Michael Ray

Dr. Michael Ray is an Assistant research Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. His research focuses on understanding the transition from acute to chronic pain and developing non-pharmacological interventions to improve pain management.

He began his career in clinical practice, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain, before serving as an Assistant Professor of Health and Human Sciences at Bridgewater College. Currently, his work examines the emergency department as a key setting for early identification and intervention in patients at risk of developing chronic pain. He integrates patient-reported outcomes, pain beliefs, psychological distress, and social determinants of health into predictive models to inform targeted, evidence-based care. A mixed-methods researcher with expertise in both qualitative and quantitative approaches, Dr. Ray applies complementary methodologies to capture the complex biological, psychological, and social factors influencing pain trajectories.

Dr. Ray is the lead or co-author of multiple peer-reviewed publications and has presented his research nationally and internationally. His long-term goal is to develop and implement scalable, opioid-sparing pain management strategies that address biological and psychosocial contributors to pain, particularly in high-utilization settings such as the emergency department. He is actively engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations spanning pain science, epidemiology, and health services research, and is pursuing NIH funding to support the integration of predictive modeling and targeted pain interventions in acute care environments.

Membership:

• Society of Academic Emergency Medicine
• United States Association for the Study of Pain
• International Association for the Study of Pain

Ongoing Research Projects

• PREVENT: Understanding Pain Progression After Emergency Department Visits
  Principal Investigator
  Prospective cohort study examining biopsychosocial factors associated with the development of chronic pain following an emergency department visit for acute musculoskeletal pain.
• System-Level Factors Associated with Mortality Among Adults with Chronic Pain
  Principal Investigator
  Study using restricted linked data from the National Health Interview Survey, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, and National Death Index to examine healthcare utilization, pain characteristics, and system-level factors associated with mortality among adults with chronic pain.