Behavioral Medicine Committee Webinar

Patient Selection for Spinal Cord Stimulation in Treatment of Pain: Pre-Procedure Psychological Evaluation and Multidisciplinary Perspectives 

Speakers:

Thomas Rutledge, PhD: Dr. Rutledge is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Alaska, Anchorage in 1994, and subsequently completed Master’s and Doctoral studies in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Rutledge completed his clinical internship at the Toronto Hospital, and later completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh in their Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine fellowship program. He currently works in the VA Medical Center in La Jolla. His research focuses on the overlap between mental health and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, and chronic pain.

Traci Speed, MD, PhD: Dr. Traci Speed is a provider in the inpatient Pain Treatment Program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and a clinical researcher at the Behavioral Medicine Research Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Campus. Her goal is to use an individualized approach to help patients regain and maintain function, improve their quality of life, and effectively manage their plan by addressing their mental health, enhancing personal ability, teaching healthy behaviors, and instilling hope for a successful recovery. 

Krishnan Chakravarthy, MD, PhD: Dr. Krishnan Chakravarthy, MD, PhD, is an interventional pain and spine surgeon. Dr. Chakravarthy is Chairman and founder of the Empower You Chronic Pain Foundation focusing on patient access, advocacy and knowledge. Dr. Chakravarthy is an affiliate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, and Affiliate Professor in the Department of Nanoengineering at UCSD Health and VA San Diego Healthcare. Dr. Chakravarthy instructs medical students, residents and fellows at the VA hospital. His research interests include incorporating new technology into advancing pain care. His research work has been featured in national and international venues and has been published in top journals, including Anesthesiology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, and Pain. He has to date lectured in over three hundred regional, national, and international venues, and has more than hundred published works. Expertscape's PubMed-based algorithms placed Dr. Chakravarthy in top 0.1% of scholars writing about Pain Management over the past 10 years defining him as a "World Expert.” He has won numerous national and international awards for his clinical and research work, most notable include the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience Young Innovator Award. He is considered an international thought leader in the pain space and serves on the advisory board of several major companies as well as editorial board of several national and international journals. He has been involved in pioneering several first clinical cases in the United States and has been a founding faculty member of “Restorative Neurostimulation”. An entrepreneur, Dr. Chakravarthy is a founder of several biotechnology startup companies. He has served as chair on several committees and executive officer positions in organizations such as the International Neuromodulation Society, Pacific Spine and Pain Society, and American Society of Pain and Neuroscience. Currently he is President-Elect of the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience.

Mirsad Serdarevic, PhD: Mirsad Serdarevic, Ph.D., lives in Carlsbad, California, and currently serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and a faculty Pain Psychologist at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Previously, Dr. Serdarevic served as an Associate Professor of Applied Clinical Psychology at San Diego campus of TCSPP. He also served as an Assistant Director of Operations and Senior Staff Psychologist at the Counseling and Psychological Services at one of the University of California campuses. Dr. Serdarevic also received 1 year of training as a Special Fellow in Advanced Geriatrics at the Palo Alto Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Palo Alto, California.

Sean Li, MD: Sean Li, M.D. 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. 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 textbook chapters on the topic of pain and is actively involved in clinical research that will help advance the field of interventional pain medicine.

Moderators:

Tariq AlFarra, DO: Dr. Tariq AlFarra is the Director of AAPM's CME Webinar Series, as well as an interventional spine and pain specialist at Mount Sinai. 

M. Jasmine Silva, DO, FAOAAM: Dr. Jasmine Silva is a triple board-certified physician dedicated to making wellness accessible to everyone, moving beyond disease-reactive medicine, and embracing evidence-based healthy lifestyle choices to thrive physically and emotionally. She is the founder of OsteopathicYoga, which blends the medical principles of osteopathy with the mind-body practice of yoga.