Brian Brenner, MD ’20, chief resident physician of the anesthesiology department at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, has been named the 2024 Resident/Fellow of the Year by the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA Pain Medicine).

The Resident/Fellow of the Year Award is given annually to a resident or fellow member of ASRA Pain Medicine who has demonstrated significant contributions to ASRA Pain Medicine events or activities related to regional anesthesia or pain medicine, has contributed to the welfare of residents, or quality of residency education, serves as a role model and mentor, and embodies the values of ASRA Pain Medicine.

Brenner completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Florida and earned his medical degree from UVA. As a Health Professions Scholarship Program Recipient, he received a full scholarship from the United States Navy to attend medical school. During this time, Brenner was a member of the UVA Chapter of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, including roles as vice president from 2018-2019 and president from 2019-2020. Serving as an officer and reservist physician, Brenner will be a future active-duty physician.

For the 2023-2024 academic year, Brenner was chosen as an American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Resident Scholar Program recipient, one of only five resident physicians selected nationally. This scholarship program sponsors a resident physician in Washington, DC during a congressional session for them to gain a better understanding and experience of how political, legislative, and regulatory factors affect the delivery of patient care.

Under the mentorship of Dr. Lynn Kohan at UVA, Brenner is investigating the value of telemedicine as a resource in pain medicine and its implication as a tool for interventional procedure evaluation, post-COVID-19. Kohan adds that he is “…extremely inquisitive and has the rare trait of truly thinking about the underlying pathophysiology involved in the patient’s suspected disease process.”

Brenner has represented Virginia as an ASA Resident Delegate since 2021 and has served as the resident lobbyist for the Virginia Society of Anesthesiologists since 2022. Additionally, he is the resident representative for the UVA Health system-wide initiative to advocate for anesthesia residents in health systems matters on new policies and proceedings affecting UVA residents. He is also recognized as a UVA Global Health Leadership Scholar.

Brenner is passionate about fostering and furthering inclusive medical student education and creating equity within the field. In 2022, he was awarded the UVA School of Medicine Mulholland Resident and Fellow Teaching Award and was selected to join as one of eight resident physicians for UVA’s Academy for Excellence in Education in 2021.

Currently, Brenner is the lead author and head of the Spanish Perioperative Augmentation Initiative (SPAIN) at UVA. The SPAIN initiative was created in collaboration with the Spanish, medicine, and surgery departments at UVA, to improve physician and nurse comfort with the Spanish language through in-person and online culture competency classes and assessments. This initiative is ongoing and would increase communication and patient care in the operating room where in-person or virtual translators are ineffective or prohibitive.

Brenner is actively engaged with ASRA Pain Medicine with a focus on residents and medical students. He was selected as the education subcommittee chair of the Resident and Fellow Committee, serving from 2023-2024, and was appointed as a member of the Medical Student Education Task Force in 2022. As a continued member of the Medical Student Task Force, he focuses on implementing and fostering better acute and chronic pain curriculum materials and resources for medical student education across the United States and is the creator of the chronic pain problem-based learning discussion module template used by the ASRA Pain Medicine Resident & Fellow Committee.

Brenner has presented abstracts at meetings for ASRA Pain Medicine, ASA, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, and the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy during their 2023 World Congress on Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine.

Outside of the medical field, Brenner enjoys fitness, soccer, snowboarding, and all things outdoors. While attending the University of Florida, he was a skateboarding instructor for the City of Tampa Parks and Recreation Department, developing programs, providing private lessons, and overseeing a team of instructors. He is lifetime-certified for diving such as rescue, nitrox, advanced and basic open water diving.