Accepting new patients

Sandy Christiansen, M.D., M.C.R.

Accepting new patients

  • Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, School of Medicine

Specialty

  • Anesthesiology

Clinical focus

  • Pain

Locations and contact

I see patients at
Tall building with the ariel tram to its left
Center for Health & Healing, Building 1
503-494-8311
Read clinic details

About me

Dr. Sandy Christiansen is double board-certified Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at OHSU. She serves as the Lead Physician for the Cancer Pain Program at the OHSU Comprehensive Pain Center, where she specializes in multimodal and interventional treatments for cancer, spine, headaches and neuropathic pain.  

A recognized leader in cancer-related pain, Dr. Christiansen received the Dr. Lisa Stearns Award in 2022 for national clinical excellence in cancer pain interventional procedures. She has held several prominent leadership roles, including having served as the Chronic Pain Annual Meeting Chair for American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA), Vice Chair of Translational Research for American Society of Pain & Neuroscience (ASPN) and Executive Committee Secretary on the Board of Directors for the Pacific Spine & Pain Society (PSPS). 

Dr. Christiansen works daily with trainees of all levels, including medical students, residents and fellows. Her dedication to education has earned her multiple honors, including the OHSU Dr. Edward J. Keenan Faculty Award for Distinguished Teaching and Preceptor of the Year Award.  

Dr. Christiansen’s scholarly work focuses on pain education and cancer-related pain interventions. 

She earned her medical degree from Loyola University Chicago, completed her pain medicine fellowship at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, and holds a Masters in Clinical Research from OHSU.  

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • B.S., 2007, University of Notre Dame
    • M.D., 2011, Loyola University of Chicago Stritch
    • M.C.R., 2026, Oregon Health & Science University
Read faculty profile

Insurance

Before scheduling an appointment

  1. Check your network. If you have health insurance,  call your company to find out if the OHSU Health location or provider you plan to visit is part of your network.
  2. Ask what you will pay. Your insurance company can tell you what your costs are likely to be.

If you schedule an appointment and your health insurance does not include OHSU Health, you may have to pay more than if you go to a provider in your insurance network. 

Visit our billing and insurance page for more information.

Ratings and reviews

Overall: 4.8 out of 5 (78 Ratings, 34 Reviews)

The patient ratings score is an average of all responses to the question "How likely would you be to recommend this provider to your family and friends (on a scale of 0 to 10)" on our nationally-recognized Press Ganey patient surveys.

  1. Thorough and great active listening.

  2. Sandy Christensen and her staff are very knowledgeable and compassionate. Very happy with my experience

  3. Excellent

  4. Dr. Christiansen Is extremely skilled and knowledgeable. She is very personable. I am very happy with my care.

  5. Very good

  6. Caring, thorough, kind, well prepared.

  7. Awsome sauce

  8. She always listens and she always gives me exactly what I need to know going forward

  9. Listened very well, asked appropriate follow-up questions, came up with a treatment plan that I felt was very good.

  10. Informative and consistent with expectations

  11. I trust Dr. Christianson implicitly. She's the best, very caring and kind.

  12. Dr. Christiansen listens to my concerns, is familiar with my past history and procedures, and offers sound advice for further treatment.

  13. Dr Christianson very kind and patient

  14. Sandy Christanen is awesome. A fabulous physicaina and practitioner. I trust her completely and have had nothing but good experiences and outcomes with her involvement. And I am an ongoing and complicated case.

  15. I have found her very easy to talk to, I feel she listens well and cares about helping me.

  16. Very good

  17. Dr Christiansen is excellent at explaining medical details and helping me understand all of my options.

  18. Fantastic!

  19. DR.Sandy CHRISTIANSEN and her team of doctors are always very professional and attentive to NeedS, And comfort, and always explaining what they're about to do next.

  20. Dr. Christiansen is one of the best doctors I've seen in my 52.extremely competent and very empathetic.its a rare person that has both in my opinion . Her medical student was a bit rudeinterrupted multiple times and needs to work on his listening skills. Many of the questions and points he made were well discussed in prior visits.

  21. All positive during procedure. But not long after I got COVID and pain returned. So relief not as good as it has been in past.

  22. She is warm, communicative and the department is well organized and efficient. Everyone knew their job and all safety precautions followed. As ex hospital administrator I was impressed

  23. Sandy and her students and staff are superb

  24. I have undergone multiple lumbar facet nerve denervation procedures at OHSU. My experience with Dr. Christensen was orders of magnitude superior to the previous procedures. Far less painful, communicative, and Dr. Christensen and her team were the epitome of professionalism and competency!

  25. Very nice and easy to talk to.

  26. Great

  27. She was professional, thorough, and caring - excellent in every way!

  28. Very caring and informative would recommend them

  29. Sandy Christiansen is awesome! She's knowledgeable, responsive, helpful, empathetic and sensitive to patient's needs (certainly mine!) She's a gem and I'm so happy I found her!

  30. Clear explanations but could have told me more about what to expect.