Meet 2024 Speaker Dr. Robert Coghill

Dr. Robert C. Coghill is the Director of the Pediatric Pain Research Center and a Professor in the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Dr. Coghill earned his PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed post-doctoral fellowships at the Universitè de Montrèal and the Montreal Neurological Institute, and the National Institutes of Health. He was the 2018 recipient of the Frederick W.L. Kerr medallion for his work in the basic science of pain.
Dr. Coghill’s research interleaves data obtained with functional MRI of brain activity with subjective reports of pain and psychological state. He is highly interested in understanding how the nervous system evaluates and constructs an experience of sensory components of pain, including perceived intensity and location. Dr. Coghill also seeks to develop of better tools for the measurement of multiple dimensions of the pain experience. His laboratory is combining pain assessments, psychological profiles, and neuroimaging endpoints to develop strategies to better predict, diagnose, and treat pain. Together with a highly collaborative group of clinicians and scientists within the Pediatric Pain Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, he is using these approaches to better understand multiple forms of pediatric chronic pain.
Dr. Coghill serves as a Councilor for the International Association for the Study of Pain, Section Editor for imaging and measurement for PAIN, and on the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Integrative Health.