Meet the Faculty

Dr. Alaa Abd-Elsayed joined the faculty of the Anesthesiology Department at the University of Wisconsin in 2014 to provide Chronic Pain Medicine Services as part of the Interventional Pain Program. He received his medical training at Assiut University Medical School in Egypt, completed a master’s degree in Public Health, research fellowship at Cleveland Clinic, and residency in anesthesiology and pain management fellowship at University of Cincinnati. As part of the Interventional Pain Program, Dr. Abd-Elsayed evaluates patients at the Pain Clinic, and when an interventional pain treatment is appropriate, performs procedures at the Madison Surgery Center.
In addition to his work as a pain specialist, Dr. Abd-Elsayed is an active clinical investigator. Current studies include the use of opioids, genetic variations leading to different individual response to opioids, and the use of neuromodulation and peripheral nerve stimulators for the management of neuropathic pain. He also has research interests in fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and headaches, and is leading a study called “CREATE” to help CRPS patients. Over the course of his career, he has received numerous research grants, published more than 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts and authored several editorials and book chapters. He has presented at more than 60 international and national conferences and has earned more than 15 awards at the state and national levels. In addition, he has served as a reviewer for more than 20 journals and as an editor to several journals.
“Dr. Al,” as he likes to be called, is a member of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) and the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA). He was named among the Leading Physicians of the World and America’s Best Physicians in 2016.

I’ve always been drawn to the notion of defending the underdog, and believe that my success as a criminal defense lawyer stems largely from my willingness to challenge (and hopefully defy) the odds on behalf of my clients. In my line of work, it’s essential to project confidence when you’re
positioned between an accused individual and the state or federal government.

Mr. Adams concentrates his practice in the areas of criminal defense, internal investigations, attorney ethics matters and disciplinary proceedings, and complex commercial litigation. With a national practice that has encompassed the  representation of high profile individuals, Mr. Adams has served as counsel to professional athletes, elected officials and candidates for public office, political campaigns, and numerous public and private business entities.
In the healthcare sector, Mr. Adams has successfully defended physicians charged with crimes in federal and state court, as well as in front of the Board of Medical Examiners (BME). He has negotiated the relicensure of physicians whose licenses were revoked by the BME and assisted in the development of re-entry plans in conjunction with the BME and the Office of the Attorney General. In addition, he has defended physicians in Medicare debarment proceedings and negotiated their re-entry into the Medicare program.
With a demonstrated track record of success in taking on difficult matters, Mr. Adams has tried cases in state and federal courts throughout the country. His experience includes appearances before the U.S. District Courts for the District of New Jersey, Northern District of California, Middle District of Florida, Northern District of Illinois, District of South Dakota, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He has argued significant matters before the New Jersey Supreme Court and Appellate Division, and before other state courts including those in Florida and Alabama.

Dr. Latrice A. Akuamoah, M.D., M.P.H is originally from Chicago. She is a board-certified anesthesiologist and pain management physician at The Spine and Pain Institute of New York. She graduated from The University of Rochester with a Bachelor of Science in molecular genetics prior to earning her Medical Degree and Master of Public Health at Tulane University School of Medicine. She completed her residency in anesthesiology at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City followed by a fellowship in interventional pain management at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Dr. Akuamoah uses an evidence-based multimodal approach often recommending behavioral therapy, physical therapy, medications, and cutting edge minimally invasive procedures, when necessary. She takes the time to carefully listen to her patients so that she can help them reach their goals. She is committed to improving her patient’s quality of life, helping them return to work and other activities that they enjoy. She has a particular interest in caring for groups who have historically received disparate medical care including women and people of color.

Dr. Steve M. Aydin is clinical associate professor at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University/Northwell Health, as well as Chief of PMR and Intervention Pain Management at Kayal Orthopaedic Center, in NJ. He completed his PMR and pain management training at UMDNJ/Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, and the University of Michigan. He is board certified in both PMR and Pain Management. He has published multiple book chapters, case reports, and research articles on interventional pain techniques and treatments. He is an active member of the ASIPP, NJSIPP, and AAPMR. He also serves on the Board for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physician (ASIPP).

Erica is a board-certified, New York-licensed Physician Assistant. She earned her Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies from Wagner College in 2011 and began her career as a PA with Manhattan Spine & Pain, working primarily at Lenox Hill Hospital as an inpatient pain management consultant. After 5 years in this position, Erica transitioned to a surgical PA position with Lenox Hill Hospital’s Division of Plastic Surgery and also serves as a student preceptor.

Douglas P. Beall, MD, attended medical school at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC, and completed his residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Following residency, he was Chief of Interventional Services at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. He then completed a fellowship in Musculoskeletal Radiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he was trained in interventional spine techniques before returning to the US Air Force as Division Chief of Musculoskeletal Radiology. Following the service in the US Air Force Dr. Beall was chief of Musculoskeletal Radiology and Fellowship Director at the Univiersity of Oklahoma prior to entering private practice as the Chief of Services. 41 In addition to his expertise in musculoskeletal imaging and interventional spine care, Dr. Beall is actively involved in teaching and research. He is board-certified in Diagnostic Radiology, has an added fellowship in Musculoskeletal Radiology, is a Diplomate of the American Academy of Pain Management and is a Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice and board certified by the World Institute of Pain. He is currently in private practice focused on interventional pain management and orthopedic imaging. Dr. Beall has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, authored four textbooks and 11 textbook chapters, given more than 500 invited lectures and scientific presentations and has participated in 37 clinical research trials. He is currently the Chief of Radiology Services for Clinical Radiology of Oklahoma as well as the Division Head of Interventional Spine Care and Director of Pain Management Fellowship Programs at the Spine Fracture Institute and Summit Medical Center.

Aaron Kenneth Calodney, MD is the Past President of the Texas Pain Society and the Past President of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP). He served on the board of the International Spine Intervention Society for many years and was Director of Education. He is the Treasurer of the USA section of WIP. Dr. Calodney is board certified in Anesthesiology and carries subspecialty certification in Pain Management through the American Board of Anesthesiology.
Dr. Calodney earned his medical degree from the University of Missouri School of Medicine. His residency in anesthesiology and subsequent interventional pain management fellowship was completed at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He subsequently completed a fellowship in pediatric anesthesia at the Denver Children’s Hospital.
With a particular interest in Spine and special interests including Neuromodulation and Intrathecal Drug Delivery, Regenerative therapies and Biological treatment of the painful degenerative disc, and Radiofrequency ablation, Dr. Calodney has presented and published many articles and textbook chapters. He is actively involved in clinical research and has delivered hundreds of invited lectures in the US and abroad.

Dr. Calodney is a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, and many other professional societies.
He is an author of the first Evidenced Based Treatment Guidelines in Interventional Pain and Evidenced Based Guidelines for the Use of Opioids published in the Pain Physician journal. Dr. Calodney was appointed by the governor of Texas to serve on the Advisory Committee on the Regulation of Controlled Substances Act.

Kenneth D. Candido, MD Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology and Surgery, University of Illinois College of Medicine

Dr. Kenneth D. Candido is Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago and Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology and Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. Dr. Candido is a highly visible presence regionally and nationally in the pain management community. Since becoming Chair in 2008, Dr. Candido has spearheaded a pain management program which has realized double-digit expansion in each of his ten years there.
Dr. Candido spent the first two years of medical school in Tampico, Mexico, then completed the educational curriculum at The New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York. He took an internship and residency in Anesthesiology at The Metropolitan Hospital in New York. During that time, Ken met Dr. Alon P. Winnie, one of the founding fathers of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and one of the nation’s leaders in education regarding pain medicine who at the time was Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He offered Dr. Candido a Fellowship spot there, which Dr. Candido completed in 1988. Shortly thereafter, he returned to his roots on the East Coast, landing a position in the Department of Anesthesiology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
At Lenox Hill, Dr. Candido established a pain clinic, which he staffed daily after completing his anesthesiology duties in the operating rooms. In the eight years at Lenox Hill, Dr. Candido treated more than 20,000 patients suffering from a variety of both routine as well as complex pain entities.
In 1997, Dr. Candido was asked by Dr. Winnie, to rejoin his faculty at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and the two collaborated on a number of successful and highly regarded projects and publications. As Dr. Winnie prepared for retirement in 2001, however, Dr. Candido determined his future lay elsewhere, and so joined the prestigious Anesthesiology and Pain Management Department at Northwestern University Medical Center, where he was quickly promoted to the rank of Associate Professor and was placed in a Director Role over the Acute Pain Program. In 2005, Dr. Candido joined Loyola University Medical Center as Program Director of the Pain Management Fellowship Program and as Chief of the Pain Division. At Loyola, Dr. Candido was promoted to the rank of Full Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology.
Dr. Candido has published extensively on areas of acute and chronic pain management, and to date has written more than one hundred fifty-five original peer-referenced papers on a variety of topics related to controlling pain. He has also written more than eighty-five textbook chapters on diverse areas of pain control and has lectured to international audiences on the complex nature of pain and its treatment. Several of his works deal with finding appropriate solutions to dealing with painful conditions in patients who have underlying or iatrogenic addictive diseases which often blurs the distinction between therapy aimed at physiological ailments versus those designed to combat psychological distress.
Dr. Candido was born in New Jersey, attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick, New Jersey, graduating in 1979. He lives in the Chicago metropolitan area with his family including four children ranging in age from 12 to 35.

