Chronic Pain Institute

Researchers Background

Stephen R. Bunker, MD

California Pacific Medical Center, Director of Nuclear Medicine

Vice President and Director, Clinical Research of The Chronic Pain Institute

Dr. Stephen R. Bunker began his undergraduate studies with an Alumni Scholarship and Honors-at-Entrance to the University of California, Berkeley. He worked with Dr. Melvin Calvin on an undergraduate research project investigating the existence of the Calvin photosynthetic cycle in higher plants and was awarded the Biophysics Training Grant after completing his baccalaureate program as an individual major in biology and physics.

He then entered medical school, receiving his M.D. degree from Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska where he was awarded the Nebraska Heart Fellowship, investigating the relationship between high cholesterol diet and atheromatous plaques in mammalian arterial walls. After subsequently completing residencies in Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Letterman Army Medical Center, San Francisco, Dr. Bunker was assigned as Chief, Nuclear Medicine Service, Department of Radiology, Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio Texas.

Promoted to the rank of Major, he was selected as the Nuclear Medicine Consultant to Health Services Command, U.S. Army. After completing his military obligation and achieving Board Certifications in Diagnostic Radiology, Nuclear Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Dr. Bunker returned to San Francisco to become Director of Nuclear Medicine, California Pacific Medical Center. He belongs to numerous professional societies, is a recipient of the Marc Tetalman Memorial Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine, and has published numerous articles in the field of diagnostic imaging.

He is a noted authority on the application of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) for the early diagnosis and staging of cardiovascular and oncologic diseases. His experience with these techniques has led to special interest in the quantification of cerebral blood flow and metabolism in various disease states, including chronic pain. The medical use of radioiosotopes for diagnostic evaluation, as well as for selected therapies, in a wide variety of malignant and nonmalignant causes of pain, will be conducted by The Chronic Pain Institute under the direct clinical supervision of Dr. Stephen R. Bunker.

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