Richard L. “Rick” Rauck
MD, FIPP · Anesthesiologist and Pain Medicine Physician
- to
- Founder, Carolinas Pain Institute
- Board Certified, Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine
A physician, researcher and teacher who believed people living with chronic pain deserve care that is thoughtful, proven and kind.
Remembering Our Founder
One year ago, on October 21, 2025, we lost our founder, Dr. Rick Rauck. He was 69.
Rick started Carolinas Pain Institute in 2004 with a simple conviction: people living with chronic pain deserve care that is thoughtful, grounded in evidence and delivered with genuine kindness. Every physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant and staff member here has been shaped by that conviction, and we carry it into every patient visit.
To the wider medical world, Rick was a researcher with more than 200 publications and a leader of national and international pain societies. To us, he was a teacher who made time for every fellow, a colleague who asked hard questions about when a treatment was truly right for a patient, and a friend who loved cycling and his Winston-Salem community.
Away from medicine, Rick was an avid sailor who loved the ocean, a passion we honor with the sailboat at the top of this page.
We miss him deeply. This page honors his life, his work and the legacy he leaves to our patients and to the field of pain medicine.
A Life Helping Patients with Chronic Pain
Rick Rauck graduated magna cum laude from Davidson College and earned his medical degree at Wake Forest. He trained in anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Cincinnati, then returned to Winston-Salem, where he spent the rest of his career caring for patients, leading research and training the next generation of pain physicians. He was board certified in both anesthesiology and pain medicine.
Doctor of Medicine, Wake Forest University Bowman Gray School of Medicine
Anesthesiology residency, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Pain medicine fellowship, University of Cincinnati; joins the Wake Forest faculty
Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice (FIPP), World Institute of Pain, in its inaugural class
Founds Carolinas Pain Institute in Winston-Salem; begins six years on the ASRA Pain Medicine Board of Directors (2004–2010)
John J. Bonica Award, ASRA Pain Medicine, one of the field’s highest honors; becomes President of the World Institute of Pain (2013–2015)
Board of Directors, North American Neuromodulation Society (2015–2017)
Dies October 21, 2025, in Winston-Salem, at age 69
His Research Lives On to Help Countless Patients
Rick believed patients deserved treatments that had been rigorously tested. Over nearly four decades he published extensively and brought his fellows into original research as part of their training.
Spinal Drug Therapy
A pioneer in delivering medication directly to the spine for severe pain, he studied new spinal medicines through a Wake Forest research collaboration funded by the National Institutes of Health for nearly 25 years.
Cancer Pain
He led a Phase III trial that resulted in FDA approval of epidural clonidine for intractable cancer pain.
Safer Long-Term Care
He helped lead the Polyanalgesic Consensus Conferences, which set ethical, evidence-based guidance for long-term spinal drug therapy.
Alternatives to Opioids
His later work explored new therapies for migraine, painful diabetic neuropathy and non-invasive neuromodulation for chronic nerve pain.
Tributes from the Field
The professional societies he served have published their own remembrances.
Honoring His Memory
Rick’s legacy lives on in the physicians he trained, the therapies he helped prove and the patients our team cares for every day in Winston-Salem and Charlotte.
Thank you, Rick. Your care for patients lives on in ours.