Clinical and Translational Science
For more information about our Clinical and Translational Science programs, please reach out to the Vice-Chair for Clinical Science, Dr. Sean Mackey.
Researchers
We investigate the biological and clinical characteristics that drive resilience in humans using surgery as an interventional injury model. Modern armamentariums in the natural, clinical, and computational sciences allow for an unprecedented exploration of the question as to what constitutes human fitness. Gained knowledge will permit individual patient consultation and management in the field of perioperative medicine. Some patients may benefit most from complex and invasive surgical procedures, while others may be better served by minimally invasive or none-surgical interventions. Furthermore, novel strategies are on the horizon to render vulnerable patients fit for surgery with pre-surgical and perioperative interventions.
Dr. Bateman’s scholarship focuses on the study of medication safety in pregnancy and on predictors and management of maternal morbidity. To address questions in these areas, Dr. Bateman and collaborators at Harvard helped pioneer the use of advanced epidemiological techniques applied to large, routinely collected healthcare utilization data. This research has been funded by multiple R01 grants from the NIH and by grants from the FDA and has been published in leading clinical journals including JAMA, NEJM, BMJ, Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA Psychiatry, and Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Bateman’s bibliography contains over 200 publications. This research is frequently cited in clinical reviews and guidelines and has prompted both the FDA and EMA to make labelling changes to medications regarding use in pregnancy. Dr. Bateman is also a founding member of the International Pregnancy Safety Study Consortium (InPress) which is a collaborative effort between investigators from the US and each of the five Nordic countries to pool data for studies evaluating the safety of medications.
The Peri-Operative Neurocognitive Research Team (PORT) Laboratory (led by Dr Miles Berger) studies neurocognitive function in older adults, particularly in the setting of major surgery. We are especially interested in the interaction between patient factors (including neurodegenerative pathology), perioperative stressors, postoperative delirium, longer term cognitive and physical function, and the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
As the Director of Psychology Services for the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center, I treat the psychological problems of children with complex pain problems. I also conduct clinical research to improve patient care in this area. For example, my team is using the newly developed Health Registry database called Peds-CHOIR (Pediatric Collaborative Health Outcomes Information Registry). Peds-CHOIR is a novel, open-source outcome-tracking learning health system (LHS) that allows us to collect the data we need to make decisions about the best treatments for children who experience chronic pain. Until now, a way to collect and analyze this data has been lacking. Specific clinical research goals under study are: understand variables to help optimize patient and clinician resources, learn how a LHS helps actively engage patient and caregivers in treatment, track longitudinal outcomes, understand the predictors of persistent pain into adulthood, and describe the phenotype of patients that tend to be responders versus non responders to treatment so that early interventions can improve treatment efficacy.
I am also the director of the Pediatric Pain Psychology Fellowship Program and, in collaboration with others around the country, am developing the educational curriculum for pediatric pain psychology fellowship training. Recently published commentary in the Pediatric Pain Letter details efforts to formalize the training process.
Dr. Brown's clinical research lab focuses on improving care for older adults undergoing major surgery, including preventing delirium, cognitive decline, and functional decline. To accomplish this goal, his lab utilizes data from large community-based cohort studies, examines clinical data in the perioperative period, conducts prospective observational studies with deep phenotyping, and runs clinical trials. A particular focus is understanding the cerebrovascular contribution to delirium and cognitive decline. He is past president of the Society for the Advancement of Geriatric Anesthesia and is funded by the National Institute of Aging.
Dr. Caruso is a pediatric anesthesiologist and medical educator whose research focuses on the intersection of immersive technologies and healthcare. He is a co-founder and co-Director of the Stanford Chariot Program at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. Utilizing tools such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality, the Chariot Program improves anxiety, reduces pain perception, optimizes rehabilitation, and enhances patient and provider education
- I am a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist, clinical researcher, and empirical bioethics researcher at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and Stanford University. My focus is on improving the lives of infants, children, and adults with complex congenital cardiac disease and supporting the well-being of their caregivers and families. My research also focuses on identifying and addressing ethical concerns arising with implementation of next generation technologies to bedside clinical care for all patients, including genomic testing, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and mechanical circulatory support.
- Stanford Profile
- Lab Website
Dr. Larry Chu's active research spans critical healthcare domains. Current projects include collaborations with WHO and PCORI, focusing on patient co-production in research, PPE efficacy and safety improvements, and post-anesthesia recovery trajectories. Emerging initiatives explore artificial intelligence in medicine, addressing racial bias in large language models and leveraging machine learning for operating room optimization. This multifaceted approach combines traditional clinical research with cutting-edge technology, aiming to enhance patient safety, improve healthcare delivery, and advance medical education through innovative AI applications.
