Pain Medicine

The UCI Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care pain medicine team is dedicated to restoring a patients’ quality of life through finding the source of the pain and to improve the patients’ ability to move again.

The UCI pain medicine team includes a group of diverse physicians who are board certified in pain medicine, trained at nationally renowned programs and have additional expertise in pediatric pain, cutting edge interventional treatment options, practice management, safe opioid prescribing and perioperative pain medicine. Our multidisciplinary team of pain experts takes an integrated approach to pain management, providing consultation and treatment to patients with both acute and chronic pain in ambulatory and hospital settings. The pain medicine physicians are renowned not only for the interventional expertise but also for the comfort and personalized care they provide to all patients.

Our UCI pain medicine division is always at the forefront of trailblazing innovative pain therapies, which includes development of new pain medical devices, the use of virtual reality for pain management and being a part of a national leadership role in providing safe pain care. We believe in providing education and advocacy for all patients to obtain the best possible solutions to effectively manage their pain.

Our pain experts care for patients throughout the whole process of surgery, they will evaluate and work with each patient to develop an individualized treatment plan tailoring to the patient’s specific needs of pain management, minimizing opioid therapy wherever possible at the Perioperative Pain Clinic.

UCI Health Center for Pain & Wellness

A multidisciplinary team of specialists at UCI Health Center for Pain & Wellness provide patients with comprehensive evaluation and compassionate care for the treatment of chronic pain. The facility has the latest testing and diagnostic equipment including fluoroscopy suites, a state-of-the-art ultrasound machine, a full suite of recovery bays, and thoughtful and inviting examination rooms, our pain medicine team is able to conduct thorough evaluations in all cases.

We help future leaders in pain medicine advance through developing knowledge and skills in managing patients in pain while practicing excellent patient care. Our academic setting has a longstanding tradition of providing one of the most comprehensive training programs in pain medicine in the state of California as well as nationally.

Research

The UCI Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care research division offers a wide range of basic science and clinical research including cannabis research, pediatric pain and numerous peri-operative pain clinical trial opportunities. The UCI stimulating research environment includes studies that are funded by national grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and prominent pain societies. We are dedicated to discovering cutting edge pain treatment options.

Our team of researchers is leading the study on using Onabotulinumtoxin A (Botox®) to treat pediatric patients who are experiencing chronic migraines. The study has been featured nationally on media outlets such as Time Magazine, NBC Nightly News and The Doctors.

• UCI Health pain expert to test Botox as migraine treatment for children
• A new study say Botox may help migraines in kids
• Botox injections may relieve migraine pain in children, adolescents
• "The Doctors" highlights UCI Health study of Botox to treat migraines in children

Faculty

• Shalini Shah, MD
  Vice Chair, Pain Management
• Navid Alem, MD
• Rakhi Dayal, MD
  Section Chief, Chronic Pain
• Ariana Nelson, MD
• Alexa N. Lean, MD
• Logan M. Woodhouse, MD
• Brent Yeung, MD

Education Opportunity

We offer an ACGME accredited fellowship in Pain Medicine.

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