In 2025, four members of the University of Florida Department of Anesthesiology received UF Superior Accomplishment Awards. Brandon Peckham, MHA, and Charmaine Turkdogan, ARNP, were recognized for their sustained excellence in divisions 5 and 2, respectively. Jennifer Barghout won for her outstanding individual performance, and Erik Neuman took home the…
Six physicians began their Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship with us this summer. Please help us welcome them to the team! Michael Aiello, D.O. Dr. Aiello earned his medical degree at Western University of Health Science. He completed his anesthesiology residency at the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville,…
We are excited to announce that Rene Przkora, M.D., Ph.D., and the Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship program have been awarded a fellowship grant from the Abbott Medical Device Grant Committee. Abbott, which operates in more than 160 countries, produces diagnostics, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. It funds a number of…
We are excited to announce that Rene Przkora, M.D., Ph.D., and the Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship program have been awarded an educational grant from Medtronic Giving Connection. The annual Pain Therapies Fellowship Grant is one way Medtronic demonstrates its support for the medical community and qualified medical teaching institutions. Medtronic…
Congratulations to Juan Mora, M.D., Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Medical Director of the Ayers Pain Medicine Surgical Center, as well as Anesthesiology Clinical Research Manager Amy Gunnett, R.N., CCRC and Clinical Research Coordinator III Amanda Slater! Their University of Florida research team received an award for excellence…
Congratulations to Rene Przkora, M.D., professor of anesthesiology and chief of our Pain Medicine Division, and his co-authors for their abstract being selected as a highlighted President’s Choice abstract for the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) Annual Meeting! The abstract titled “Longitudinal Outcomes of Repeated…
Mark Bender, M.D., joined us on Aug. 15 as a UF Health physician in chronic pain medicine for the regional anesthesia program at UF Health Pain Medicine – Halifax Health in Daytona Beach, Florida. In this role, Dr. Bender will play a key role in expanding the UF Health Pain…
We are excited to announce that Rene Przkora, M.D., Ph.D., and the Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship program have been awarded an educational grant from Boston Scientific. The Neuromodulation Fellowship Grant from Boston Scientific is intended to support professional education by providing funding for a limited number of medical fellowships…
Six physicians began their Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship with us this summer. Please help us welcome them to the team! Shreya Aggarwal, D.O. Dr. Aggarwal earned her medical degree at the University of North Texas and completed an anesthesiology residency at the University of Texas. During her residency, Dr.
The Division of Pain Medicine has been awarded grants from Abbott and Medtronic to support the Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship. The funding will help the fellowship train the next generation of leaders in pain medicine; facilitate clinical, basic, and translational research activities; enhance efforts to provide the highest quality…
Residents, fellows, medical students, and faculty mentors from the Department of Anesthesiology had the opportunity to showcase their research to a large audience of their peers at the UF College of Medicine Research Day on Wednesday, April 6. The Department of Anesthesiology sent 32 posters to the event in the…
We are excited to announce that the Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship has been named the UF Graduate Medical Education (GME) Program of the Year for 2021-2022. Nominations were accepted only from housestaff and a GME selection committee chose the winner. The fellowship was selected from among 67 highly competitive…
The UF Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship will participate in a Virtual Meet & Greet with applicants from 8-10:30 p.m. Thursday, April 7. UF’s program was one of the most highly requested to be represented at the inaugural networking event organized by the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain…
Rene Przkora, M.D., Ph.D., professor of anesthesiology, and Richa Wardhan, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology, have earned the prestigious designation of Fellow of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (FASA). The FASA designation, launched in May 2017, identifies and promotes ASA members who exhibit the highest standards in…
The Division of Pain Medicine at UF Health has added a new fellowship that will allow interventional pain physicians to gain additional skills in the most advanced endoscopic spine surgery techniques. The comprehensive Endoscopic Spine Fellowship was added in response to the division’s success using minimally invasive techniques to treat…
Amir Jafari, D.O., joined us on Feb. 7 as an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology in the Division of Multispecialty Anesthesia. He graduated from our Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship in June 2021 and has worked since then as an interventional pain physician at Pain Treatment Center in Ocala. Dr. Jafari earned…
Two faculty in our Division of Pain Medicine and a former trainee have contributed two chapters in a new book on cancer pain management. The book, titled Fundamentals of Cancer Pain Management, was published by Springer, Cham, in September 2021 and edited by Andrew Leitner, MD, and Christine Chang,…
Congratulations to Rene Przkora, M.D., Ph.D., professor of anesthesiology and chief of the Pain Medicine Division, who has been elected a director-at-large of the Association of Pain Program Directors (APPD). His two-year term began in conjunction with the ASRA 20th Annual Pain Medicine Meeting this November. Przkora served…
Our pain medicine fellows had the opportunity to participate in an educational laboratory on spinal neuromodulation on Nov. 13 that was funded by a grant from Boston Scientific. Spinal cord stimulation, a type of neuromodulation treatment, is a useful technology for patients suffering from otherwise treatment-resistant pain. Rene Przkora,…
We are excited to announce that four of our anesthesiology residents have matched into our Pain Medicine Fellowship for 2022-23! James Fleming, M.D., Caitlin Gray, M.D., Uche Ike, M.D., and Sam Searcy, M.D., will continue their training in the department. We asked them what contributed to their decision to…
Physicians began their Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship with us this summer. Please help us welcome them to the team! Mark Bender, Julia Eidelman, Jeff Pence, Nikhil Makhija, Viswanath Ramaswamy!
Nicholas Hosford, M.H.A., joined us as Practice Manager, Pain Medicine UF Health Springhill, on Monday, July 26. Nicholas has worked for the Department of Orthopaedics at UF Health since 2016, most recently as business office supervisor. He has held prior positions with Dermatology Associates and as relief manager for Ronald McDonald…
Pain medicine fellows now have the opportunity to complete an interventional spine subspecialty track as part of their one-year fellowship. The elective track, which will begin in the 2021-22 academic year, aims to enhance their comprehensive training in the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic pain problems related to…
We are excited to announce that Rene Przkora, M.D., Ph.D., and the Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship program have been awarded an educational grant from Boston Scientific. The Neuromodulation Fellowship Grant from Boston Scientific is intended to support professional education by providing funding for a limited number of medical fellowships…
UF Health has been selected as one of 20 sites across the nation to participate in a trial of a new treatment for knee pain. The clinical trial is part of the ongoing NIH HEAL Initiative to identify nonopioid pain treatments. The trial, titled “A 24-week study to evaluate the…
Rene Przkora, MD, PhD, and the Pain Medicine Fellowship have been awarded a grant from Abbott Laboratories to support education in pain medicine. The funding will help our fellowship train the next generation of leaders in pain medicine; facilitate clinical, basic, and translational research activities; enhance our efforts to…
Around Christmas, the new pain started. Muscle spasms and cramps in Miles Murri’s right leg that felt like blasts of lightning, burning and shocking. And in his lower back, the pain was constant, the torturous kind that makes nighttime hours interminable and prevents any chance of a comfortable rest. Miles…
For patients experiencing leg and back pain due to lumbar spinal stenosis, a safe, minimally invasive procedure at UF Health called the Vertiflex procedure may help. The Interspinous Spacer Procedure involves a minimally invasive titanium spacer implanted through a tiny tube via a small incision in the lower back.
At least five categories of acute postoperative pain trajectories have been identified, and, crucially, these trajectories are defined predominantly by patient factors rather than type of surgery and intraoperative medications, according to new research by the Temporal Postoperative Pain Signatures (TEMPOS) Group. The study, published online in January in…
A big welcome to Kimberly Sibille, PhD, MA, as a Joint Associate Professor with the Division of Pain Medicine, and Brent Carr, MD, as Joint Assistant Professor. Dr. Sibille is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Aging & Geriatric Research as well as Affiliate Faculty in the…
Congratulations to Rene Przkora, MD, PhD, who is the lead author on an article published in the ASA Monitor about the ongoing National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded pain treatment research network involving the University of Florida. The article, titled “A Major Step to Improve…
The Pain Medicine Division at UF Health is offering a novel therapy for the management of sacroiliac joint pain called sacroiliac joint fusion. The minimally invasive procedure can provide fusion and stabilization of the sacroiliac joint in eligible patients when indicated nonsurgical treatment has not provided relief. Sacroiliac joint…
A low-risk, minimally invasive procedure offered at UF Health can help patients experiencing low back pain due to spinal stenosis, while reducing recovery time. The short outpatient MILD® procedure to treat lumbar spinal stenosis is approved by the FDA and covered by Medicare nationwide. It requires only a small incision…
Congratulations to Rene Przkora, MD, PhD, who has been appointed to a 1-year term as a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Abstract Review Subcommittee on Chronic and…
Rene Przkora, MD, PhD, is a coauthor on new guidelines published by the American Burn Association for managing acute pain in adult burn patients. The guidelines, published online on Sept. 4 in the Journal of Burn Care and Research, are the first time the guidelines…
September is Pain Awareness Month, and the 2020 theme is #MyPainPlan, which focuses on the importance of an individualized, multidisciplinary, multimodal approach to pain care. At UF Health, we are committed to preventing and treating acute and chronic pain through various techniques. If you have pain that’s interfering…
Matthew Meroney, MD, joined us as Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology in the Division of Pain Medicine on Sept. 1 after completing his Pain Medicine Fellowship in our department. Dr. Meroney earned his medical degree at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia, where he also completed an intern…
Trina Emerson joined the Department of Anesthesiology as Practice Manager of UF Health Pain Medicine Springhill in March. She came to us with a strong background in healthcare administration, having most recently served as Senior Clinical Financial Manager at Florida Cancer Specialists. Below, we caught up with her about…
The Pain Medicine Division has been awarded a grant from Medtronic to support fellows in attending cadaver courses required during their training. The funds will be used by the six Pain Medicine fellows throughout the year to attend various educational courses. With the support from Medtronic,…
UF Health will become a study site of an NIH-funded research initiative aimed at comparing non-opioid treatments for managing knee pain associated with osteoarthritis. The multicenter randomized controlled trial, called “A sequenced strategy for improving outcomes in persons with knee osteoarthritis pain (SKOAP),” will seek to optimize evidence-based approaches to managing pain associated with knee osteoarthritis and identify phenotypes that…
Rene Przkora, MD, PhD, is a coauthor on a new paper in the journal Pain Medicine describing innovative solutions to help maintain the quality of pain fellowship programs during the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors convened a panel of pain program directors who…
Sandra Victor, MD, joined our department as Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology in the Division of Pain Medicine on July 1 after completing her Pain Medicine Fellowship with us. Dr. Victor earned her medical degree at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and she completed her Anesthesiology…
UF Health Pain Medicine specialists are ready to provide services that meet the needs and preferences of all patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, whether they would like to be seen for an in-person visit following CDC guidelines or via telehealth. Our specialists use teams of experts to diagnose and treat…
For the safety and convenience of our patients, the University of Florida Department of Anesthesiology’s Pain Medicine Division has successfully embarked on offering telehealth appointments. The appointments offered via a secure video chat or phone call allow patients to receive medical treatment from pain faculty physicians while adhering to…
We are pleased to announce the appointment of two faculty members to leadership roles in the Pain Medicine Division. Effective immediately, Sanjeev Kumar, MD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, has been named Medical Director of the Pain Medicine Clinic at Springhill. Juan Mora, MD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, has been named Medical Director of…
The research paper describes a shift in U.S. opioid prescribing that sheds light on the effects of opioid prescription legislation.
Through efforts to educate providers about the importance of using costly intravenous acetaminophen (IV Tylenol) only when necessary, a new stewardship committee has been able to reduce costs at UF Health by more than $60,000 per month. Arvin Trippensee, DO, FASA, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, is spearheading the effort to encourage…
Congratulations to the Division of Pain Medicine, which has successfully matched all six Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship positions for the 2020-21 academic year through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). The fellowship prides itself on producing physicians who are technically skilled in interventional pain management as well as poised to…
UF Health will become the hub of a statewide clinical trial network geared at early-phase interventions to treat various types of pain and decrease opioid use, thanks to a five-year NIH grant awarded in September. Rene Przkora, MD, PhD Rene Przkora, MD, PhD, Professor of Anesthesiology, and Patrick Tighe,…
An accomplished professor’s career-long quest to understand peripheral nerve blocks has introduced new technologies and called into question decades of anesthesiology doctrine, in turn opening new frontiers in pain medicine. Dr. Boezaart Over the past two years, Andre Boezaart, MD, PhD, in collaboration with other faculty members in the…
Joint & Courtesy Faculty…
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology Contact Information Department of Anesthesiology P O Box 100254 University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32610-0254 Office Phone: (352) 265-0077 Email: jberger@anest.ufl.edu Administrative Assistant Jessica Lee Phone: (352) 273-8960…
The University of Florida Department of Anesthesiology has a broad based research program in the clinical translational science of pain medicine. This includes studies examining the disease processes of: Post-operative pain Acute pain Sub-acute pain Persistent/chronic pain Cancer-related pain These studies are being…
Anesthesiology Residency & Fellowship Programs at the University of Florida Anesthesiology Residency Program…