Beth Darnall, PhD is Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and Director of the Stanford Pain Relief Innovations Lab. A psychologist-scientist, she leads NIH and PCORI-funded national studies that investigate scalable behavioral analgesic interventions and patient-centered opioid reduction.
Her work centers on developing, investigating and disseminating solutions that offer more equitable access to evidence-based behavioral pain care for diverse and underserved populations. She holds a NIDA mentoring award and mentors junior investigators locally at Stanford, nationally and internationally.
- Pain Relief Innovations Website
- Darnall Stanford Faculty Profile
- Twitter: @bethdarnall
As a physician-scientist with NIH funding, I've dedicated over 25 years to clinical pharmacology research. My background includes practicing anesthesiology and teaching advanced airway management techniques to medical residents and faculty for nearly three decades. My research focuses on human-centered clinical studies and has involved over 50 research projects. This expertise aligns well with my goal of supporting clinical research in airway management.
To enhance my skills in this area, I pursued advanced training in biopharmaceutical sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, following my research fellowship at Stanford. This training included coursework in pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics and population pharmacokinetics data analysis using the NONMEM system. I've successfully conducted pediatric, neonatal, obstetric, and adult clinical studies and performed related modeling and simulation analyses.
Currently, I'm the principal investigator of an NIH R33 study examining neurocognitive dysfunction in geriatric patients after surgery. My research interests center on understanding the factors that contribute to cognitive decline in the elderly brain.
The opioid crisis remains a significant public health concern affecting adolescents in the United States. Medical use of prescription opioids following surgery is considered a pathway by which many adolescents transition to opioid misuse. Sleep deficiency following surgery may increase opioid use/misuse, directly or indirectly via increased pain or worsening mood, however has not been explored in previous studies. To fill this gap in knowledge, the primary aim of our research is to investigate how sleep deficiency influences opioid use and opioid misuse following surgery in adolescents.
The CARES-Spine (Comprehensive Analgesic, Recovery, and Education Support for Spine Surgery) trial is a multi-site, three-arm randomized clinical trial examining the effects of a behavioral intervention and medication in reducing persistent opioid use, opioid misuse, and persistent pain after spine surgery. Dr. Hah has developed a motivational interviewing and guided opioid tapering intervention to promote opioid cessation after surgery. This study will examine the effects of this behavioral intervention along with tizanidine or placebo. The M-SPA (Mechanisms of Stimulation for Pain Alleviation) is a multi-site, two-arm randomized clinical trial examining the effects of peripheral nerve stimulation for chronic lower extremity neuropathic pain after peripheral injury. This mechanistic clinical trial includes longitudinal imaging with a novel pain radiotracer as well as quantitative sensory testing of patients randomized to either conventional medical management or peripheral nerve stimulation combined with conventional medical management.
Dr. Lauren Harrison is a Clinical Assistant Professor and an NIH-funded researcher in the Biobehavioral Pediatric Pain Lab. Her research focuses on increasing accessibility to evidence-based pain management interventions through digital, scalable tools, and understanding the experiences and intersectionality of LGBTQIA+ youth with chronic pain to inform equitable, affirming pain care.
Dr. Heifets directs both clinical and basic neuroscience research programs. His work bridges neuroscience, psychiatry and anesthesiology in pursuit of highly effective, safe and scalable treatment strategies for psychiatric disease. The nexus of these fields, and the focus of his research group, is the emerging class of rapid-acting psychiatric therapies, like ketamine, MDMA and psilocybin, which can trigger profound and lasting changes in nervous system function, behavior, and therapeutic outcomes. Through parallel human and animal experiments, his group is deconstructing the neural mechanisms responsible for these compounds’ neuroplastic potential, and working to develop more precise therapeutic strategies. Major projects in his research group include:
- 1) defining the neural circuitry responsible for MDMA’s prosocial therapeutic effects using brain-wide activity mapping and mouse behavioral models
- 2) unraveling the effect of “set and setting” for psychedelics and MDMA through brain imaging and behavioral analysis
- 3) using anesthetic drugs and induction of dream states to test the relationship between psychedelic experiences and therapeutic outcomes
- 4) testing new indications for psilocybin and MDMA, including a trial of psilocybin therapy for chronic low back pain, and MDMA for OCD, in close partnership with investigators at Stanford, UCSF and UC Berkeley.
Our research group collaborates extensively with investigators at Stanford in the departments of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine; Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; and Radiology, and with research groups at UCSF, UC Berkeley and UC Irvine.
