School of Medicine


Showing 1-20 of 44 Results

  • Vafi Salmasi

    Vafi Salmasi

    Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine (Adult Pain)

    BioVafi Salmasi, M.D., M.S. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Division of Pain Medicine atStanford University School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2004 and completed hisanesthesiology training at Cleveland Clinic, where he also completed a research fellowship in the Department of Outcomes Research. He subsequently joined Stanford University for fellowship training in Pain Medicine and earned a Master of Science in Clinical Research and Epidemiology from Stanford in 2019.

    Dr. Salmasi's research focuses on integrating pragmatic comparative effectiveness research with clinical care in perioperative and pain medicine, supported by his NIH funding. He is an active member of the neuromodulation team at Stanford Pain Management Center, where he has established and organizes the multidisciplinary team conference for neuromodulation candidates. His clinical expertise encompasses interventional pain management with particular emphasis on neuromodulation techniques including spinal cord stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation; and minimally invasive spine techniques including basivertebral nerve ablation and percutaneous minimally invasive lumbar decompression.

  • Stanley Samuels

    Stanley Samuels

    Professor (Clinical) of Anesthesia, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsNeuroanesthesia; anesthesia in developing countries.

  • Adam Craig Schlifke

    Adam Craig Schlifke

    Clinical Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

    BioDr. Schlifke is a board-certified anesthesiologist and former medical director with fundamental business training highly motivated to improve healthcare delivery in the US through technology. He enjoys working in entrepreneurial environments that are focused on designing innovative solutions that are well integrated into the healthcare workflow. Dr. Schlifke loves to "disrupt" healthcare delivery with technology-enabled services.

  • Peter Schmidt

    Peter Schmidt

    Clinical Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

    BioPete Schmidt, MD, MSc is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine, Division of Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he conceptualized and launched the Stanford Cancer Pain program. He provides comprehensive and individualized care for patients with cancer-related pain, including patients who are suffering from the effects of cancer treatment. His clinical expertise also includes ultrasound-guided nerve blocks, perioperative pain management, and safe medication tapering after definitive cancer treatment. He is board-certified in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, and Addiction Medicine.

    Dr. Schmidt's research interests are in clinical trials, drug development, and novel regulatory endpoints. He has designed and led over a dozen clinical trials in the fields of pain management, neurology, infectious diseases, and rare diseases. Dr. Schmidt has published his research findings in several high-impact journals, including Science: Translational Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine. He is also the author of several book chapters on pain management and perioperative management.

  • Kristin Schreiber

    Kristin Schreiber

    Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine (Regional Anesthesia)

    BioDr. Kristin Schreiber is a Professor and Regional Anesthesiologist whose clinical work involves caring for surgical patients in the perioperative period, and whose research work is centered around predicting and preventing Chronic Postsurgical Pain (CPSP). Her PhD in Neuroscience investigated mechanisms of spinal plasticity in the development of chronic pain states, and her translational clinical research program aims to understand which patient are at risk to develop CPSP, why, and how to best prevent it in different individuals. She employs the careful preoperative pain phenotyping, investigating factors that underlie variability in postsurgical trajectories, and testing both pharmacologic and behavioral interventions to reduce postsurgical pain. Her quantitative sensory testing lab-based studies investigate difference in pain processing, in the absence and presence of modulators of pain including regional anesthesia, placebo, distraction, and music. She has enjoyed continuous external funding from the NIH since 2015, and has held administrative roles including associate VC of Research, and VC of Faculty Development, and PI of a translational pain research training grant at Harvard Medical School. She is a handling editor at Anesthesiology, and Pain Medicine, and currently serves as the Chief of Regional Anesthesia in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine.

  • Audrey Shafer

    Audrey Shafer

    Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Emeritum

    Current Research and Scholarly Interestsliterature and medicine, humanistic aspects of medicine and anesthesia care, language and medicine, communication, medical humanities, creative writing, arts and healthcare

  • Steven L. Shafer, MD

    Steven L. Shafer, MD

    Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine (Adult MSD) at the Stanford University Medical Center, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of intravenous anesthetics, including drug interactions and continuous measures of drug effect; model-based drug development; target controlled drug delivery; advanced models of drug behavior.

  • Sajan Shah, MD, MBA

    Sajan Shah, MD, MBA

    Clinical Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

    BioDr. Sajan Shah is a board-certified, fellowship-trained pain management specialist with the Stanford Health Care Pain Management Center. He is also a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Division of Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.

    Dr. Shah specializes in managing acute and chronic pain. He commonly cares for people living with complex spinal conditions that have not responded to conventional treatment. He offers a range of injections to manage pain, including joint corticosteroid injections, peripheral nerve blocks, trigger point injections, and Botox injections for migraines and dystonia. He has experience with neuromodulation techniques, including spinal cord stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation, and minimally invasive spinal procedures. He strives to provide effective pain therapies that improve the everyday function and quality of life of his patients.

    Dr. Shah’s research has explored topics in anesthesiology and pain medicine. He has studied chronic pain syndromes, including how to diagnose and manage rare pain conditions. Dr. Shah has published his findings in several peer-reviewed journals and co-authored a book chapter on complex regional pain syndrome. He has presented his research at national and international meetings, including those held by the American Academy of Pain Medicine, American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, and North American Neuromodulation Society.

  • Laura Simons

    Laura Simons

    Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine (Pediatric)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a clinical psychologist who evaluates and treats youth presenting with chronic pain in the Pediatric Pain Management Clinic (PPMC) at Stanford Children’s Health. My program of research aims to utilize a pain neuroscience psychology approach to gain a mechanistic understanding of cognitive and affective processes in pediatric pain, perform rigorous patient-oriented research that translates targeted assessment into mechanistically informed treatment approaches for optimal clinical care and leverage the ubiquity of digital health to enhance patient access and reach. Central to these goals are projects targeting adolescence and youth adults with chronic pain that encompass defining brain signatures of threat interpretation, evaluating the efficacy of graded exposure (NCT03699007), deriving a biosignature of improvement vs. persistence of pain and disability (NCT04285112), and evaluating the impact of virtual reality on pain rehabilitation (NCT04636177). These studies along with additional work examining the journey of pain care for youth with pain and their parents form a comprehensive research portfolio in the realm of understanding and treating chronic pain in young people. My long-term career goal is to lead a robust research program focusing on alleviating the suffering of youth and emerging adults with chronic pain.

  • Vanila M. Singh, MD MACM

    Vanila M. Singh, MD MACM

    Clinical Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

    BioDr Singh is the immediate past Chief Medical Officer in the US Department of Health and Human Services and was Chairperson of the highly regarded HHS Task Force in conjunction with the Department of Defense and the Veterans Affairs. She led this group to the comprehensive and approachable final report submitted to Congress. She is a clinical associate professor of Anesthesiology, Pain and Peri-operative Medicine at Stanford and is a teaching mentor at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

    Pain Management Best Practices HHS Task Force Report: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/pain-mgmt-best-practices-draft-final-report-05062019.pdf

    The Best Practices Pain Inter-agency report that was convened by US Department of HHS in conjunction with Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration is supported by over 160 organizations including the Human Rights Watch, dozens of patient advocacy groups, respected medical organizations including AMA, AAOS, AAPS, ASA, CMA, ASIPP, AAPM, ACOG, CSNS, and dozens of others and key stakeholders such as nursing, social workers, integrative health primary physicians pharmacists and others. There were over 10,000 public comments highlighting the challenges that forced tapering of opioids and the abandonment of chronic pain patients across the nation. The significant patient harms have been a topic of concern with the resulting number of suicides and adverse clinical outcomes pushing patients to the medically unsupervised black market.

    Dr Singh has a background in molecular and cell biology, economics, pain medicine, and regional anesthesia with a forte in advanced ultrasound guided procedures for pain and anesthesia medicine. She is double board-certified in pain and anesthesiology. She has served in medical ethics, and to served on scientific editorial boards, committees for the American Society of Regional Anesthesia, American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, California Medical Association, and the Santa Clara County Medical Association . She has an interest & remains involved in health policy with a background in economics. Dr Singh has been invited and has spoken extensively around the country about the opioid crisis and pain management as well as the growing illicit drug crisis afflicting the nation. Dr Singh's practice uniquely focuses on regional anesthesia and peri-operative, subacute, and the development of chronic pain, with an appreciation on complimentary and traditional medicine approaches that emphasizes an individualized patient-centered approach. She has interests that include public health, persistent pain following surgical procedures, and long term chronic and complex pain issues. Dr. Singh has a background and interest in education for medical students, residents, and fellows. She has identified the growing clinical administrative burden of physicians as a challenge to good patient care, and has spoken about EHR and health IT in general. She strongly believes in a compassionate, individualized patient-centered approach to medicine. She completed a masters in academic medicine as part of her professional development to further enhance leadership, educational curriculum development, interdisciplinary work and various presentations and projects with faculty from around the country.