Dr. Veronica Carullo is currently the Director of Pediatric Pain Management at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS. She is board-certified in General Pediatrics and Anesthesiology with subspecialty certifications in Pain Management, Pediatric Anesthesiology, and Hospice & Palliative Medicine.
Dr. Carullo is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Medicine. She completed residencies in General Pediatrics as well as Anesthesiology at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, NY. She also completed a Combined Adult and Pediatric Pain Fellowship at Children’s Hospital Boston, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA.
She recently moved to Mississippi after practicing anesthesiology and pediatric pain management in Long Island and New York, NY for 11 years.
Dr. Carullo’s clinical and research interests include pediatric regional anesthesia, management of chronic pain syndromes in children, and pain management in children with sickle cell disease.

Dr. Chang Chien is an interventional physiatrist in Southern California.
Dr. George Chang Chien specializes in musculoskeletal medicine and comprehensive pain management. He is the founder of the GCC Institute where he practices Regenerative Medicine and Medical Aesthetics. He has published over 100 manuscripts on the treatment of pain.

Dr. Kenneth Chapman is the director of pain management at Staten Island University Hospital, part of the Northwell Health System, and is an assistant clinical professor at NYU Langone Medical Center. He completed his Interventional Pain Management Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and his Anesthesiology residency at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, New York.
Dr. Chapman directs the fellowship program at the Spine and Pain Institute of NY and is actively involved in teaching and lecturing both nationally and internationally. Dr. Chapman also frequently serves as a pain management Board Examiner for certification on the Fellowship of Interventional Pain Practice Pain Boards. He has won numerous peer validated awards including ‘America’s Best Anesthesiologists’ and ‘Most Compassionate Doctors,’ and was one of the youngest physicians to ever be named as both a NY Times ‘Super Doctor’ and NY Magazine ‘Top Doctor’ when he first received the recognition in 2014. While at the Cleveland Clinic Dr. Chapman also received the “Ethlene R. Smith’s Most Outstanding Fellow” award. He is Vice President of the NYS Interventional Pain Society and on the advisory board to the NYS Worker’s Compensation Board responsible for writing the NYS Worker’s Compensation Guidelines, which all injured workers in the state are treated by.
Dr. Chapman’s interests include translational research pertaining to spinal cord stimulation and dorsal root ganglion stimulation mechanism of action, and studies involving the use of DRG-S to treat conditions traditionally considered to be mechanical pain syndromes.

Ashley Comer is an AANP Board Certified Nurse Practitioner at The Spine and Nerve Centers of the Virginias.
Born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, Ashley attended WVSCTC where she obtained her Associate’s Degree in Nursing. Continuing her education, she went on to receive her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from West Virginia University. Graduating with honors, she completed her Masters of Science in Nursing with Family Nurse Practitioner specialization from Walden University.
Ashley’s professional interests include implantable therapies, minimally invasive procedures, and research.

Dr. Harold Cordner, MD is a Pain Medicine Specialist in Sebastian, FL and has over 33 years of experience in the medical field. Dr. Cordner has more experience with Spine and Pain Management than other specialists in his area. He graduated from St. George’s University School Of Medicine medical school in 1987. He is affiliated with medical facilities such as Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital and Holmes Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Saurabh Dang is Board Certified in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine by the American Board of Medical Specialties.  A graduate of Hamilton College, in Clinton, NY, Dr Dang completed his first year of residency training in General Surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, NY. He then went on the receive his training in Anesthesiology at New York Medical College, in Valhalla, NY. During his Anesthesiology training, Dr Dang was elected and served as Chief Resident and received the “Resident of the Year Award” during his final year of training. He went on to complete a fellowship in Interventional Pain Medicine at The University of Toledo, in Toledo, OH.
Since completing his training, Dr Dang has been in private practice in New Jersey.  He has specialized in neuromodulation, specifically the implementation of spinal cord stimulation and intrathecal drug delivery systems in chronic pain.  He has been a faculty member for multiple fellowship labs throughout the United States, teaching physicians in training and consultant physicians on implantation techniques of spinal cord stimulators and intrathecal pumps.
In his private practice Dr Dang offers multiple therapies including: Intrathecal drug delivery system implantation, Dorsal Colum Spinal Cord Stimulation implantation, Dorsal Root Spinal Cord Stimulation implantation, Insertion of interspinous spacer for spinal stenosis, SI joint arthrodesis, kyphoplasty, minimally invasive lumbar decompression (mild procedure) for spinal stenosis, and percutaneous tenotomy among others.  He employs the multimodal approach for treating patients with chronic pain.
Dr Dang is an active member in many organizations including the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians and the North American Neuromodulation Society.

Dr. Sukdeb Datta completed his Anesthesiology training and Pain Medicine Fellowship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. During his time at Cook County Hospital, he served as the Chief Resident, as well as being nominated on the Clinician Scientist Tract. Some of the early prestigious awards that Dr. Datta won include the Sigma Xi award, the Midwest Anesthesia Conference Research award, as well as the prestigious award for “Best of the Meeting- Scientific Abstracts”, International Anesthesia Research Society. He is a Diplomat, American Board of Anesthesiology and Diplomat, American Board of Pain Medicine. He has additionally acquired the Subspecialty Certification in Pain Management awarded by the joint Boards of the American Board of Anesthesiology, American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Miles R. Day, MD (Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock). Dr. Day is the medical director of The Pain Center at Grace Clinic, pain fellowship program director at Texas Tech, and the Traweek-Racz Endowed Professor in Pain Research in the Department of Anesthesiology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Anesthesiology with subspecialty certification in Pain Medicine. He also serves as an examiner for the World Institute of Pain. Previously, he served as the director and associate professor at the Eugene McDermott Center for Pain Management at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He serves on the editorial boards of Pain Practice and Pain Physician. He is the past-president of the Texas Pain Society and past-chair of the Board of Examination for the World Institute of Pain. Dr. Day received his medical degree from Texas A&M University Health Science Center in College Station and completed his general surgery internship at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He completed his anesthesiology residency and pain fellowship at Texas Tech as well. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters in well-known publications. He has educated physicians globally to further the specialty of interventional pain medicine.

Dr. Jose De Andrés qualified from the School of Medicine at Valencia University, and is now its Tenured Professor of Anaesthesiology of the Valencia University School of Medicine, also in the General University Hospital in Valencia, Spain, he holds the position of Chairman of Anaesthesia, Critical Care, and of the Multidisciplinary Pain Management Department.
He is involved in ongoing research in pain, and current areas of investigation include the expression of pain and its control through neuromodulation techniques, through neuroimaging markers, and genomic expression. In addition, the computerized prediction designs of programming models and the design of neuromodulation systems. He is on the editorial boards of several national and international journals and Vice Chairman of the examining board. European Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Therapy (ESRA) to obtain the European Diploma of Chronic Pain Management (EDPM). Committee Member of “Society Liaison and Advocacy” International Neuromodulation Society (INS), Since 2016 and continuing

Dr. Oscar de Leon-Casasola is the Senior Vice-Chair, and Professor of Anesthesiology (Tenure Track), Department of Anesthesiology, and Professor of Medicine at the University at Buffalo, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.  He is also Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine and Professor of Oncology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY
Dr. de Leon-Casasola was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Techniques in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management from 2000 to 2011.  He also served in the Editorial Board of Seminars in Pain Medicine, the Journal of the Spanish Society of Pain, and the Journal of the Argentinean Society of Anesthesiologist.
Dr. de Leon-Casasola received his medical training at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala after obtaining a degree in Music with Specialty in Piano.  He then underwent surgical residency SUNY at Downstate, followed by anesthesia residency at SUNY-Buffalo.  He is board certified in Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine and Pain Management.  He has served as Director of the Acute Pain Service, Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, and Chief of Critical Care Medicine at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.  He has received many honors and awards and has served as Visiting Professor at several Universities in the US, Latin-America and Europe.
Dr. de Leon-Casasola has lectured at more that 150 academic institutions and hospitals throughout North and South America, and Europe.  He has authored or co-authored more than 100 papers in major scientific journals, and has been a chapter contributor in many books.   He has published the books Cancer Pain – Pharmacological, Interventional, and Palliative Care Approaches (Elsevier) and the book Acute Pain Management (Cambridge University Press), Interventional Techniques for the Treatment of Chronic Pain (Glosa), and The Science of Pain: An Illustrated and Clinically Oriented Guide (iBook: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/the-basic-science-of-pain/id1174147456?mt=11

Dr. de Leon-Casasola is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management (ASRA) where he currently serves as Past-President, and has served as the Chair of the Scientific Committee for that Society’s pain meeting.  He is also a member of the Pain Medicine Committee of the American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Adult Cancer Pain Panel. He served as the Chair of the Regional Anesthesia Committee of the ASA until 2010.  He served as a member in the Task Force of the ASA that created the Society’s Guidelines for the treatment of Chronic Pain Management that were published in 2010.  He also served as the Co-Chair of the Committee drafting the Acute Pain Guidelines for the ASA and the American Pain Society that were published in 2016.
Dr. de Leon-Casasola has been honored with many awards; the most recent ones include “Top Doctors in the US”,“Best Doctors in the US” and “100 Top Docs in Buffalo” for the last 15 years.

