The Seymour Diamond, M.D. Lectureship Award is presented annually to the author of the most significant paper in headache published during the previous year. The 2018 recipient is Dr. Timothy T. Houle, Ph.D., based on his paper “Forecasting Individual Headache Attacks Using Perceived Stress: Development of a Multivariable Prediction Model for Persons with Episodic Migraine” which appeared in the journal Headache 2017.
Dr. Houle’s paper is based on his Headache Prediction Study (HAPRED 1), a study that focuses on the biopsychosocial predictors of headache, specifically stress. The goal is to identify triggers to more accurately predict when someone will experience headache, shifting treatment away from pain management to pain prevention. Dr. Houle and his associates have expanded their research since HAPRED 1 to develop HAPRED 2, a larger study that includes even more patients. Both studies were made possible by a grant from the National Institute Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Dr. Houle is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He previously served as Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Neurology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, as well as Adjunct Research Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Born in Oshkosh, Wisc., Dr. Houle received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology (magna cum laude) from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He completed a postdoctoral residency in clinical psychology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss. Dr. Houle completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pain psychology at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
Dr. Houle is a member of the American Headache Society, and served as the chair of its
Research Methods Section from 2013 – 2015. He is also a member of both the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the Southern Headache Society. Dr. Houle serves as an ad hoc reviewer for several professional journals, including the Clinical Journal of Pain, European Journal of Pain, JAMA and Pain. He is the statistical consultant for Anesthesiology and Headache journals and an associate editor of Cephalalgia. His research investigations have resulted in over 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
