Meet the Team

Donna-Ann Thomas, MD,  is an anesthesiologist, pain medicine physician and the division chief of pain medicine and regional anesthesiology and acute pain for Yale Medicine. She cares for patients at the Yale Spine Center and at Yale New Haven Hospital. Her specialty is managing acute pain, transitional pain, acute pain in the chronic pain patient, chronic pain and cancer pain. Dr Thomas also has a passion for developing pain programs. 

A priority for Dr. Thomas is finding ways to manage pain without the risk of opioid addiction, which is a growing concern in health care. Acknowledging that “Opioid medications help with surgical pain,” Dr. Thomas says they can be especially useful for patients who have joint replacements, spine or heart surgeries, or for those with painful broken bones. She also believes such medication may be necessary in the treatment of cancer pain and those in sickle cell crisis. However, she says these medications pose a serious risk of addiction and misuse, especially if pain pills are used after surgery for reasons other than managing pain.