Speakers

Rany T. Abdallah, MBA MD PhD President, Apico Pain Management

I have been in practice since July 2016. I have a diverse practice that includes acute and chronic pain management as well as anesthesia in the operating room. Clinical Interests: Adult and pediatric chronic pain, Cancer pain, Complex regional pain syndrome, Facial pain and headaches, Abdominal pain, Implantable pain device therapies.Research Interests: Pathophysiology and treatment of cancer pain, Pathophysiology and treatment of neuropathic pain, Advancing implantable pain device therapies, Medical Cannabis

Alaa Abd-Elsayed, MD MPHMedical Director, UW Pain Services

Alaa Abd-Elsayed, MD, MPH. Medical Director, UW pain services-Medical director, UW pain clinic- Section head, chronic pain management. I have been in practicing since 2009.  Neuromodulation is my area of expertise, I perform all forms of spinal cord simulators and intrathecal pumps.

Ellen L. Air, MD PhD Vice Chair, Operations and Program Director

Fellowship-trained expert in Functional, Stereotactic and Epilepsy Neurosurgery.

Rushna Ali, MD Clinical Assistant Professor Neurosurgery

Dr. Rushna Ali earned her medical degree from Aga Khan University Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan. She completed neurosurgery residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and her Stereotactic, Functional and Epilepsy surgery fellowship at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.Her clinical interests include stereotactic and functional neurosurgery including DBS, epilepsy surgery, microvascular decompression for pain, radiofrequency lesioning, brain tumors and advance surgical treatments to treat chronic and cancer-related pain.

Magdalena M. Anitescu, MD PhD Professor

Magdalena Anitescu, MD, PhD, professor of anesthesia and critical care, is the program director for the multidisciplinary pain medicine fellowship and the section chief of pain management services at the University of Chicago Medicine. She completed a surgical internship at the University of Iowa and an anesthesia residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Following a pain medicine fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, she joined the faculty at the University of Chicago. She is an accomplished national and international educator, author of numerous textbook chapters and scientific papers, and a member of many professional organizations and scientific committees that review the academic curriculum for various pain medicine meetings. As program director of pain medicine at the University of Chicago, Dr. Anitescu created novel educational experiences for the curriculum by organizing and hosting interdisciplinary and multi-institutional and regional meetings. Among them are the annual Chicago Pain Summit, the bi-annual Regional Collaborative Case Pain Medicine Conference, and multi-disciplinary rounds. The aim is to give pain fellows access to the practices at other institutions, to exchange ideas, or to present scholarly work or clinically challenging cases. As the president of the Association of Pain Medicine program directors, Dr. Anitescu’s efforts were directed to the pain medicine match and to the development of educational materials for pain fellows nationwide. Dr. Anitescu focuses research on improving the quality of life of patients with acute, chronic, or cancer pain through multi-modal, multi-faceted interventions. She is currently engaged in several studies that evaluate the effects of neuromodulation on several common pain conditions. She is also the chair of Subspecialty Program Directors in the Association of Academic Anesthesiologists and is a member-at large for the International Neuromodulation Society Board of Directors.Dr Anitescu is significantly involved in advancing the field of neuromodulation and serves as the chair for the Women in Neuromodulation. She is committed to fellows education in this field and in the general field of pain management with special interest in cancer pain and neuromodulation applications in this area.

Eiman Azim, PhD Associate Professor, William Scandling Developmental Chair

Eiman Azim is an Associate Professor and the William Scandling Developmental Chair in the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Eiman explores how the brain controls movement of the body, focusing on dexterous behaviors, such as grasping a cup of coffee or catching a ball. These kinds of movements are central to our daily experience, and unfortunately, they are particularly susceptible to injury and disease of the nervous system. His laboratory takes advantage of cutting-edge genetic and viral tools, techniques for recording the activity of the brain and spinal cord, detailed motor behavioral tests, and computational approaches to piece together the underpinnings of movements. This type of knowledge could clarify how the brain achieves such astounding coordination and pave the way for improved diagnosis and treatment when neural circuits are disrupted. Eiman earned a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in Philosophy of Science from Stanford and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard before completing postdoctoral training at Columbia. Eiman is also an Assistant Adjunct Professor in Neurobiology at UC San Diego. He is a recent recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and was named a Searle Scholar, a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, a Kathryn W. Davis Aging Brain Scholar, and a McKnight Scholar.

Ausaf A. Bari, MD PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery

Dr. Bari specializes in the neurosurgical repair and restoration of brain and nerve function. Following his neurosurgery residency training at UCLA, Dr. Bari was awarded the prestigious William P. Van Wagenen Fellowship to train at the world-renowned functional neurosurgery program at the University of Toronto. He has extensive clinical and research experience in the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the treatment of both movement and psychiatric disorders. Dr. Bari's clinical practice includes DBS surgery for Parkinson's disease, tremor, dystonia, depression and OCD. A native of California, Dr. Bari completed his neurosurgery residency training at UCLA after receiving his MD and PhD degrees from Boston University. He completed his undergraduate training at UC Berkeley in the field of neurobiology.

Markus A. Bendel, MD Pain Physician

Dr. Bendel is a board certified physician in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine practicing at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. His training includes a general surgery internship, anesthesiology residency and pain medicine fellowship, all at the Mayo Clinic. He is the former Director of Neuromodulation and current Clinical Practice Chair for the pain medicine division.

Sharona Ben-Haim, MD Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery

Sharona Ben-Haim is an Assistant Professor and functional neurosurgeon at UC San Diego. She received her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, and completed medical school at UCSD. She then went to complete a research fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard University before starting her neurosurgical residency at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She went on to complete a fellowship in Epilepsy Surgery at Yale University, followed by a visiting fellowship in functional neurosurgery at Oxford. She then came back to UC San Diego as a faculty member, where she has focused on bringing in new technology to enhance the safety and efficacy of a variety of stereotactic procedures. She currently serves as the Director of Epilepsy Surgery and the Associate Residency Program Director in the Department of Neurosurgery.

Anuj Bhatia, MD PhD Associate Professor

Dr. Bhatia is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and Clinical Director, Chronic Pain at University Health Network, Toronto, Canada. He is the Chair of the Neuropathic Pain Special Interest Group of the Canadian Pain Society, Treasurer of the Canadian Neuromodulation Society, a member of the NANS Education committee and of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Pain Medicine Specialty committee. His clinical and research interests include the use of epidemiological tools for assessing outcomes of treatments for pain, assessment, and treatment of neuropathic pain, fluoroscopy and ultrasound-guided procedures for chronic and cancer pain, and neuromodulation. He has published over 75 papers, 6 book chapters, and co-authored two books on ultrasound-guided interventional pain procedures.

Kelly R. Bijanki, PhD Assistant Professor

I am a translational and affective neuroscientist with 15 years of experience in psychiatric neuromodulation and neuroimaging. I run the Translational Neuromodulation Laboratory at Baylor College of Medicine which focuses on leveraging the setting of epilepsy intracranial monitoring to provide insights into neural mechanisms and novel neuromodulation targets for refractory psychiatric disorders.

Marom Bikson, PhD Professor

Dr. Bikson is the Shames Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The City College of New York. He is known for his work on the cellular mechanisms of electrical stimulation and translational medical device design. He has published over 300 articles on medical device technology and brain stimulation. Technologies invented in Dr. Bikson's lab are in hundreds of medical centers globally.

Hank Bink, PhD Principal Biomedical Engineer

Hank Bink, PhD is a Principal Biomedical Engineer in the Neuromodulation Research and Technology group at Medtronic. He earned his BS in Electrical Engineering at Lafayette College and his PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania researching novel recording and stimulation technologies and methods for drug-resistant epilepsy. During his time at Medtronic, he has been involved with pre-clinical and clinical research and the development of next-generation devices in the SCS and SNM therapy areas.

Maxwell Boakye, MD MPH MBA Professor and Interim Director Spinal Cord Injury Center

Maxwell Boakye, MD MPH MBA FAANS FACS is Professor and Chief of Spinal Neurosurgery and Director of Quality Improvement and Interim Director of Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Center at the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Louisville. A clinician-scientist, he devotes about half of his time to outcomes and comparative effectiveness research, and spinal cord injury research. He also directs the University of Louisville spine fellowship. His spinal cord injury research focuses on discovering innovative treatments for paralysis. He is director of the Brain and spinal cord injury lab and is the lead neurosurgeon for the University of Louisville epidural stimulation research program. Dr. Boakye has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, book chapters, and abstracts and coedited one spinal cord injury textbook. He has been in practice since 2003.

