Mark Wallace MD

Medical Advisor

Dr. Wallace is Chair, Division of Pain Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, UCSD. He diagnoses and treats all forms of pain, with a focus on chronic pain. He has extensive experience with spinal drug delivery to treat chronic pain.

Mark Wallace, MD, is a board-certified anesthesiologist who specializes in multi-modal pain management. As a pain management specialist, he evaluates, diagnoses and treats all forms of pain, though most of his patients are affected by chronic pain.

Since 1996, Dr. Wallace has been program director of UC San Diego Health’s Center for Pain Medicine, which is dedicated to reducing and eliminating suffering, and improving function in individuals with lower-back or other spine-related pain issues, joint and muscular-skeletal pain or pain due to surgery, injury, nerve damage, psychological factors and metabolic problems such as diabetes.

Under his leadership, the Center for Pain Medicine was named a Clinical Center of Excellence in Pain Management in 2010 and 2014 by the American Pain Society. The award recognizes pain care teams that “provide outstanding exemplary care."

Dr. Wallace is also chair of the Division of Pain Medicine within UC San Diego School of Medicine’s Department of Anesthesiology and has co-authored 119 peer-reviewed articles and five books on pain medicine. He is active in clinical trials of investigational drug and techniques for managing chronic pain.

Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, he was an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at University of Texas, Houston.

Dr. Wallace completed sub-speciality fellowship training in pain management at UC San Diego School of Medicine and residency training in anesthesiology at University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. He interned in general surgery at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. and earned his medical degree at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha. Dr. Wallace is board-certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine.

He received the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award in 2012 and is consistently elected as one of San Diego’s Top Doctors in San Diego Magazine's "Physicians of Exceptional Excellence" annual survey.

Dr. Wallace is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Pain Society and serves on scientific planning meetings for both national and international meetings, including the World Congress of Pain, World Institute of Pain, American Academy of Pain Medicine and American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine.