Faculty

Sandeep Amin, MD, is the chairman of anesthesia at Rush Oak Park Hospital, medical director at Rush Pain Center at Oak Park, and associate attending and associate professor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL. Previously he was the director of pain fellowship education at Rush University Medical Center and assistant clinical professor at the University of Illinois Hospitals. He attended medical school at Municipal Medical College in India and completed his residency in anesthesia at the University of Illinois Hospitals, where he was chief resident. He completed a fellowship in pain medicine at the University of Illinois Medical Center and was a clinical fellow in pain medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. His clinical interests include complex regional pain syndrome, low back pain, failed back surgery syndrome, cancer pain, supraorbital and occipital neuralgia, neuromodulation and targeted drug delivery, and radiofrequency denervation. 

Anke Bellinger, MD, attended medical school at Witten-Herdecke in Germany. She moved to Iowa in 2001 and completed her anesthesia residency and pain fellowship at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in 2006. She continued to work as faculty at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and at the VA Pain Clinic in Iowa City up to 2016. Currently she works at the Steindler Orthopedic Clinic and in her own private practice offering functional medicine for chronic pain conditions.

Paul Etheridge, MBChB, CCFP, is a pain management physician with more than 20 years’ experience in helping patients in chronic pain. He completed the Clinical Pain Fellowship at McGill University in 2012 and is now the Medical Director at the Bill Nelems Pain & Research Centre (BNPRC) in Kelowna, a Regional Pain Centre for the BC Interior. He specializes in ultrasound-guided spine procedures and with multiple publications in the field, he continues to do research to develop new techniques and improve patient outcomes.

Gunar Subieta Benito, MD, is an attending of anesthesiology and pain management at John H. Stroger Hospital and is a clinical assistant professor for Rush Medical College. He is board certified in anesthesiology, pain management, internal medicine, and geriatrics. He was among the first physicians to obtain the ASRA Pain Medicine and MSK Ultrasound certification. He graduated from the University del Valle School of Medicine in Bolivia and did his graduate training at the University of Illinois and at Stroger Hospital.

Roderick Finlayson, MD, is a professor in the departments of anesthesia of the Universities of British Columbia and McGill. He completed his anesthesia residency at McGill University in 1996, and a fellowship in pain management in 1997.  He  works at the Bill Nelems Pain and Research Centre in Kelowna British Columbia, where he practices pain medicine. He is active in the field of ultrasound imaging for interventional pain procedures, where his research focuses on the development and validation of new spine-related techniques.

Yasmine Hoydonckx, MD, MSc, FIPP, is an assistant professor in the department of anesthesia and pain medicine at the University of Toronto. She has a master of science in clinical epidemiology. Her interests are in chronic pain treatments like infusions, image-guided, and neuromodulation procedures. She created the Craniofacial Pain Program at Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute. She has leadership roles in pain organizations and is a member of the Board of the Canadian Neuromodulation Society. She has received the prestigious Canadian Pain Society Early Career Investigator Pain Research Grant.

Julie H. Huang-Lionnet, MD, MBA, is a Harvard and Hopkins-trained board-certified anesthesiologist specializing in interventional pain management. Committed to patient care, Dr. Huang-Lionnet's clinical interests encompass a wide range of pain conditions.  Dr. Huang-Lionnet has clinical and research interests in minimally invasive spine, biologics, targeted drug development, sports medicine, neuromodulation, and regenerative medicine.  She continues to be heavily involved in clinical trials and basic science research for drug discovery and technology development. Dr. Huang-Lionnet has published numerous articles in nationally recognized journals and has also been invited to present at numerous national and international conferences.

Christine Hunt, DO, is an assistant professor in pain medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Her clinical and research interests include neuromodulation, regenerative medicine, ultrasound, axial pain, musculoskeletal pain, and neuropathic pain management including in the spinal cord injured population.  

Sakura Kinjo, MD, is a clinical professor at University of California, San Francisco, where she is the anesthesia medical director of the orthopedic ambulatory surgery center. She is board certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine by the American Board of Anesthesiology. Dr. Kinjo is actively involved in education, clinical research, and administration within UCSF department of anesthesia.

Melinda M. Lawrence, MD, is an associate professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH.  She is the program director of the pain medicine fellowship at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center.  Her interests include education in the field of pain medicine, interventional pain procedures, cancer related pain, and neuromodulation.  

Jennifer McDonald, MD, graduated from McGill University with a BSc (Hon). After obtaining her MD from the University of Toronto (U of T) in 2011, she completed her residency training in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Ottawa (2016). She is a Canadian Society of Clinical Neurophysiologists (EMG) diplomate. With a special interest in musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain, Dr. McDonald pursued additional fellowship training in interventional pain medicine at U of T, department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (2017). She is an ASRA Pain Medicine and MSK Ultrasound Certificate (ASRA-PMUC) diplomate. She is also a member of the ASRA-PMUC Exam Editorial Board and teaches at several pain and MSK ultrasound workshops in Canada and the United States.

Anne Marie McKenzie-Brown, MD, is an associate professor of anesthesiology and division chief for the pain division at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

Nimish Mittal, MBBS, MD, is an assistant professor at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He holds cross-appointment in the department of anesthesiology and pain medicine and faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education.  Dr. Mittal is a clinician-researcher and holds a master’s in health research methodology. His clinical and research interests include advancing innovative best clinical practices in chronic musculoskeletal joint pains using image-guided injections. He has published several articles on image-guided interventions in international peer-reviewed journals. He is an invited speaker at several international physiatry and pain conferences.

Antoun M. Nader, MD, is a professor in the department of anesthesiology and orthopedics at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University in Chicago, IL. He is the section chief for regional anesthesia and acute pain management at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the medical director for acute pain medicine. He is also the fellowship co-director for the adult and pediatric regional anesthesia and acute pain management fellowship at McGaw Medical center, Northwestern University. Dr. Nader is board certified in anesthesiology, with a subspecialty certification in pain management. He is a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, ASRA Pain Medicine, and the Association of University Anesthesiologists. With interests in neuroanesthesiology and pain management, he is engaged in numerous activities, including authorship, editorial work, grant review, lecturing for many societies. During his medical career in pain management, he has authored and coauthored more than 150 original peer-reviewed articles, editorials, reviews, books, commentaries, case reports, and technical notes. He is very involved in the development of institutional pathways for regional anesthesia and pain management protocols that have resulted in publications in major anesthesia journals.

Philip Peng, MBBS, is the professor in the department of anesthesiology and pain medicine of University of Toronto. He is a leader, researcher, educator and pioneer in the application of ultrasound for pain medicine. His innovative research led to different new procedures in pain intervention. He received numerous educational awards including the John J Bonica Award from ASRA Pain Medicine and Distinguished Service awards from ESRA-Spain and the Canadian Pain Society. He has delivered more than 400 lectures and workshops nationally and internationally. He has edited 8 books and published 240 peer-reviewed publications

Jonathan Samet, MD, is an associate professor of radiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, primarily based at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, serving as the division head of body imaging, and section head of musculoskeletal imaging.  He also works in the adult musculoskeletal radiology section at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.  He trained in diagnostic radiology at Northwestern University followed by subspecialization in musculoskeletal radiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  He studies nerve imaging with MRI neurography and ultrasound, bone/soft tissue tumors, and bone marrow composition. 

Vinita Singh, MD, is board-certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine. She is the director of Cancer Pain and do-director of research for the Pain Division at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and has a particular clinical and research interest in interventional and non-opioid pharmacotherapy for pain, including ketamine. She was awarded the KL2 junior faculty career development award in research by the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance in 2018, funded via the National Institutes of Health. As part of this program, she did a master’s in clinical and translational research. She has over two dozen publications and presented multiple national/international lectures and ultrasound workshops.

Dmitri Souza, MD, PhD, is a clinical professor of anesthesiology at Ohio University and Western Reserve Hospital. He serves as a faculty and a member of board directors at national physician symposia where he teaches pain medicine. He is a member of the ASRA Pain Medicine Ultrasonography in Pain Medicine Special Interest Group (SIG) and one of the leaders of ASRA Pain Medicine's Regenerative Medicine SIG.