Kerry Bradley, MS Senior Director, Research

12 years working in paresthesia-based SCS, 7 years working in paresthesia-independent SCS.

Marco Capogrosso, PhD Assistant Professor

Marco Capogrosso, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery. He completed his doctoral studies in Biomedical Engineering and Robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy and post-doctoral training at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland where he worked on the development of brain spinal interfaces for the restoration of voluntary motor control after spinal cord injury. Before Joining the University of Pittsburgh, he was research faculty at the primate center of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland were he managed the multi-center Platform for Translational Neuroscience. Dr. Capogrosso research interests broadly involve the study of the interactions between electrical stimulation and the dynamics of neural circuits. Specifically, he is interested in the design of neurotechnologies to restore sensory and motor function after neural damage or disease. At the moment his research focuses on the development of neurotechnologies for the restoration of arm and hand functions after motor paralysis.

David L. Cedeno, PhD Vice President of Research

David L. Cedeno, PhD. Vice-President of Research at SGX Medical. More than 20 years of basic science research experience in both industry and academia.

Edward F. Chang, MD Professor of Neurological Surgery

Edward Chang MD is Professor of Neurological Surgery at UCSF. Dr. Chang’s clinical expertise is surgical therapies for intractable epilepsy, trigeminal neuralgia, pain, hemifacial spasm, and adult brain tumors. He specializes in advanced neurophysiologic brain mapping methods, including awake speech and motor mapping, to safely perform neurosurgical procedures in eloquent areas of the brain.

Krishnan V. Chakravathy MD PhD Assistant Professor

Krishnan Chakravarthy, MD, PhD is an assistant clinical professor who specializes in multi-modal pain management. As a pain management specialist, he evaluates, diagnoses and treats all forms of pain. Dr Chakravarthy completed sub-specialty fellowship training in pain management at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and residency training in anesthesiology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. He interned in general medicine at Griffin Hospital (Yale Affiliate) in Derby, Connecticut. He earned his MD, PhD degrees at Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Buffalo, NY. Dr Chakravarthy’s research interests in pain medicine include incorporating new technology into advancing pain care. He is currently focusing on using nanotechnology as an novel system to develop new drug delivery and point of care device platforms to manage chronic pain. Prior to joining UCSD, he has served as a contractor at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where he researched host immunity to influenza virus as a way of developing novel therapeutic and vaccine strategies. His research work has been published in top journals including Anesthesiology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Pain Medicine. His research work has been also featured in Times of India, International Business Times, Futurity, NewsMedical and other national and international venues. Dr Chakravarthy is also a founder of several biotechnology startup companies in the nanotechnology space, and new drug development focusing on commercializing paradigm-shifting technology in the field of chronic pain. He is an active entrepreneur and believes industry plays a critical role in seeing translational science make it to patients. Dr Chakravarthy currently serves on the editorial board of several national and international peer reviewed journals, and committees on organizations such as the International Neuromodulation Society.  He is also the recipient of several national awards including the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience Young Innovator Award.

Lauren Cimino, MSN APRN AGPCNP-BC Nurse Practitioner

Lauren Cimino, MSN, APRN, AGPCNP-BC is a nurse practitioner working at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, IL. She completed her BSN from Illinois State University and her MSN from University of Illinois Chicago. She has been part of Northwestern's Neurosurgery Department for the past eight years working specifically in functional neurosurgery as an outpatient nurse practitioner. Lauren has been apart of the NANS APP faculty for six years and enjoys mentoring APPs that are new to neuromodulation and neurosurgery.

Sandy Christiansen, MD Assistant Professor

Dr. Christiansen is a double board certified physician in anesthesiology and pain medicine who specializes in chronic pain management. Dr. Christiansen joined the faculty of the Comprehensive Pain Center in 2016 after completing her fellowship in pain medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She currently sees patients in the Center for Health and Healing - Comprehensive Pain Center. She specializes in the treatment of cancer, neuropathic and spine related pain advocating a multimodal approach to all patients.