Dr. Deer is the President and CEO of The Spine and Nerve Centers of the Virginias and the Center for Pain Relief, Inc. He is also a Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.
Dr. Deer has been a leader in the field of interventional techniques and neuromodulation for more than two decades. His rich research career has included many pivotal studies to achieve FDA approval, and many “first in man” approved devices. Dr. Deer has provided cadaver based training to over 1000 physicians in novel methods of pain relief without the need for opioids. His work has led to more than 100 peer reviewed publications, several book chapters, and full text books. Dr. Deer’s publications have included guidance for the proper use of Neuromodulation to improve safety and efficacy. His text books have included comprehensive guidance on pain, implantable devices, and his current project Deer’s Illustrated Guide to the Treatment of Pain has become a text for many of those doing implantable therapies. His new book, Deer’s Treatment of Pain, will be inclusive of other interventional options as well as the physiology and noninvasive treatment of pain.
Dr. Deer has held many national and international society positions including his current roles as the Chairman of the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience, Past President of the International Neuromodulation Society (INS), and President of the West Virginia Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (WVSIPP). He is he Past Chairman of the American Society of Anesthesiologist Committee of Pain Medicine and a Member of the West Virginia Controlled Substance Monitoring Program, and has been involved in the peer review process to improve the quality of research in the international arena.

Dr. Sudhir Diwan, nationally and internationally recognized as a key opinion leader in the field of pain management, is the President, Park Avenue Spine and Pain, New York, Associate Clinical Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. Dr. Diwan was the former Director of the Tri-Institutional Pain Fellowship Program and Division of Pain Medicine at Ivy League Weill Medical College of Cornell University for more than a decade, where he also served as associate professor of clinical anesthesiology, and on the faculty at the world renowned New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Dr. Diwan has published extensively in prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals and medical books on a variety of pain management topics. He is on the Editorial Board for the Pain Physician – an official journal of the American Society of Pain Physicians (ASIPP) since 2008, and Pain Practice – official journal of World Institute of Pain (WIP) since 2009. He was invited Guest Editor for Journal of Techniques in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management 2009. Dr. Diwan is the Examiner for the Certification Board for American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians (ABIPP) and Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice (FIPP) offered by the World Institute of Pain. Dr. Diwan is Co-Editor for Intrathecal Drug Delivery for Pain and Spasticity, Vol 2, Timothy Deer, Series Editor, Elsevier-Saunders 2012, and Co-Editor for Diwan-Staats’s Atlas of Pain Medicine Procedures, McGraw Hill Education 2015, and Advanced Procedures for Pain Management, A step-by-step Atlas, Springer US, 2018.

In addition to his busy pain management practice in New York City, Dr. Diwan lectures extensively and interacts regularly with experts in the field of pain medicine nationally and internationally.  He has been guest speaker for many noteworthy organizations including the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), and State Societies Pain Meetings, the World Institute of Pain, NANS, INS, and numerous International pain specialty societies and congresses nationally and internationally. Currently he is Executive Director of NYSIPP and Course Chairman of the Annual NYSIPP/NJSIPP Pain Medicine Symposium, and President of ASIPP.

Dr. Brian Durkin is the Medical Director of the Pain Institute of Long Island and leads the team towards the highest quality pain care available. He has been a leader in this field for the last decade and is relentless in his pursuit to provide the most up to date pain treatments on Long Island.

Dr. Tamer Elbaz is a board-certified interventional pain management and anesthesiology specialist. He completed his anesthesiology training at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and his pain medicine training at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital. Dr. Elbaz has extensive knowledge and experience performing interventional pain procedures for chronic pain syndromes.As the director of the Pain Medicine Fellowship Training Program at Roosevelt Hospital, he educates physicians about various treatment modalities for pain management. He currently holds a faculty position at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and was appointed a NYS Pain Medicine committee member.

Steven M. Falowski MD
Board Certified Functional Neurosurgeon
Secretary, North American Neuromodulation Society
Board-Executive Pain Committee, Congress Neurological Surgeons/American Association Neurological Surgeons
Executive Officer of the Board, American Society Pain and Neuroscience

Dr. Falowski underwent his neurosurgical residency training at Thomas Jefferson
University in Philadelphia with a focus on Spinal Cord Stimulation and Pain management, complex spinal procedures, and treatment for movement disorders such as deep brain stimulation. He completed a functional neurosurgical fellowship at Rush University in Chicago. His practice specializes in neuromodulation and spinal procedures. He is board certified in Neurosurgery.

He is a board member and secretary for the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS), as well as annual meeting program chair. He is faculty of the International Neuromodulation Society (INS), as well as Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS)/American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS). He additionally serves as a board member of the CNS/AANS Executive Pain Committee. He also serves as an executive officer of the board for the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience.

His major focus in society and industry revolves around education, integration of specialties, and practice management. Roles include implementing and directing the resident-fellows section and mentorship program through NANS. He has been the course director of the annual NANS spinal cord stimulation/neuromodulation workshop that is the largest training course available. He also serves as course director for the International cadaver workshops. He is chair of the certification committee for NANS to ensure the proper and safe training of new physicians. He collaborates with numerous companies and industry parners on product development, education, and strategy. Dr. Falowski is involved in numerous clinical research studies and novel developments for spinal cord stimulation, pain management, deep brain stimulation, and spinal procedures.

He won the research award at the PAN Philadelphia Neurosurgical Conference in 2009 for his work dealing with DBS in a depression model and its effect on neuroplasticity. His latest publications and specialty interest deals with utilizing intra- operative neuromonitoring for the asleep placement of spinal cord stimulators, as well as developing new technologies and stimulation platforms.

His practice is primarily based on neuromodulation, pain management and its applications, and spinal procedures. This includes Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, Spinal Cord Stimulation for the treatment of various pain syndromes, peripheral nerve stimulation for headache disorders, and radio- frequency ablation for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. Dr. Falowski has an established track record for establishing a nationally recognized functional neurosurgery program that included a Pain Center, Movement Disorder Center, and neuroscience research division.

Christopher Gharibo, MD is an Associate Professor with the Departments of Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine &  Orthopedics at NYU School of Medicine and serves as the Medical Director of Pain Medicine at NYU Langone Hospitals Center. He holds editorial position with Pain Physician and Pain Medicine Physician. He is the current past president of NYSIPP and president-elect of the Eastern Pain Association.
Dr. Gharibo obtained his M.D. degree from Rutgers Medical School in 1992 and completed his anesthesiology residency at NYU Medical Center. He served his Pain Medicine fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology and holds subspecialty certification in Pain Medicine.
He has acute pain experience with system-wide use of interventional techniques in combination with nonopioids and opioids as part of multimodal acute pain management pathways.

Christopher J. Gilligan, M.D.
Chief, Division of Pain Medicine
Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Boston, MA

Medical School: Yale University, 1996
Residency: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Surgery, 1998; Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Emergency Medicine, 2007
Fellowship: Massachusetts General Hospital, Anesthesia/Pain Medicine Fellowship, 2008
Certifications: Emergency Medicine, 2008; Pain Medicine, 2009
Clinical Interests: Back pain; cancer pain

Dr. Gilligan’s original training is in Emergency Medicine, with subspecialty training in Pain Medicine, where he has focused on pain of spinal origin. Dr. Gilligan’s clinical expertise is focused on the treatment of pain related to disorders of the spine. He also treats patients with a wide range of pain conditions, including cancer related pain, complex regional pain syndrome, and post-herpetic neuralgia. Dr. Gilligan’s research focuses on clinical trials of new interventions, devices and medications for the treatment of pain.

Dr. Brandon Godbout is Vice Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital.  He completed both his residency in emergency medicine and fellowship in simulation medicine at the Columbia University affiliated St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center.  As Vice Chairman, he oversees emergency department staffing, operations, quality, education and patient experience.  Dr. Godbout is also the Medical Director of the Pace University – Lenox Hill Hospital Physician Assistant Program.  In his role as Medical Director, he serves as a liaison between university and hospital leadership, advises on current trends in medical education, and supports the mission of the program through regular teaching commitments, research and curricular advancement.
Dr. Godbout is a recognized regional speaker on various topics such as sepsis, cardiac dysrhythmias, the U.S. opioid epidemic and disaster preparedness.  Dr. Godbout has also served as PI on projects related to simulated airway training and technological improvements for ED patient experience.  Dr. Godbout has co-authored numerous emergency medicine textbook chapters as well as original contributions on CT utilization and radiation exposure.

