Lubbock, Texas.

P. Prithvi Raj, MD (1931-2016 ) - 2021 Winner

Dr. Raj was a world-renowned anesthesiologist and pioneer in the field of regional anesthesia, setting standards for care worldwide. He began his medical training at Mysore Medical College in India and his illustrious career took him around the world. His significant research, many articles, books, lectures and demonstrations on regional anesthesia and pain management proved him to an international leader in the field. He is a founding member of American Society of Regional Anesthesia, Texas Pain Society, and the World Institute of Pain.