Leadership 

The EPA Board of Directors established the RaymondW. Houde Memorial Lecture in 2006 to honor Dr. Houde’s life and his many contributions to the field of pain, as well as his deep interest in and devotion to the Eastern Pain Association. He never missed a single meeting in over 25 years.

Although he was born in New Hampshire in 1916, Ray was a true New Yorker through his training first in medical school at New York University, then an internship at Bellevue Hospital, and finally as a Medical Resident at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, where he spent the rest of his illustrious career.

Ray was a founding member of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), the American Pain Society (APS) and the Eastern Pain Association (EPA). He was President of the EPA from 1978-1979 and one of the few honorary lifetime members of the EPA. Ray was a pioneer in the clinical evaluation of opioid analgesics. In early 1951 Ray, Stanley Wallenstein and Ada Rogers formed the Analgesic Studies Section at Memorial Hospital. Together they formulated the method of assaying analgesics, utilizing the double-blind technique, randomized graded doses as well as other innovations resulting in many publications and the equi-analgesic opioid conversion charts which have become almost ubiquitous in any pain management setting where opioids are used.

In the words of Ada Rogers, “Dr. Raymond Houde was a true humanitarian, a compassionate physician, a meticulous researcher, a titanic teacher and mentor, a pioneer in clinical pharmacology and most of all a faithful friend which is the medicine of life.The field of Clinical Pharmacology and the management of pain is better because of him.”
In honor of Ray’s great contributions to the field of pain management in general and the Eastern Pain Association in particular, the EPA is establishing the RaymondW. Houde Memorial Lecture. In 2006, the first recipient was Dr. James Henry, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Anesthesia and the inaugural scientific director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Pain Research and Care at McMaster University. His lecture was entitled “Pain Can Become a Disease Itself.”