As a board certified Pain Medicine Physician, Dr. Golovac is the former President and CEO of Space Coast Pain Institute, in Cape Canaveral Florida. He has collaborated with, and educated physicians all around the world, on advanced interventional pain procedures, both as a private consultant and as an assistant clinical professor of anesthesia at the University of Miami’s Jackson Memorial Medical Center.    In addition, Dr. Golovac is the editor Image Guided Spine Interventions, of Space Coast Medical News, serves as the medical director of Surgery Partners, is writing a new chapter on spinal cord stimulation (SCS), is a member of seven different medical societies, serves on many committees, has been a visiting professor in places like Brasil, Chile, Norway, Finland, Copenhagen, Belgium, Columbia, and most major US Cities; He is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese. He is a loving husband to his wife Elena, and their two beautiful children, Alexandra and Conrad – one attended Boston University and the other following in his footsteps at the University of Miami. Dr. Golovac has improved the lives of thousands of patients by offering spinal cord stimulation early in his algorithm of treatment. He has a focus on wellness and healing and defining the root cause of their problems.

Casey Grillo is a Nurse Practitioner at The Spine & Pain Institute of NY and has recently transitioned into the role of Lead Advanced Practice provider for the practice. She collaborates with her physicians, managing and educating patients of all ages with chronic pain.
Casey received her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Seton Hall University and a Master’s degree in Science of Nursing from Wagner College. She is currently a member of the Nurse Practitioner Association of NYS. Casey stays engaged in the field of pain management through participation in various pain societies, serving as faculty for NYNJSIPP, ASPN and NANS. One of her goals as a nurse practitioner is to promote and educate the advancement of other APP’s, maximizing their roles in the field of neuromodulation in order to improve patient outcomes.

Dr. Gritsenko is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Family & Social Medicine, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; She is Program Director for the ACGME accredited Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine fellowship and core member of the Montefiore Multidisciplinary Pain Program.  She has a passion for teaching and spends a significant portion of her clinical time training residents and fellows in both acute pain and chronic pain settings. She also has authored multiple textbooks and articles on topics related to chronic pain, regional anesthesiology, and acute pain medicine.
Areas of interest include medical education, systems of care, regional anesthesia, cancer pain, acute pain, chronic pain, neuropathic pain, sympathetic mediated pain, spinal cord stimulation, spinal pain, compassion, substance abuse, professionalism, women in medicine. She is board certified in anesthesiology, pain medicine, and hospice and palliative care medicine.
Regionally and nationally, Dr. Gritsenko speaks and teaches at meetings and is involved in the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), New York Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (NYSIPP), American Society of Anesthesiologists (AMA), Post-graduate Assembly of Anesthesia (PGA), and various other academic organizations.
She is honored to be part of Nysipp year after year and considers this meeting her academic home.

Amitabh Gulati is an anesthesiologist and pain medicine physician currently practicing in New York City. He is an associate professor and Director of Chronic Pain, specializing in interventional cancer pain management, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, completed his anesthesiology residency at Emory University School of Medicine, and obtained his pain management fellowship diploma from Weill Cornell School of Medicine in 2007. Furthermore, Dr. Gulati completed his acupuncture certification at the Helms Medical Institute in 2007, and is licensed to practice in the state of New York. He is currently the program director of the Weill Cornell pain management fellowship in New York City. He regularly gives lectures and teaches workshops on topics involving ultrasound-guided pain procedures, interventional procedures in cancer pain management, and neuromodulation techniques for oncologic pain. His current research involves the use of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) for the treatment of neuropathic pain and the study of interventional paradigms for cancer pain medicine. He is involved in multiple educational societies as teaching faculty or board member in the field of pain medicine. He is currently the President of the World Academy of Pain Medicine United (WAPMU).

Dr. Mayank Gupta is President, CEO of Kansas Pain Management, Founder of Neuroscience Research Center, President of Kansas Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (KSIPP), and Adjunct Clinical Professor at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. Dr. Gupta’s expertise is in neuromodulation therapy for chronic abdominal pain, complex back and neck pain with failed surgery, and a variety of other interventional treatments. His outpatient practice serves four locations with a presence in Kansas City metropolitan and surrounding rural areas. Hospital Affiliations include Overland Park Regional Medical Center, Menorah Medical Center, AdventHealth Hospital, and St. Luke’s South Surgery Center. His research center conducts multi-center, Phase I-IV pain management focused neuromodulation medical device clinical trials as well as other interventional therapy, drug, and Investigator-Initiated studies. He is one of few physicians in the country to perform ultrasound-guided occipital nerve radiofrequency ablation for headaches and radiofrequency of splanchnic nerve for chronic abdominal pain.

Dr. Jennifer Hah is triple boarded in anesthesiology, pain medicine, and addiction medicine. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Stanford University. She has practiced pain medicine over a decade educating trainees and clinicians in ultrasound-guided interventions, neuromodulation, and evidence-based treatments at the cutting edge. As a clinical epidemiologist and physician-scientist, she leads NIH-funded research at the intersection between mood, pain and medication use. She is the director of the Stanford Pelvic Pain program with a clinical focus on treating both men and women suffering from a wide range of conditions including endometriosis, pelvic floor myalgias, vulvodynia and painful bladder syndrome.

Craig T. Hartrick, MD, is a former Professor of Biomedical Sciences (Pharmacology) and Professor of Anesthesiology (retired) at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, and former Clinical Professor of Health Sciences (Pharmacology) at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He completed 12 years of service as Editor-in-Chief of Pain Practice in 2017 and served as President of the World Institute of Pain for the 2017 – 2019 term. His research interests have included both basic and clinical science, with over 70 studies as principal investigator. He is well published, with over 200 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, and textbook chapters. As President and Co-founder of Caventure Drug Discovery, Inc., his current investigations are devoted to novel analgesic discovery.

Executive Director – Ainsworth Institute of Pain Management Assistant Clinical Professor of Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation – Icahn School of Medicine | Mount Sinai Medical Center
Corey W. Hunter, M.D. is an interventional pain management physician practicing in New York City, holding board certifications in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation as well as Pain Medicine.  Dr. Hunter’s areas of interest include CRPS, pelvic pain, facial pain, regenerative medicine as well as neuromodulation.
Dr. Hunter earned his medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine. Thereafter, he completed a residency in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at NYU followed by a Pain Medicine fellowship at the Weill Cornell Medical Center. Shortly after graduating from his fellowship, Dr. Hunter went on to found the Ainsworth Institute of Pain Management in New York City where he serves as the Executive Director.  In addition, he holds an appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Icahn School of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Prior to attending medical school, Dr. Hunter worked as a research assistant at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis investigating the use of embryonic stem cells to treat paralysis, Parkinson’s disease and chronic pain. He continued his research on stem cells while in medical school, this studying stromal stem cells (now known as mesenchymal) to treat paralysis. His work on mesenchymal stem cells was amongst the earliest research on this particular cell line, which is now the mainstay of regenerative medicine.
Dr. Hunter continues to be active in research, serving as the principle investigator on a number of clinical trials on emerging neuromodulation technologies and regenerative medicine.  Dr. Hunter also has keen interest in teaching and writing; he is well-published with his work appearing in a number peer-reviewed journals and textbooks on a wide variety of topics that includes DRG Stimulation, pelvic pain, regenerative medicine, amputee pain, advanced spinal cord stimulation techniques, and targeted drug delivery to name a few.

