Mark Bender, M.D., joined us on Aug. 15 as a UF Health physician in chronic pain medicine for the regional anesthesia program at UF Health Pain Medicine – Halifax Health in Daytona Beach, Florida. In this role, Dr. Bender will play a key role in expanding the UF Health Pain Medicine services in the regional programs.
Dr. Bender completed our Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship during the 2021-22 academic year. He earned his medical degree at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, where he was valedictorian and a member of the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He completed a residency in emergency medicine at Orlando Health and an elective rotation with our pain medicine program in 2019.
Additionally, Dr. Bender has a chiropractic doctorate and started and managed a chiropractic business that included three different locations and over 20 employees.
Dr. Bender’s research experience includes participating in a quality improvement project to reduce the use of gadolinium-based contrast agents and create a standardized questionnaire to help identify patients who have true contrast allergies to minimize adverse events during interventional pain procedures. He is an author on 19 papers and published a book chapter on pain management while still in residency.
In his free time, Dr. Bender enjoys scuba diving, surfing, hiking, playing the drums, and rock climbing.
Welcome, Dr. Bender!