Bio

Dr 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.

Clinical Focus

  • Anesthesia
  • Pain Management
  • Regional Anesthesia: Ultrasound Guided Procedures
  • Resident and Fellow Educational Curriculum
  • Persistent neuropathic pain acute, subacute and long term
  • immune mediated pain
  • health policy
  • health economics
  • acute and Chronic Pain
  • Public Health
  • Illicit Drug Crisis
  • Illicit Fentanyl & Analogues Crisis

Academic Appointments

  • Clinical Associate Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

Administrative Appointments

  • Clinical Assistant Professor, UCLA (2002 - 2003)
  • Masters in Academic Medicine, University of Southern California (2011 - 2016)
  • Pain Management Fellow, Cornell, HSS, Memorial Sloan kettering, Columbia quad-institutional fellow (2001 - 2002)
  • Anesthesia Resident, Cornell- Medical Center (1998 - 2001)
  • Medical Intern, Yale University Medical Center (1997 - 1998)
  • Medical Student, George Washington University Medical Center (1993 - 1997)
  • Double Major Economics and Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, at Berkeley (1988 - Present)

Honors & Awards

  • Standiford Helm Award, California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (October 2021)
  • Invited Speaker, Congressional Telehealth Roundtable (April 2021)
  • Invited Endowed Subhash Jain MD Lecture, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (April 2021)
  • Invited Panel Speaker, Women in Leadership Panel, Gentry Magazine, (June 2019)
  • Invited Keynote Speaker, 2019 Dr. Loren Roth Quality and Patient Safety Speaker Series:, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (2019)
  • Philip M. Lippe Award, American Academy of Pain Medicine (February 2020)
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (March 2018)
  • Presidential Commendation, American Academy of Pain Medicine (MARCH 2019)
  • Visionary Leader Award, Pain and Business Academy (October 2018)
  • Recognition of public service award, Maryland Society of Anesthesiology (October 2018)
  • Leading Physicians of the world AWARD, International Organization of Healthcare (2017)
  • Iconic women: Asian American Woman Trailblazers 2017 year Calendar: Dr Singh is December, Saris to Suits, Charitable (2017)
  • Teaching Scholars Program, Regional Anesthesia (2009)
  • Co-Director, Teaching Scholars

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Academic Director, American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (2021 - Present)
  • Independent Board Member, Virpax (2020 - Present)
  • Board Member Chair Advocacy Committee, California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (2020 - Present)
  • Member, American Society of Anesthesiology (2002 - Present)
  • Independent Board Member, Lucid Lane (2020 - Present)
  • Board of Directors, California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (CALSIPP) (2020 - Present)
  • Independent Director, BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc (2019 - Present)
  • Advisory Committee, American Alliance of Chronic Integrative Pain Management (2019 - Present)
  • Vice Chairman, National Physicians Council on Health Policy (2016 - 2017)
  • ultrasound committee, american society of interventional pain physicians (2015 - 2017)
  • scientifc planning committee, american society of regional anesthesia (2015 - 2016)
  • editorial board, interventional pain letters (2015 - 2017)
  • council member, california medical association (2014 - 2017)
  • subcomittee health information technology, california medical association (2016 - 2017)

Professional Education

  • Board Certification: American Board of Anesthesiology, Pain Management (2017)
  • MACM, Keck School of Medicine University of Southern California, Masters in Academic Medicine- Education, Curricula Development, Leadership (2016)
  • Board Certification: American Board of Anesthesiology, Anesthesia (2002)
  • Fellowship: New York Presbyterian Hospital (2002) NY
  • Residency: New York Presbyterian Hospital (2001) NY
  • Internship: Yale - New Haven Hospital (1998) CT
  • Medical Education: George Washington University Medical School (1997) DC
  • B.A., U.C. Berkeley, Cell Biology/ Economics (1993)
  • M.D., George Washington University, Medicine (1997)

Community and International Work

  • Faculty, LKSC

    Topic

    CME

    Partnering Organization(s)

    Stanford University Medical Center

    Populations Served

    Faculty

    Location

    Bay Area

    Ongoing Project

    No

    Opportunities for Student Involvement

    No

  • Faculty, LKSC

    Topic

    CME

    Partnering Organization(s)

    Stanford University Medical Center

    Populations Served

    Faculty

    Location

    Bay Area

    Ongoing Project

    No

    Opportunities for Student Involvement

    No

  • Invited Faculty, New York City

    Topic

    Ultrasound guided nerve blocks

    Partnering Organization(s)

    NYSORA

    Populations Served

    Faculty

    Location

    US

    Ongoing Project

    No

    Opportunities for Student Involvement

    No

  • Invited Faculty, Rome, Italy

    Topic

    Ultrasound guided nerve blocks

    Partnering Organization(s)

    Network World Anesthesia Congress

    Populations Served

    Worldwide Faculty Anesthesiologists

    Location

    International

    Ongoing Project

    No

    Opportunities for Student Involvement

    No

  • Regional Anesthesia Workshop, Stanford University Campus

    Topic

    Regional Anesthesia

    Populations Served

    Stanford residents, fellows, and faculty

    Location

    Bay Area

    Ongoing Project

    Yes

    Opportunities for Student Involvement

    Yes

  • Brazil Workshop, Brazil

    Topic

    Workshop on ultrasound guided regional blockade

    Partnering Organization(s)

    Brazilian Anesthesia Society

    Populations Served

    Faculty and Residents in Brazil

    Location

    International

    Ongoing Project

    Yes

    Opportunities for Student Involvement

    Yes

  • Invitational Lecture, Jaipur, India

    Topic

    Evaluation and Treatment of Cancer Pain

    Partnering Organization(s)

    academic support

    Populations Served

    multispecialist MD

    Location

    International

    Ongoing Project

    Yes

    Opportunities for Student Involvement

    Yes

Contact

  • Academic
    vanila@stanford.edu
    University - Academic staff Department: Anesthesia - Regional Position: Clinical Associate Professor
  • Clinical (Primary)  Anesthesia 300 Pasteur Dr Rm H3580 MC 5640 Stanford, CA 94305 (650) 725-8544 (fax)

Additional Clinical Info

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 5640
  • Other Names:
    Vanila Mathur Singh

Links

2024-25 Courses

Graduate and Fellowship Programs

All Publications

  • Methodology for Evidence Synthesis and Development of Comprehensive Evidence-Based Guidelines for Interventional Techniques in Chronic Spinal Pain PAIN PHYSICIAN Manchikanti, L., Atluri, S., Boswell, M., Calodney, A. K., Diwan, S., Gupta, S., Kaye, A. D., Knezevic, N., Candido, K. D., Abd-Elsayed, A., Pappolla, M. A., Racz, G. B., Sachdeva, H., Sanapati, M. R., Shah, S., Singh, V., Soin, A., Hirsch, J. A. 2021; 24 (1): S1-+

    View details for Web of Science ID 000631417300001

  • An Updated Analysis of Utilization of Epidural Procedures in Managing Chronic Pain in the Medicare Population from 2000 to 2018. Pain physician Manchikanti, L. n., Sanapati, M. R., Soin, A. n., Manchikanti, M. V., Pampati, V. n., Singh, V. n., Hirsch, J. A. 2020; 23 (2): 111–26

    Abstract

    With increasing costs of health care in the United States, attention is focused on expensive conditions. Musculoskeletal disorders with low back and neck pain account for the third highest amount of various disease categories. Minimally invasive interventional techniques for managing spinal pain, including epidural injections, have been considered to be growing rapidly. However, recent analyses of utilization of interventional techniques from 2000 to 2018 has shown a decline of 2.6% and a decline of 21% from 2009 to 2018 for epidural and adhesiolysis procedures.The objectives of this analysis of epidural procedures from 2000 to 2018 are to provide an update on utilization of epidural injections in managing chronic pain in the fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare population, with a comparative analysis of 2000 to 2009 and 2009 to 2018.Utilization patterns and variables of epidural injections in managing chronic spinal pain from 2000 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2018 in the FFS Medicare population in the United States.This analysis was performed by utilizing master data from CMS, physician/supplier procedure summary from 2000 to 2018. The analysis was performed by the assessment of utilization patterns using guidance from Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE).Overall, epidural procedures declined at a rate of 20.7% per 100,000 Medicare enrollees in FFS Medicare in the United States from 2009 to 2018, with an annual decline of 2.5%. However, from 2000 to 2009, there was an increase of 89.2%, with an annual increase of 7.3%. This analysis showed a decline in all categories, with an annual decrease of 4.7% for lumbar interlaminar and caudal epidural injections, 4.7% decline for cervical/thoracic transforaminal epidural injections, 1.1% decline for lumbar/sacral transforaminal epidural injections, and finally 0.4% decline for cervical/thoracic interlaminar epidural injections. Overall declines from 2009 to 2018 were highest for cervical and thoracic transforaminal injections with 35.1%, followed by lumbar interlaminar and caudal epidural injections of 34.9%, followed by 9.4% for lumbar/sacral transforaminal epidurals, and 3.5% for cervical and thoracic interlaminar epidurals.This analysis was limited by noninclusion of Medicare Advantage plans, which constitutes almost 30% of the Medicare population. In addition, utilization data for individual states continues to be sparse and may not be accurate or representative of the population.The declining utilization of epidural injections in all categories with an annual of 2.5% and overall decrease of 20.7% from 2009 to 2018 compared with annual increases of 7.3% and overall increase of 89.2% from 2000 to 2009 shows a slow decline of utilization of all epidural injections.Chronic spinal pain, interlaminar epidural injections, caudal epidural injections, transforaminal epidural injections, utilization patterns.

    View details for PubMedID 32214288

  • Lessons for Better Pain Management in the Future: Learning from the Past. Pain and therapy Manchikanti, L. n., Singh, V. n., Kaye, A. D., Hirsch, J. A. 2020

    Abstract

    The treatment of noncancer pain in the United States and globally is met with significant challenges, resulting in profound physical, emotional, and societal costs. Based on this need, numerous modalities have been proposed to manage chronic pain, including opioid and nonopioid interventions as well as surgical approaches. Thus, the future of pain management continues to be mired in evolving concepts and constant debates. Consequently, it is crucial to understand the past as we move towards the future. The evolution of lessons for better pain management at present and for the future starting from the 1990s to the present date are reviewed and emphasized with a focus on learning from the past for the future. This review summarizes the evolution of multiple modalities of treatments, including multidisciplinary programs, multimodal therapy, interventional techniques, opioid therapy, other conservative modalities, and surgical interventions. This review emphasizes the individual, patient-centered development of an effective pain treatment plan after proper evaluation to establish a diagnosis. It includes measurable outcomes that focus on improvements in the quality of life and activities of daily living, as well as improvement in pain and function and, most importantly, return to productive citizenship. It is crucial that the knowledge of best practices be advanced, along with emphasis on lessons learned in the past to provide best practices for better pain management.

    View details for DOI 10.1007/s40122-020-00170-8

    View details for PubMedID 32410070

  • The Emerging Role of Toxic Adulterants in Street Drugs in the US Illicit Opioid Crisis. Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974) Singh, V. M., Browne, T., Montgomery, J. 2019: 33354919887741

    View details for DOI 10.1177/0033354919887741

    View details for PubMedID 31738861

  • best practices inter-agency pain task force Singh, V., et al US Department of Health and Human Services. HHS Washington DC. 2019