Gabriele P. Jasper, M.D. was born into a medical family. His father is the noted physician, Philip Jasper, M.D., who has been practicing urology for over 50 years. His siblings (sister Josephine Jasper, M.D., brother Theodore F. Jasper, M.D., and sister-in-law Tiziana P. Jasper, M.D.) are all practicing physicians. His mother also went to medical school but decided to forfeit her profession as a medical doctor in order to raise her family.
Fluent in Italian, the versatile Dr. Jasper began his extensive medical training at the Scientific Undergraduate School Of Malpighi in Bologna, Italy. He then attended medical school at the prestigious Universita’ Degli Studi Di Bologna (The University of Bologna). After formally returning to the United States, Dr. Jasper completed a preliminary Residency program in General Surgery and Trauma Surgery at Monmouth and Jersey Shore (South Central New Jersey’s Level One Trauma Center) Medical Centers respectively. He then broadened his medical perspective by completing a Residency program in Clinical Anesthesia at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, in Newark.
During his Residency in Clinical Anesthesia, Dr. Jasper developed a high degree of interest in two highly specialized fields. His love of children drew him toward the difficult and precise science of Pediatric Anesthesia and his capacity for compassion created an interest to treat patients experiencing debilitating chronic pain. After attaining his Board Certification in Anesthesia and entering private practice, Dr. Jasper vigorously pursued both of these areas of interest within his specialty. While at Community Medical Center in Toms River, New Jersey, as an attending Anesthesiologist, he was chosen to handle the more complex pediatric cases along with a normal adult patient caseload. Because of his Residency in General and Trauma Surgery, Dr. Jasper also served as the First Assistant in General Surgery on an emergent basis.
Having been interested in Pain Medicine since his first year of Anesthesia residency in 1993, Dr. Jasper decided to expand his practice in 1996. His subsequent involvement with the Center for Pain Management at Community Medical Center (Tom’s River, N.J.), lead to his total dedication to the science of Pain Medicine. Board-certified in anesthesia, Dr. Jasper offers a unique educated perspective to each and every patient when he evaluates their pain.
Dr. Jasper founded the Center for Pain Control in 2002. Based on word from satisfied patients and extensive M.D. referrals, his practice has expanded to two “state-of-the-art” facilities in Brick and Milltown, NJ. The completion of the Jasper Ambulatory Surgical Center in 2009, a convenient cutting-edge annex to the Brick office, will allow patients to receive minimally invasive procedures in-house.
In 2015 Dr. Gabriele P. Jasper became the recipient of the 2015 Parviz Kambin award in recognition and honor of his outstanding scientific and educational dedication to Transforaminal Surgery.
He is now known as New Jersey’s leading pain physician due to his widespread reputation in the medical community here and abroad. This status was established by the various presentations of advanced minimally invasive procedures he has perfected and taught to fellow physicians. He has been trained and has in return trained physicians in the Orient, Europe, Hawaii, and across the USA on minimally invasive endoscopic (arthroscopic) spinal surgery.

Dr. Kalia specializes in interventional spine and cancer pain management with special expertise in advanced neuromodulation procedures.
He earned his medical degree from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College in Indore; India and Master’s degree in Public Health from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY. His first residency was in Preventive Medicine & Public Health followed by Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at University of Rochester. He subsequently completed an ACGME approved Pain Medicine fellowship at University of Rochester and additional FIPP (Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice) certification from World Institute of Pain.
Dr. Kalia is a member of numerous national/international professional societies and sits on various sub-committees.
He is part of the Board of Directors at ASPN (American Society of Pain & Neuroscience) and Monroe County Medical Society.
He is the Fellowship director of Interventional Spine & Pain fellowship at Rochester Regional Health and is involved in teaching medical students, residents and fellows from other programs. He also is part of the faculty at national and international hands on cadaveric workshops for interventional spine and pain procedures.
Dr. Kalia has presented his work on cancer pain and advanced neuromodulation at multiple national and international conferences including publications in peer-reviewed journals in the field of Pain Medicine. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Clinical Medical Research & Health Care Delivery open access Journal.

Leonardo Kapural, M.D., Ph.D. is a Pain Physician at the Carolinas Pain Institute and Center for Clinical Research. He is also member of clinical faculty of Wake Forest University, School of Medicine. Dr Kapural served as Professor of Anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western university and Wake Forest University over the last 15 years.   Dr. Kapural’s interests include spinal cord stimulation, discogenic low back pain and visceral abdominal and pelvic pain.
Dr. Kapural is an active member of number of professional organizations including the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, North American and International Neuromodulation Societies and World Institute of Pain. In addition, he is an invited speaker to many national and international meetings. He served as Director-At-Large of American Academy of Pain Medicine and International Neuromodulation Society, currently is Director-At-Large of North American Neuromodulation Society.
Dr. Kapural’s experience is broad and encompasses teaching and clinical education, extensive research, and innovations in the area of pain treatments which brought him two Innovator Awards. His noteworthy research findings have been published in more than 160 journal articles, more than 200 abstracts, two books and 35 book chapters. He is listed by his peers in the “Best Doctors in America”.

Dr. Kaufman is an award winning educator and physician. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, the Columbia-Presbyterian Anesthesiology Program and the Harvard/Longwood Pain Fellowship. Currently he is a Professor of Anesthesiology at Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School, directing the Division of Pain Management
as well as the Pain Fellowship Program.

Jennifer Kirschenbaum, Esq., counsel to the NY/NJ Interventional Pain Symposium, is  the managing partner of K&K’s healthcare department, and represents ASCs and physicians with contracts, compliance, patient and employee issues.    Jennifer is available at the Symposium to discuss employment contracts, buy-ins, practice purchase / sale, ASC syndication, private equity backed initiatives and general practice matters.   Jennifer can be reached at (516) 747-6700 x. 302 or Jennifer@Kirschenbaumesq.com.   To join K&K’s free healthcare newsletter, visit K&K’s booth at the Symposium.

Dr. Khelemsky, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine and Neurology, is the Program Director of The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Pain Medicine Fellowship and serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. He is also the Chair of the Pain Medicine Committee of the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists. His clinical practice focuses on the interventional treatment of headache and neck pain.
His recently published book, Academic Pain Medicine, is the standard text for Mount Sinai’s ACGME Accredited Pain Fellowship Program.

Kristen is a native Long Islander. She attended Adelphi University for her undergraduate, where she received a Bachelor in Science in Nursing in 2007. After graduating, she worked in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Stony Brook Medicine for eight years. She completed her Masters of Nursing, graduating in 2015 at Stony Brook University, with a certificate in Adult Gerontology. Kristen continued to work as a Nurse Practitioner in the trauma division at Stony Brook for the next three years. She joined the Pain Institute of Long Island in 2018, currently working alongside Dr. Brian Durkin. Here, they are treating patients with various pain conditions, providing the most cutting-edge and minimally invasive therapies.
Kristen has a passion for providing competent and compassionate care to her patients. She enjoys the challenge of pain medicine, the innovation in treatment, and procedures, as well as the interactions and relationships she develops with her patients.

Dr. Robert M. Levy, MD, Ph.D., an internationally recognized neurosurgeon, is currently holding the post of President of the International Neuromodulation Society (INS). He is a Ph.D. in Neurosciences from Stanford University, and has done post-doctoral fellowships from Stanford and UCSF, and obtained his medical degree at Stanford Medical School.
He has served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery and Co-Director of the UF Health Jacksonville Neuroscience Institute at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville, FL. He most recently served as the Founding Director of the Marcus Neuroscience Institute and Director of the Harvey Sandler Center for Neurosurgery in Boca Raton, FL. He has been the recipient of many national and international honors and awards and has been listed as the Best Doctors in America. He has authored several textbooks and published 300 peer-review journal articles
His current research involves novel applications of neurostimulation and targeted drug delivery to the brain. In addition, he has assisted with the design and implementation of multiple neuromodulation technologies and instruments.

Sean Li, M.D.

Sean Li, M.D. sees patients in Premier Pain Center’s Shrewsbury, Freehold, and Brick New Jersey offices, where he specializes in interventional pain management. His clinical interest is in neuromodulation therapy such as spinal cord stimulation, high frequency stimulation, dorsal root ganglion stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation. “Advancements in neuromodulation therapy is offering new hope and freedom to patients who have been imprisoned by their pain,” Dr. Li said.

Prior to joining National Spine & Pain Centers, Dr. Li served as the medical director of Premier Pain Centers LLC. In addition to his work at National Spine & Pain Centers, Dr. Li continues to serve as an attending physician at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, NJ. He has published numerous professional articles and written text book chapters on the topic of pain and is actively involved in clinical research that will help advance the field of interventional pain medicine.

Dr. Li serves on the Ethics Committee at the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, the Education Committee and Young Neuromodulators Committee at the International Neuromodulation Committee, on the Mentoring Committee for the North American Neuromodulation Society, and is secretary of the New Jersey Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.
Dr. Li earned his medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and underwent residency training in general surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and later in anesthesiology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He completed his fellowship in interventional pain medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.

“Having trained in general surgery and anesthesiology, interventional pain medicine is a perfect career choice for me to apply my surgical skills and understanding of pain pathophysiology to treat patients suffering from chronic pain,” he said. “It is my job to help patients find a clear diagnosis or cause of their pain and advocate for the best treatment with the most evidence and least risk.”
In his free time, Dr. Li enjoys traveling, playing with his sons and pretending to be a foodie.

• Dr. Lin is the division chief of pain medicine, department of anesthesiology at the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), with a joint appointment as attending physician in the department of oncology. He is also the program director of residency and fellowship of department of anesthesiology. His major research interests are mechanisms and possible therapeutic approaches for neuropathic pain and opioid tolerance/hyperalgesia, new interventional technique development and outcome research of image guided interventional procedures. He is passionate about education and interventional management for chronic pain, especially refractory cancer pain, with additional expertise in multimodality guided pain intervention. He is the vise chair of 1st and 2nd World Institute of Pain Taipei annual symposium and interventional pain workshop and course organizer of the ultrasound tract.

