MEMP PhD Thesis Defense: Rory Vu Mather

Identifying a Novel Opioid-Specific EEG Biomarker That Can Be Targeted to Improve Patient Pain- and Opioid-Related Outcomes

Over one million lives have been lost to the Opioid Overdose Crisis in the United States. Surgery and postoperative pain are major contributors to persistent opioid use and dependance. A study from our lab found that administering incrementally higher doses of opioids in the operating room could lead to significant decreases in postoperative pain and opioid consumption. This work highlights that postoperative pain, and opioid use could be minimized by optimizing intraoperative opioid administration, but this would require objective markers we could use to monitor opioid effects in real-time.

EEG is an intriguing candidate to identify an opioid-specific marker because of the recent discovery of an EEG signature that tracks intraoperative fentanyl administration in a dose-dependent fashion. The goals of my thesis were to identify an intraoperative EEG marker generalized to all opioids and to determine whether interventions that influence this marker can improve pain- and opioid-related outcomes. In Aim 1, I conduct a prospective observational study to characterize and localize EEG markers for opioids used in surgery. In Aim 2 I build statistical models to characterize the relationship between changes in this opioid-specific EEG biomarker and postoperative outcomes. In Aim 3 I use machine learning and causal inference methods to identify baseline and modifiable risk factors that may influence postoperative pain and opioid requirements.

The results of this work would be highly significant as it will provide the basis for individualized intraoperative administration of opioids to optimize postoperative pain while minimizing excessive opioid use and potential for addiction.

Thesis Supervisor:
Edward Bittner, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Anesthesia, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Thesis Committee Chair:
Laura Lewis, PhD
Athinoula A. Martinos Associate Professor of IMES and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
Associate Faculty, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital

Thesis Readers:
Timothy Houle, PhD
Associate Professor of Anesthesia, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Patrick Purdon, PhD
Professor of Anesthesiology and Bioengineering, Stanford University School of Medicine
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Rory Vu Mather is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting

Topic: Rory Vu Mather MEMP PhD Thesis Defense
Time: Monday, April 27, 2026, 2:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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