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.