Dr. Malinowski is an interventional pain physician at OhioHealth in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Miami University with a degree in Chemistry and a master’s degree in Neuroscience. Dr. Malinowski subsequently earned his medical degree from LECOM in Erie, Pennsylvania. He then attended The Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh for an internship followed by both a residency and fellowship at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in Anesthesiology and Regional Anesthesiology. Upon completion of his training at Ohio State, he then completed his pain fellowship at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas under his mentors, Drs. Gabor Racz, Miles Day, Mark Boswell, and Raphael Justiz. He is board-certified in Anesthesiology and Pain Management by the American Board of Anesthesiology and in Pain Management by the American Board of Pain Medicine. He is also a Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice through the World Institute of Pain. He is currently on the Board of Directors and Leadership Council for the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience, and he holds leadership roles with the North American Neuromodulation Society Education Committee. He also is active in the editorial boards of the journals, Journal of Pain Research and Pain Physician.
Dr. Malinowski’s interests include medical research, writing, and collaborating with colleagues on all topics of pain medicine especially neuromodulation, minimally invasive spine techniques, and cancer pain. A native of Ashtabula, Ohio, Dr. Malinowski now resides in Delaware, Ohio with his wife, Brooke, and his 3-year-old son, Mason, where they spend as much time outdoors as possible.

Dr. Neel Mehta is both board-certified in Anesthesia, and fellowship trained, board- certified in Interventional Pain Medicine.
He holds several positions including:
Medical Director of Pain Medicine at the Weill-Cornell Pain Medicine Center, and New York Presbyterian Hospital, overseeing outpatient and inpatient services together with a large team of dedicated Pain and Regional Anesthesia Physicians.
Co-Director, Weill Cornell Mutli-Disciplinary Spine Center
Associate Program Director of the Tri-Institutional Interventional Pain Medicine Fellowship
Dean’s Healthcare Leadership Fellow
Quality Assurance Officer for Pain Medicine
Weill Cornell Physician Organization Operations and Planning Committee Member
Weill Cornell Medical School, Course Director in Pain Medicine
Dr. Mehta was recently selected by his peers as one of Super Doctors New York ‘Rising Stars’– an honor roll of the top New York doctors in more than 30 specialties who have been fully licensed for 10 years or less.

Dr. Annu Navani is the Founder and CEO of Comprehensive Spine and Sports Center, the leader in interventional and multidisciplinary spine, musculoskeletal, and orthopedic care. Over the last decade, she has scaled a solo practice to a large multispecialty group practice with more than 20 service lines that operate via multiple state of the art centers in Northern and Southern California.
Dr. Navani is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at Division of Pain, Stanford University School of Medicine. She also serves as an Advisor to Le Reve Regenerative Wellness, the center for cutting edge restorative and regenerative solutions for clinical applications and research.
Dr. Navani completed her Anesthesiology residency from Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Fellowship in Pain Medicine from the University of California, Davis. She is board certified in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine by American Board of Anesthesiology, in Interventional Pain by American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians and in Regenerative Medicine by American Board of Regenerative Medicine.
She sits on the Editorial board of the journal, Pain Physician and serves on the board of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, California Society of Industrial Medicine and Surgery and California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Association of Interventional Pain Physicians, The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and The Postgraduate Assembly in Anesthesiology.
She has extensive publications in the field of Interventional spine and Regenerative medicine and has contributed via several peer reviewed journal articles, visionary editorials and book chapters. Her book, “Essentials of Regenerative Medicine” is first in its right illustrating latest interventional techniques in spine and musculoskeletal interventions. She has also been instrumental in authoring several National Guidelines including the ones on Opioids, Interventional Spine Epidural procedures, Facet joints, and Biologics in Lumbar spine.
Her vision is to forward the field of Interventional Pain and Regenerative Medicine by using technological innovations to improve access, decrease health care costs and maximize quality and efficacy.

Deirdre O’Flaherty is the Senior Director of Patient Care Services at Lenox Hill Hospital and has over 25 years of progressive clinical, administrative, orthopaedic nursing practice. Research, publications and presentations in resilience, empowerment and orthopaedic nursing and also Is an adjunct Professor at Hunter- Bellevue School of Nursing.

Jaclyn Pappas is an advanced practice nurse at The Spine & Pain Institute of New York. She practices alongside Dr. Kiran Patel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Long Island in an interventional pain practice focusing on neuromodulatory and intrathecal therapies. Prior to working in pain, Jaclyn specialized in Endocrinology and Diabetes working as a certified diabetes educator. As an individual with Type 1 Diabetes, Jaclyn recognized the gaps in communication between healthcare providers and patients. She applies this experience to her work in interventional pain management by blending humanism with the technical aspects of treatment allowing patients to be active participants in their care.

Ankur Patel is a PGY-4 Resident in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medicine. His clinical interests include neuromodulation, minimally invasive spine, cancer pain, neuromuscular ultrasonography, medical education, and mentorship.

Dr. Arpit Patel is with Excel Pain and Spine, a comprehensive interventional pain and spine private practice in Tampa, Florida market. He is double board-certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Pain Medicine and serves as clinical faculty at the University of South Florida’s Pain Medicine fellowship.

Kiran V. Patel MD is an Interventional Pain Management physician board certified in Pain Medicine and Anesthesiology. Dr. Patel practices at the Spine & Pain Institute of New York and is also the Director of Neurosurgical Pain at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Dr. Patel oversees the neuromodulation program at Lenox Hill Hospital as well as inpatient pain service. Dr. Patel is an assistant clinical professor at the Hofstra-Northwell School of Medicine as well as the Program Director for Hofstra-Northwell’s ACGME PAIN MEDICINE FELLOWSHIP. She precepts the Pain Medicine rotation for Hofstra Anesthesiology residents and medical students.
Dr.Patel earned her medical degree from New Jersey Medical School and went on to complete an internship in Internal Medicine at Yale University. Dr. Patel has practiced medicine in India and Africa and has organized efforts to address the undertreatment of pain in these regions. She completed her Anesthesiology residency and Interventional Pain Medicine Fellowship at Columbia University. She also studied medical acupuncture at Harvard University.
Dr. Patel is an active member of the North American Neuromodulation Society’s Board of Directors. During her first term on the board, she served on the committee to reform the NANS nomination process. She also worked with ION and NANS to address the reporting of explanted devices. Dr. Patel is currently part of ION’s Neuromodulation Glossary project. For the past five years she has been active on the Residents & Fellows section, coordinating the WIN participation in this program. Dr. Patel herself has been a mentor for the past five years. Dr. Patel has been an abstract reviewer for the Annual meeting for the past six years and an active member of the Scientific Planning Committee for the past five years. Dr. Patel currently serves as co-chair for the July 2021 NANS Mid-Year meeting. Dr. Patel has contributed to NANS education by participating as faculty for the cadaver lab and lecture portions of the Fellows & Residents, Engineers, and Advanced Practitioner courses since 2015. Dr. Patel is co-chair for the July 2021, September 2021 and January 2022 cadaver labs. She has moderated both plenary sessions and concurrent sessions at the annual and summer series meetings.
Dr. Patel is an advocate for women in neuromodulation and pain medicine. She is a founding member of WIN as well as Women Innovators in Pain Medicine (WIPM). Since its inception, Dr. Patel has played an active role in the planning and execution of the WIN reception, mentorship program and NANS newsletter contributions. Dr. Patel has chartered and run the WIN Chapter of Greater New York for the past 5 years. Dr. Patel is a board member of WIPM and is on the scientific meeting planning committee for this organization. Dr. Patel will serve as faculty for the lecture and cadaver portion of the 2021 WIPM meeting.
Dr. Patel conducts original clinical research and industry supported research. Her work has been published in Neuromodulation and Pain Physician. Dr. Patel has contributed to several abstracts presented at the NANS annual meeting and has also been selected for oral presentation of her research.
Dr. Patel is active within NY/NJSIPP. Dr. Patel’s scientific work and presentations have won awards at the NY/NJSIPP meetings. Dr. Patel has served as faculty for WVSIPP PAIN 2017, PAIN 2018 and PAIN 2019 meetings. Dr. Patel also chairs the INS Women In Neuromodulation committee. She has also been involved in patient advocacy thru medical broadcasting regarding pain medicine and neuromodulation in the United States and abroad.
Dr. Patel is currently a consultant and educator for Abbott Neuromodulation and serves on the DRG advisory board. She is also a consultant for Boston Scientific neuromodulation. Dr. Patel has previously consulted for Medtronic, Nevro, Vertiflex and Vertos Medical.

Dr. Manish B. Patel is double-board certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (“physiatry” or PM&R) and Pain Medicine. His clinical expertise is in the evaluation, identification, and treatment of impairments in function, most often due to musculoskeletal or neurological diseases.
Dr. Patel’s undergraduate education was attained at Drexel University. During which he had studied Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Human Performance and Biomechanics. He later went on to medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Patel completed his residency training at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. His diverse residency training also included instruction at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Baltimore VA Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of Maryland Medical Center. In addition, he completed fellowship training in Pain Management at Larkin Community Hospital in South Miami, FL, where he trained in neurosurgery, interventional spine, osteopathic medicine, sports medicine and regenerative medicine.