Ashley Comer, MSN APRN FNP-C Nurse Practitioner

Ashley Comer is an AANP Board Certified Nurse Practitioner at The Spine and Nerve Center of the Virginias. Born and raised in Charleston, WV she has become a leader in advanced practice provider education in both the United States and in the international community. Ashley has served on several society committees in leadership positions establishing training protocols and programs to enhance the field of Interventional Spine and Nerve treatment. She also has played a role in many device and procedural studies to achieve Food and Drug Administration approval or enhanced patient access. Ashley’s professional interests include implantable therapies, minimally invasive procedures, and research.

Arthur Cukiert, MD PhD Neurosurgeon

Arthur Cukiert was born in Santo Andre, Brazil in July 23rd, 1963. He graduated at Sao Paulo University in 1986 and finished his neurosurgical training at the Hospital das Clinicas of Sao Paulo University in 1991. He spent a year at the Montreal Neurologic Institute as a Clinical & Research Fellow. Back in Brazil, he worked at Sao Paulo Hospital das Clinicas, developed the Hospital Brigadeiro neurosurgical service and was a medical assistant at the ABC Faculty of Medicine in Sao Paulo. He received a PhD degree in Neurophysiology in 1996 from the Biological Sciences Institute of the Sao Paulo University. He is presently the Director of the Sao Paulo Epilepsy Clinic, and Head of its Epilepsy Surgery Program. He is part of the ILAE Pediatric Surgery Task Force and had organized several Epilepsy Surgery Techniques Meetings over the years. He was President of the Brazilian Functional Neurosurgery Society and of the Brazilian Congress of Update in Neurosurgery. He presented more than 400 lectures worldwide, attended to 350 meetings, presented 800 abstracts and published 150 peer reviewed papers and 8 books. His activities center on the surgical treatment of refractory epilepsy and pituitary tumors.

Timothy R. Deer, MD President and Chief Executive Officer

President and CEO, The Spine & Nerve Centers of the Virginias
Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology, West Virginia University
Chairman and Founder, The American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN)

Dr. Deer is a renowned expert in pain management who has lobbied for the safe utilization of pain therapies and improving access to care for patients. As an educator, he has instructed physicians and clinicians on effective pain control, minimally invasive spine advancements and the judicious and proper use of technology to treat pain conditions. More recently, Dr. Deer cofounded ASPN, a community of specialists in pain and neuroscience dedicated to improving patient outcomes, education, and research.

Dr. Deer has published extensively on a wide range of topics, including injection techniques, minimally-invasive spine procedures, intrathecal drug delivery, and spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulation. He is a frequent editorial board member, author and series editor for textbooks on interventional techniques. He has served as faculty, moderator and presenter at numerous national and international meetings. He has held the role of president at the International Neuromodulation Society and the West Virginia Society of Interventional Pain Physicians and served as a board director for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, the North American Neuromodulation Society, and the American Academy of Pain Medicine. He is a past Chairman of the Pain Division of the American Society of Anesthesiology.

In addition to his work in medicine, Dr. Deer is a committed endurance athlete, inspiring his friends to add exercise to their lives as a form of stress reduction and healthy lifestyle. His endurance life has included many Ironman World Championships, the Badwater135 Endurance run, and marathons throughout the world.

Jessie Dawson, MD Professor

Jesse Dawson is a Professor of Stroke Medicine at the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences and Associate at the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, University of Glasgow. Professor Dawson is a Consultant Physician in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow. He is Clinical Lead for the Scottish Stroke Research Network and recently chaired European Stroke Organization Conference. Professor Dawson has research interests in clinical trials on prevention and rehabilitation in stroke survivors, with special focus on improving long-term outcomes.

