Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship

Dr Anitescu, Professor of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, is Section Chief of Pain Management Services and Program Director for the Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship at the University of Chicago.

She has been involved in advancing the field of pain medicine for more than 20 years with her contributions to more than 40 peer reviewed articles as well as numerous book chapters. She is the editor to several pain textbooks and the series editor for the Oxford University Press, Anesthesia Problem Based learning, a series of 10 books, recently published.

Dr Anitescu has been shaping the education in pain medicine for over 15 years in her leadership positions for Association of pain program directors (APPD) and association of anesthessiology subspecialty program directors (AAASPD). She is currently Past president of both. A founding member of Women in Neuromodulation more than 10 years ago, she is a Past Chair of this organization.

She holds leadership positions in American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) where she is the Past-Chair of the Committee on Problem Based Learning Discussions. She chaired the 2020 American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRAPM) Fall Annual Meeting and she is a founding member and past chair of the ASRA Cancer and Supportive Care Special Interest group. she chaired was the Meeting Chair for the Fall Meeting 2020. A recipient of the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) Lisa Stearns award for innovative contribution in cancer pain treatment, she chaired the 30 year Anniversary NANS Annual Meeting in 2024. She has been a member of Scientific Planning committees for the last 10 years in many professional organizations (ASA, ASRA, NANS, INS, SAAAPM)

She has been elected and serves as President Elect of NANS, formerly being a Director at large of the same organization as well as a board member of the international Neuromodulation Society (INS).

She is an accomplished educator and speaker to national and international meetings (ASRA, ASA, ESRA, NANS, INS, AAPM, SAAAPM); during her career she mentored numerous generations of pain physicians.

Her research focuses on various mechanisms of action of neuromodulation devices in improving clinical outcomes of chronic pain and she is a PI for several clinical trials on this topic. Other research topics include infusion therapies in traumatic injuries and chronic pain of sickle cell disease as well as use of neuromodulation to improve vascular changes in diabetes. She has conducted successful research on the treatment of vertebral body metastases as well as evaluation and treatment of psychologic co-morbidities in chronic pain.