Dr. Shachi Patel is a double board-certified interventional pain management physician. Dr. Patel did her residency in Anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She then pursued subspecialty training in Interventional Pain Management at Weill Cornell Medical Center and Hospital for Special Surgery, where she further trained in acute and chronic pain management. During a subset of her training at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, she became adept in cancer pain management techniques. She is not the medical director at Delmarva Pain and Spine Center located in Newark, DE.

I am a board-certified anesthesiologist with additional expertise and training in pain medicine. As a member of both the Anesthesiology Service and the Pain Service in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, my clinical work involves delivering anesthesia as well as treating postoperative pain. I also treat cancer pain using medications, nerve blocks, intrathecal drug delivery systems, radiofrequency techniques, and neurolytic blocks. I regularly supervise and teach clinical fellows.

Grover Murray Professor and TTUHSC Endowed Chair
Professor and Chairman Emeritus Department of Anesthesiology
Past President of Texas Pain Society
Founder and Past President of World Institute of Pain

Dr. Racz graduated The University of Liverpool Medical School, completed his residency at SUNY Upstate Medical Center and served at SUNY from 1966-1977 when he moved to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center where he served until 2016 as co-director of Pain Services at Grace Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas.  Dr. Racz is a founder and past president of World Institute of Pain and Texas Pain Society.  He is the first Grover E. Murry Professor named after the first President of the Texas Tech University School of Medicine.   He was director of the TTUHSC Pain Symposium since its inception 33 years ago and is also Director of the annual Budapest Conference since it began 23 years ago.  He was the first President of the Texas Pain Society.

Dr. Racz board certified with the American Board of Anesthesiology, the American Board of Anesthesiology subspecialty in Pain Medicine, and holds the certificates of Diplomat with the American College of Pain Medicine, Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice awarded by the World Institute of Pain and the Diplomat American Board of Interventional Pain Practice  (DABIPP) certification awarded by ASIPP and WIP.  He is an advocate for high standards of certification and training among pain physicians and works toward the advancement of those goals.

He has received numerous recognitions and awards from organizations around the world including Distinguished Professor Award for Lifetime Achievement from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the Lifetime Achievement Award(s) from American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, ASIPP keynote speaker lecture series named for Raj/Racz, and the MORICCA AWARD, the highest award presented by the Italian Pain Society.  He educated over 1,000 Pain Physician visitors during tenure at Texas Tech.

He has published over 200 book chapters and journal articles and three books describing his techniques in spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulation, neurolysis, radiofrequency thermocoagulation and other interventional procedures.  Today, Dr. Racz continues to practice in Dallas, Texas, hosts Racz Labs Interventional workshops, and travels around the world presenting lectures and workshops.

Lauren Ronde is a board certified Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. Lauren obtained her nurse practitioning degree at New York University College of Nursing. Lauren currently works at Advanced Spine on Park Avenue, primarily as a pain management consultant at Lenox Hill Hospital. She has over five years experience working as an operating room Registered Nurse at Hospital for Special Surgery.

Dr Rubin trained with Dr Diwan at New York Presbyterian Hospital Cornell. He graduated in 2006. He has been in private practice on Long Island NY since 2008. He is the outgoing President of the New York Society of Interventional Pain Physicians and is a board member of the Nassau County Medical Society. He represents Nassau County as a delegate to Medical Society of the State of New York. He has been involved in the NY/NJ pain meeting as a co director and treasurer for the last 6 years.

Specialist in Anesthesiology and Interventional Pain Management.
Chairman and founder of Pain Clinic Department in National Institute of Cancer on México (INCan)
Main Professor of Pain Medicine and Interventional Pain Management postgraduate courses, which are dictate at the National Cancer Institute and endorse by Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México (UNAM).  Contributing to the formation of 5-6 human resources per year in each of the courses, with 180-trained fellows in 34 years from Mexico and different countries of Latin America. Additionally, he has participated as main author or co-author of research works carried out as part of the academic requirements of these two courses.
Academic Director of the Latin American Academy of Pain Interventionists (ALMID). Full member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National System of Researchers, México (SNI). Member of the Editorial Committees of Pain Practice Journal in Spain, Inter Institutional Boding and Divulgation Council of the National Academy of Medicine  and of the submission committee of Surgery for Academy Medicine in Mexico.
He has 82 articles published in various indexed journals, and participated in the broadcasting of his work in workshops, conferences and national and international symposiums.
Author of nine books in the area of ​​anesthesiology, pain medicine and palliative care, as well as 90 chapters of texts to these areas.

Dr. Dawood Sayed, MD is a Interventional Pain Medicine Specialist in Kansas City, KS and has over 14 years of experience in the medical field. Dr. Sayed has more experience with Pain Management, Spine, and Arthritis and Arthropathy than other specialists in his area. He graduated from University of Kansas / School of Medicine medical school in 2006. He is affiliated with University Of Kansas Hospital.

Dr. Schatman is a clinical psychologist who has spent the past 35 years working in multidisciplinary chronic pain management.  He is currently a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Care & Pain Medicine at NYU Medical School and a Senior Lecturer at the North Carolina State University School of Social Work. Dr. Schatman is the author of over 150 journal articles and book chapters on various aspects of chronic pain management, and lectures regularly on pain management on local, national and international bases.  He is also the editor of Ethical Issues in Chronic Pain Management and Chronic Pain Management: Guidelines for Multidisciplinary Program Development, both of which were released by Informa Healthcare in 2007.  Dr. Schatman is a member of the Editorial Boards of numerous journals.  For the past 8 years, he has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pain Research.

Naum Shaparin, MD, MBA,  is Director of the Multidisciplinary Pain Program at Montefiore Medical Center.    He also serves as  Professor and Vice Chair of Business Affairs in the Department of Anesthesiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.   After graduating magna cum laude from Boston University, Dr. Shaparin received his medical degree from Rutgers — New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ.  He then completed his residency in anesthesiology at Columbia University Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital and completed a fellowship in pain medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.   Most recently, he completed his MBA at the NYU Stern School of Business.  He is a Past President of the Eastern Pain Association and is a member of numerous organizations and committees.  Dr. Shaparin has lectured and published extensively on various topics related to acute pain medicine and chronic pain medicine.

Asya Gutman is a board certified physician’s assistant. Asya attended Wagner College PA Program. She has been practicing for over 3 years along side Dr. Suelane Do Ouro in a private practice in New York City with a focus on interventional pain medicine.

Interventional pain management professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey and University of Guadalajara. Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice FIPP and Certified Interventional Pain Sonologist CIPS.

Dr. Konstantin Slavin’s clinical interests are diverse applications of surgical neuromodulation and functional neurosurgery. This includes treatment of pain, movement disorders, epilepsy, and psychiatric diseases with a particular interest in the treatment of facial pain, cancer-related pain, Chiari malformation, stereotactic radiosurgery, brain tumors, and spinal problems. He has received many clinical and professional awards, including “Most Compassionate Doctor,” and for many years has been included in the prestigious “Top Surgeons” and “Best Doctors” lists in the USA. Dr. Slavin is a professor of neurosurgery and head of the Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery section at UIC. He is the Past-President of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, and Director-at-Large of the North American Neuromodulation Society and the International Neuromodulation Society. He also serves on Medical Advisory Board of the Facial Pain Association (formerly Trigeminal Neuralgia Association). He has authored and co-authored more than a hundred chapters and peer-reviewed articles, edited three books on Peripheral Nerve Stimulation, and presented at countless educational events and professional conferences. He is now an associate editor of Neuromodulation, Neurosurgery, Surgical Neurology International and a member of editorial boards of several other professional journals. Dr. Slavin’s research interests parallel his clinical expertise and include practical aspects of neuromodulation, a multitude of prospective clinical studies and pioneering research in spinal cord stimulation for cerebral vasospasm, surgical treatment for migraines, and deep brain stimulation for tremor, Parkinson’s disease, and depression.

As the medical director of Ohio Pain Clinic in Centerville, Ohio, Amol Soin, MD, offers comprehensive care for managing chronic pain and a variety of spinal disorders. Dr. Soin uses an integrative approach to identify the causes of pain and other symptoms to improve each patient’s overall health and wellness.
He has been recognized as one of America’s Top Doctors multiple times and is the recipient of the Patient’s Choice Award, an honor given only to the top 1% of physicians in the country. Dr. Soin is triple board-certified in pain management and is also a board-certified anesthesiologist. He is currently a clinical assistant professor of surgery at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio.
In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Soin has been involved in medical research since medical school. He is the author of the book Curing America: A Look Inside America’s Failing Health Care System which focuses on the 40 million Americans living without health insurance in a country that boasts the world’s largest economy. Dr. Soin promoted his book on affiliates of NBC and CBS and numerous radio stations and his work earned him recognition as one of Dayton Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” award-winners. He was also a finalist for the William H. Fallor research award.

