As a pediatric anesthesiologist and pain medicine specialist, Sean J. Gamble, MD, appreciates every opportunity to improve patient care and help relieve pain and anxiety in children. In addition to keeping kids safe in the operating room, he helps to alleviate the pain of an illness or injury or recovery after medical or surgical procedures.

Dr. Gamble's specialties include acute and chronic pain medicine and interventional pain medicine. He understands the special needs of children who are suffering, including how to ease their fears and manage their pain to promote healing.

"Every patient deserves my full attention and time, which starts by actively listening," he says. "I want to educate, demystify and improve a child's quality of life. Sometimes that's as simple as helping children to have a paradigm shift about how they think about pain. Other times it's as profound as curing their pain altogether. Both are very rewarding experiences for me."

As a young boy, Dr. Gamble was inspired by his grandfather who would sometimes give him doctors kits at Christmas time and joke that he'd become the family's first doctor.

"He was more than a grandfather, he was a friend and mentor," says Dr. Gamble. "Whatever he saw in me back then grew and grew. For as long as I can remember, I never wanted to pursue anything else. I wanted to make him proud."

The opportunity to work with children drew Dr. Gamble to this specialty. "There is no better group of patients to work for," he says. "Their innocence makes it easy to work harder and strive to do better for them every day."

Dr. Gamble chose Phoenix Children's to be a part of a private practice anesthesia group, while also managing academic level cases in the operating room and taking the hospital's pain program to the next level.

He has always enjoyed academic and leadership challenges, consistently ranking in the top 1% scholastically. Dr. Gamble was valedictorian of his medical class, chief fellow at both fellowships, and earned the research award at University of Southern California (USC) as a fellow. He completed an advanced leadership course for medical professionals at USC.

When Dr. Gamble is not providing patient care, he and his wife Kelsey stay busy with four children and other activities. They love boating and water sports, and are also avid skiers and travelers.