Mehul J. Desai, MD President, Medical Director

Mehul J. Desai, MD, MPH is board certified in Pain Medicine and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. During residency he spent 6 months completing a research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health conducting groundbreaking research into mechanisms of muscle pain. His clinical interests include musculoskeletal disease (tendon injuries, osteoarthritis), discogenic pain and intradiscal therapies including biologics, neuromodulation; specifically, spinal cord stimulation and targeted drug delivery, complex spinal conditions, pelvic pain, outcomes-based research and healthcare economics. Dr. Desai is the Founder and Medical Director of the International Spine, Pain & Performance Center, a collaborative, interdisciplinary practice located in Washington, DC. Formerly, Dr. Desai was Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology & Critical Care Medicine and of Neurosurgery at the George Washington University Medical Center and served as the Director, Pain Medicine and Non-Operative Spine Services of the GW Spine & Pain Center, Director, Outpatient Rehabilitation Center at the George Washington University Hospital and Director, Sibley Pain Center at the Sibley Memorial Hospital. Dr. Desai maintains an avid interest in research, serving as the principle investigator on multiple ongoing clinical trials including studies on radiofrequency ablation and spinal cord stimulation. Dr. Desai has published articles in Pain Practice, Neuromodulation, Pain Physician, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Pain Medicine. He has authored multiple book chapters and is currently completed his second textbook. Dr. Desai currently served as a Leadership Fellow for the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and the 2016 Legislative Fellow for the North American Neuromodulation Society.

Teresita Devera, MSN ANP-BC Nurse Practitioner

Teresita DeVera is a nurse practitioner in the department of neurosurgery at Jefferson University Hospital and has recently transitioned into the role of Lead Advanced Practice Provider for the Neuroscience Enterprise. She has 20 years of experience in both spinal and functional neurosurgery. She collaborates with her physicians, managing and educating patients with chronic pain, epilepsy, and movement disorders. One of her primary roles as a nurse practitioner is to promote the advancement of other APPs, maximizing their roles in the field of neuromodulation and neuroscience as well share her knowledge and experience in order to improve patient outcomes at all points of the healthcare spectrum.

David M. Dickerson, MD Section Chief, Pain Medicine

David M. Dickerson, MD is an anesthesia-trained, pain medicine physician and section chief for pain medicine at the NorthShore University HealthSystem. He is a clinical associate professor at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and is the current chair of the ASA’s pain medicine committee. He serves as an advisory board member for the National Rx and Drug Abuse Summit and the National MALS Foundation and is a member of the board of directors for the Midwest Pain Society. His primary clinical and research interests are novel applications of neurostimulation, pain care ecosystem transformation, and minimally invasive spine procedures.

Jacek Dmochowski, PhD Assistant Professor

Jacek is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the City College of New York (2015-present), where he is investigating ultrasonic neuromodulation and photobiomodulation as new approaches to non-invasive brain stimulation. His formal academic training is in electrical and biomedical engineering.

Ryan D'Souza, MD Physician

Ryan D'Souza completed his anesthesiology residency training (2020) and pain medicine fellowship training (2021) in Mayo Clinic Rochester. He is currently working as an interventional pain medicine physician, assistant professor, and director of neuromodulation at Mayo Clinic Rochester. He is passionate about research in neuromodulation, regenerative medicine, and fibromyalgia patient outcomes. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and is excited to continue pursuing his goal of being a physician-scientist in pain medicine. He serves as an Associate Editor for Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (RAPM) Journal and as an Assistant Editor for Anesthesia and Analgesia (A&A) Journal.

Sam S. Eldabe, MB, ChB FRCA FFMPRCA Professor

Consultant in anaesthesia and pain medicine at the James Cook University Hospital Middlesbrough and Clinical Professor of Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine at Exeter and Durham Universities.My interests include the use neuromodulation for the treatment of neuropathic pain particularly Failed Back Surgery Syndrome, which has led me to an interest in medication management with particular reference to opioids I have published more than 60 articles on the subjects of pain relief and cost effectiveness of various pain procedures.I am currently Chief Investigator of 8 research projects.

Dalia H. Elmofty, MD Associate Professor

Dalia H. Elmofty, MD, is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Chicago and the Associate Program Director for the Pain Fellowship. She is the chair of the Educational Track Subcommittee on Pain Medicine for the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the chair of the ASRA newsletter and chair of the Women in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (WRAPM) Special Interest Group (SIG) for ASRA During these years, she has committed her time towards the education of medical students, residents, fellows, and health care practitioners, being involved in many educational sessions at conferences locally, regionally, and nationally. She has authored and co-authored several textbook chapters and peer-reviewed publications.