Dr. Jaspal Ricky Singh is Vice-Chair & Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. He is a triple-board certified physician specializing in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Sports Medicine, and Pain Medicine. He earned his undergraduate degree at The George Washington University majoring in biology and religious studies. He then attended the George Washington University School of Medicine and completed his residency at the University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, Dr. Singh went on to fulfill a fellowship in Interventional Pain and Sports Medicine at the University of Colorado – Denver.

Anne Marie Stilwell, MD, a Board-Certified Interventional Pain Management Specialist, has practiced interventional pain management and anesthesiology on Staten Island for 24 years. She earned her medical degree from the University of Rochester and received her training in anesthesiology from The New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Stilwell was the first fellow to train at the prestigious Tri-Institutional Pain Medicine Fellowship that includes training at the Hospital for Special Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.
In 2015, Dr. Stilwell expanded her interventional pain practice to include Regenerative Medicine. In addition to traditional pain management treatments, Dr. Stilwell now offers her patients regenerative treatments including Platelet-Rich Plasma, and Celluar Therapies. The use of a patient’s own platelets and stem cells can help with pain and healing of injuries and degeneration of the spine, joints and tendons. These are cutting edge treatments used as an effective alternative to surgery and help her patients get back to doing the things they love.

Harry Sukumaran, M.D. is a pain management specialist Board Certified in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. He currently serves as Assistant Professor at the Wayne State University School of Medicine as well as the Program Director for the Pain Medicine Fellowship at The Detroit Medical Center.

Teddy Theodorakis is a Family Nurse Practitioner that has worked with Manhattan Spine and Pain for the past 2 years. Teddy obtained his FNP and masters in nursing at Wagner College and has been a registered nurse over the past 9 years. Teddy has worked in various nursing roles including as a nursing instructor/educator, ICU nurse, Floor nurse and home care nurse.

Dr. Tiso has been practicing pain management for over 30 years. He is the founder and director of the New York Spine and Wellness Center in Central New York, serving the needs of approximately 1 million patients over a wide swath covering Canada to Pennsylvania and Albany to Rochester. The practice has 3 large offices with almost 200 employees, surgery center ownerships, as well as a screening laboratory with a mass spectrometer. The practice employs chiropractors and massage therapists as well.
Our practice is dedicated to the compassionate and idealistic treatment of patients in pain. We pride ourselves in providing a positive workplace environment as well as creating positive change in the lives of our patients. Our reputation is based on excellent customer service in which the needs of the patient are prioritized through hard work and staying abreast of cutting-edge technologies while minimizing opiate use.

Andrea Trescot, MD is past president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), past president of the Florida Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (FSIPP), past president of the Alaska Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (AKSIPP), a former professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, and the previous director of the pain fellowship programs at the University of Washington and the University of Florida.
She was a pain clinic director in private practice for 10 years before she moved to academics. She has returned to private practice, where she splits her time between Alaska and Florida. She is also the Chief Medical Officer of Stimwave, a wireless stimulation company.
Dr. Trescot has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and textbook chapters, and she is the editor and senior author of a 900-page pain textbook (Peripheral Nerve Entrapments – Clinical Diagnosis and Management). She is also co-author of PainWise – A Patient’s Guide to Pain Management, as well as co-editor of the three-volume pain review textbook Pain Medicine & Interventional Pain Management – A Comprehensive Review. She speaks nationally and internationally on topics of pain medicine and interventional pain management.

Amaresh Vydyanathan is an Associate Professor and Interventional Pain Physician at Montefiore Medical Center. He is also a consultant and executive at Clearing, a healthcare startup in the field of pain. He is an empathetic physician who is a patient advocate. He also is passionate about research and has many peer reviewed publications. Finally, he enjoys teaching and is involved in many teachingendeavors at the local, regional and national level.

Dr. Wahezi currently serves as Associate Professor of PMR, Anesthesiology, and Orthopedic Surgery at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City where he serves as the Program Director of the ACGME accredited Pain Fellowship. He has created a fellowship with an interventional focus and multidisciplinary foundation. His mission is to create an academic environment which fosters the growth of Pain Medicine by education and investigation/development of new devices and techniques.
Dr. Wahezi is a long-standing member of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM), New York Pain Society (NYPS), Association of Academic Physiatrists (AAP), New York Pain Society (NYPS), American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN), Eastern Pain Association (EPA), and American Society of Pain and Neuroscie.  He is a nominated AAPMR delegate representative for the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Expert Panel on Pain Management, nominated representative on ASIPP’s expert lumbar stenosis panel, serves on the Board of Directors for the NYPS, and is a member of the AAPM Membership Committee Council.  He is a graduate of the Academy of Academic Physiatrists’ (AAP)  Program for Academic Leadership (PAL), President-Elect for the Academy of Pain Program Directors (APPD), Co-Chair of the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN) Educational Committee, and elected member of the Spine Intervention Society (SIS) Evidence Analysis Committee.  He is also Reviewer and Editor for the Pain Physician Journal and the Pain Medicine Journal.  Dr. Wahezi is also a nominated member of the Associate Professor Promotions Committee at Montefiore/Einstein. In addition, he is a nominated Super Doctor®, as identified by the New York Times Magazine, and included in the list of Best Doctors in America®.

Dr. Woska completed his residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Columbia University, New York Presbyterian Hospital. He completed a fellowship in interventional spine and pain medicine with Dr. Charles Aprill at LSU in New Orleans.  Dr. Woska is in private practice and performs spinal diagnostic injections as well as electrodiagnostic testing.  Dr. Woska is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Pain Medicine, Electrodiagnostic Medicine and Sports Medicine.  Dr. Woska is the Executive Director Emeritus of NJSIPP and remains active in legislative affairs.

Dr. Yang is a double board-certified physician in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) and Pain Medicine. He pursued a Doctor of Medicine degree from Ross University School of Medicine. After completing his residency training at The Mount Sinai Hospital, he pursued a pain medicine fellowship at The Spine and Pain Institute of New York and Weill Cornell Tri-Institutional Program. He is currently an attending physician at The Spine and Pain Institute of New York.

Dr. Thomas Yearwood, MD, PhD, is an interventional Pain Medicine specialist and world renowned thought leader in spinal cord stimulation and other implantable neuromodulation devices.  He has published book chapters and original research papers in neurostimulation, and has been involved in numerous medical device clinical trials. He is a noted speaker for neurostimulation, and has been a consultant for medical device manufacturers for over 20 years.  Dr. Yearwood has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering (Biomechanics) and is board certified in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine.

Dr. Edward Yoon is an interventional musculoskeletal radiologist who specializes in novel minimally invasive treatments of the joints and spine. Dr. Yoon is dual fellowship trained and dual board certified/board eligible in Diagnostic Radiology and Interventional Pain Management. Dr. Yoon is an active member of North American Spine Society, Spine Intervention Society, American Society of Spine Radiology, Society of Skeletal Radiology, Radiological Society of North America, and Society of Interventional Radiology where he has presented at national meetings. He was a course instructor for the lumbar injection course for the North American Spine Society and is currently serving on the Radiology Section Committee.
Dr. Yoon completed his fellowship in musculoskeletal imaging at HSS after which he trained in interventional musculoskeletal/spine and pain management under Dr. Douglas P. Beall at the Oklahoma Spine Hospital and Summit Medical Center. During his fellowship, Dr. Yoon completed over 700 vertebral augmentation procedures and had extensive training involving intrathecal targeted drug delivery, neuromodulation, interspinous process devices, basivertebral nerve ablation, stem cell allograft augmentation, sacroplasty, axial skeletal osteoplasty, discography, and radiofrequency rhizotomy.
Trained in all areas of musculoskeletal intervention and imaging including MRI, CT, and ultrasound, Dr. Yoon is also extremely well versed in the more common procedures such as facet, sacroiliac, epidural, intradiscal, and joint injections. Given the recent opioid crisis, the procedures he performs provide a non-opioid alternative that is highly effective, research supported, and very sustainable for patients wanting pain relief without the risks of opioid medications. Treatments performed by Dr. Yoon for very common conditions such as discogenic back pain and osteoarthritis of the knee not only provide profound pain relief but are backed by the highest level of research and were not even available five years ago. The research that went into developing these new techniques was facilitated by Dr. Yoon’s efforts in studying and propagating these procedures.
Dr. Yoon has strong interest in regenerative medicine and interventional procedures. He has been involved in numerous research projects throughout his training and has presented on the largest intradiscal stem cell therapy for degenerative disc disease. He has published multiple articles and book chapters on vertebral augmentation for the treatment of painful vertebral compression fractures as well as intrathecal opioid and intrathecal baclofen therapies.