Conor O'Neill, MD
Professor
Orthopaedic Surgery
School of Medicine
Specializing in diagnostic and non-surgical treatment for patients with chronic back and neck pain, Dr. Conor O'Neill has performed more than 40,000 back and neck interventional pain-management procedures over his career. Using a variety of methods, including both physical medicine and pain management, he works to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to patients with spinal disorders.
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Board-certified in Internal Medicine, Anesthesiology, and Pain Management, Dr. O'Neill also is an active researcher who has contributed to more than 100 articles and presentations. He also founded the California Spine Diagnostics Medical Group in San Francisco.
At UCSF, he led the development of the Integrated Spine Service, a multidisciplinary team that includes non-operative spine and physical therapy providers. Dr. O'Neill's clinic is based at the UCSF Orthopedic Institute at the UCSF Mission Bay campus in San Francisco.
Dr. O’Neill’s research is focused on improved diagnostics, innovative ways to treat back and neck pain, and developing new collaborative interdisciplinary models to treat back and neck pain. With Jeffrey Lotz, Ph.D., he is leading UCSF REACH, the UCSF Core Center for Patient-centric, Mechanistic Phenotyping in Chronic Low Back Pain. UCSF REACH has received NIH funding totaling more than $30 million to conduct both translational and clinical research to clarify biopsychosocial mechanisms of back pain – the interconnection between biology, biomechanics, psychology, and socio-environmental factors – which will catalyze new therapeutic, diagnostic and prevention strategies. Other specific research projects include:
Diagnosis of spinal pain. Dr. O’Neill has been involved in studies examining the utility of historical features, imaging (MRI and CT scans), and invasive studies in diagnosis of chronic low back pain. Presently, he is a co-investigator on a study examining the usefulness of a novel MRI sequence in diagnosing a specific subgroup of discogenic pain.
Biologic therapies for discogenic pain. Dr. O’Neill has collaborated with basic science faculty on studies investigating mechanisms of action of novel therapies for discogenic back pain. He was the principle investigator for the San Francisco site of a now-completed multi-center phase III trial on the use of fibrin sealant for discogenic pain. He was also the principle investigator for the San Francisco site of a multi-center phase II trial on intra-discal injection of juvenile chondrocytes for low back pain.
Education & Training
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- Resdiency Anesthesiology Massachusetts General Hospital 1991
- Resdiency Internal Medicine Barnes Hospital 1988
- Intern Internal Medicine Duke University Medical Center, 1986
- MD Washington University School of Medicine, 1985
- BA Biology College of St. Thomas 1981
Websites
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- Conor O'Neill MD, UCSF Dept. of Orthopaedic Surgery (orthosurgery.ucsf.edu)
- Preparing for your Non-operative Spine Appointment (tiny.ucsf.edu)
- Conor O'Neill MD, UCSF Health (ucsfhealth.org)
Videos
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Publications (13)
Top publication keywords:
Lumbosacral RegionLow Back PainChronic PainSpinal FusionLumbar VertebraeOpioid-Related DisordersBioengineeringPain ManagementIntervertebral DiscIntervertebral Disc DegenerationPatient PreferencePain MeasurementChoice BehaviorResearch DesignAdvisory Committees
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Predictors of response in PROMIS-global in a chronic low back pain specialty clinic: STarTBack and chronic overlapping pain conditions.
Journal of back and musculoskeletal rehabilitation 2024 Zheng P, Ewing S, Tang A, Black D, Hue T, Lotz J, Peterson T, Torres-Espin A, O'Neill C -
Preferences for risks and benefits of treatment outcomes for chronic low back pain: Choice-based conjoint measure development and discrete choice experiment.
PM & R : the journal of injury, function, and rehabilitation 2023 Wilson L, Denham A, Ionova Y, O'Neill C, Greco CM, Hassett AL, Hanmer J, Shaikh S, Wolf M, Berven S, Williams D, Ma Y, Lotz J, Zheng P -
The Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program Data Harmonization: Rationale for Data Elements and Standards.
Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) 2023 Batorsky A, Bowden AE, Darwin J, Fields AJ, Greco CM, Harris RE, Hue TF, Kakyomya J, Mehling W, O'Neill C, Patterson CG, Piva SR, Sollmann N, Toups V, Wasan AD, Wasserman R, Williams DA, Vo NV, Psioda… -
The Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program: Structure, Research Priorities, and Methods.
Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) 2023 Mauck MC, Lotz J, Psioda MA, Carey TS, Clauw DJ, Majumdar S, Marras WS, Vo N, Aylward A, Hoffmeyer A, Zheng P, Ivanova A, McCumber M, Carson C, Anstrom KJ, Bowden AE, Dalton D, Derr L, Dufour J, … -
Theoretical Schemas to Guide Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Chronic Low Back Pain Clinical Research.
Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) 2023 Chau A, Steib S, Whitaker E, Kohns D, Quinter A, Craig A, Chiodo A, Chandran S, Laidlaw A, Schott Z, Farlow N, Yarjanian J, Omwanghe A, Wasserman R, O'Neill C, Clauw D, Bowden A, Marras W, Carey T, …
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CAPER: patient preferences to inform nonsurgical treatment of chronic low back pain: a discrete-choice experiment.
Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) 2023 Wilson L, Zheng P, Ionova Y, Denham A, Yoo C, Ma Y, Greco CM, Hanmer J, Williams DA, Hassett AL, Scheffler AW, Valone F, Mehling W, Berven S, Lotz J, O'Neill C -
Deep-learning-based biomarker of spinal cartilage endplate health using ultra-short echo time magnetic resonance imaging.
Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery 2023 Bonnheim NB, Wang L, Lazar AA, Chachad R, Zhou J, Guo X, O'Neill C, Castellanos J, Du J, Jang H, Krug R, Fields AJ -
Multi-domain biopsychosocial postoperative recovery trajectories associate with patient outcomes following lumbar fusion.
European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society 2023 Halvorson RT, Torres-Espin A, Callahan M, Tay B, O'Neill C, Berven S, Lotz JC, Bailey JF -
ISSLS Prize in Bioengineering Science 2023: Age- and sex-related differences in lumbar intervertebral disc degeneration between patients with chronic low back pain and asymptomatic controls.
European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society 2023 Bonnheim NB, Lazar AA, Kumar A, Akkaya Z, Zhou J, Guo X, O'Neill C, Link TM, Lotz JC, Krug R, Fields AJ -
Toward a causal model of chronic back pain: Challenges and opportunities.
Frontiers in computational neuroscience 2023 Huie JR, Vashisht R, Galivanche A, Hadjadj C, Morshed S, Butte AJ, Ferguson AR, O'Neill C -
Evidence-based interventions to treat chronic low back pain: treatment selection for a personalized medicine approach.
Pain reports 2022 Mauck MC, Aylward AF, Barton CE, Birckhead B, Carey T, Dalton DM, Fields AJ, Fritz J, Hassett AL, Hoffmeyer A, Jones SB, McLean SA, Mehling WE, O'Neill CW, Schneider MJ, Williams DA, Zheng P, Wasan AD -
Influence of patient-specific factors when comparing multifidus fat infiltration between chronic low back pain patients and asymptomatic controls.
JOR spine 2022 Ballatori AM, Shahrestani S, Nyayapati P, Agarwal V, Krug R, Han M, Fields AJ, O'Neill C, Demir-Deviren S, Lotz JC, Bailey JF -
The contributions of cartilage endplate composition and vertebral bone marrow fat to intervertebral disc degeneration in patients with chronic low back pain.
European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society 2022 Bonnheim NB, Wang L, Lazar AA, Zhou J, Chachad R, Sollmann N, Guo X, Iriondo C, O'Neill C, Lotz JC, Link TM, Krug R, Fields AJ