Courtney Hess is an Instructor and Pediatric Pain Psychologist. The primary goal of her research is to improve clinical collaboration in pain care, expanding assessment and intervention targets to include all involved in the pain care journey (youth, caregivers, healthcare providers). Her research aims to target factors that may facilitate or impede effective collaboration such as provider burnout, healthcare team communication models, shared decision making, and youth experiences of injustice and invalidation in pain care. Using qualitative and mixed-method research designs, as well as patient partnered approaches, her work aims to improve pain care, treatment outcomes, and implementation of evidence-based treatment.
Dr. Macario is interested in the economics of health care, in particular the tradeoffs between costs and outcomes for patients having surgery and anesthesia. He has completed internationally recognized studies on the management of the operating room suite, as well as pioneering work on the cost-effectiveness of drugs and devices. He is Founder and Director of a Postgraduate Fellowship for physicians interested in applying quantitative tools to solve health services research questions. More recently, as Program Director for the anesthesia residency he is interested in education, core competencies of physicians in training, and innovations for clinical training.
As a physician-researcher, I focus on translating scientific discoveries into real-world solutions for pain management. My work integrates 20 years of work using brain imaging, biomarkers, and patient-centered digital platforms like the learning health system (CHOIR) I created to advance precision pain care. I aim to develop tailored treatments by identifying pain biomarkers and leveraging tools like wearables and behavioral therapies. Through our digital health platforms, I’m committed to making personalized pain care accessible to all, driving innovation that transforms patient care and aligns with the National Pain Strategy.
The obstetric anesthesia research group addresses a wide variety of questions related to the field. Two areas are currently our major focus:
- The use of spinal opioids for epidural and spinal anesthesia and analgesia.
- Spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery.
In addition, we have done research on the economics of obstetric anesthesia, patient perception of risk, experimental pain, and the use of nitroglycerin for preterm labor and external cephalic version.
We have a large number of faculty involved in research and generally have 1 or 2 post-doctoral fellows conducting clinical studies. We have successfully helped undergraduate students, medical students, and residents complete research projects. Our fellows come from our own residency program as well as other academic institutions, and we have provided research opportunities for several foreign scholars. Our past fellows have gone on to academic careers or been very successful in private practice.
One of the strengths of our group is our ability to collaborate with a variety of people in the institution. We have conducted projects in the past with Drs. Alex Macario (economics), Yasser El Sayed (Fetal-Maternal Medicine), David Drover (pharmacokinetics and statistics), and Martin Angst (experiment pain). In the future we hope to collaborate with Dr. David Yeoman's experimental pain laboratory. Regular interaction among the members of the group is the key to the success of our active group. This is facilitated by monthly research meetings and journal clubs. We have also developed a formalized mentoring program. Dr. Riley, the Section Chief, directs the research program and, along with Dr. Sheila Cohen, (previous section chief and an experienced clinical researcher) meets regularly with the junior members of the team to discuss research and other issues.
The focus of my clinical trials unit includes Phase II-III pharmaceutical and device trials in therapeutic areas such as high-risk cardiac surgery, septic shock, ARDS, anticoagulation, complicated infections, and a variety of infectious diseases. Currently, we have 5 clinical trials recruiting:
- Toramycin hemoperfusion in adults treated for endotoxemia & severe septic shock.
- Efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of a Clostridium Difficile vaccine for high-risk C.Diff naive adults.
- Levosimendan versus placebo in patients with left ventricular dysfunction at risk for low cardiac output following CABG, mitral valve repair/replacement or a combination of CABG and valve surgeries.
- Safety, efficacy and tolerability of Human Recombinant Alkaline Phosphatase in the treatment of patients with sepsis-associated Acute Kidney Injury.
- The pharmacokinetics, safety and antiviral activity of JNJ-63623872 in combination with Oseltamivir in adults hospitalized with Influenza A Infection.
Patrick Purdon leads the Purdon Lab, a neuroengineering lab focused on brain dynamics, brain health, and the neural mechanisms of anesthesia. Their research aims to understand the brain dynamics of aging, Alzheimer’s disease, child development, sleep, anesthesia, and consciousness. They use this knowledge to develop novel technologies for brain monitoring and physiological control. The lab also teaches anesthesiologists how to use EEG to provide personalized anesthesia care.
Dr. Rabbitts directs an NIH-funded laboratory devoted to understanding and preventing chronic postsurgical pain in children. Her research program focuses on identifying risk and resilience factors that influence recovery after surgery, examining acute and chronic pain after surgery, and developing treatments to improve long-term pain and health outcomes and reduce reliance on opioids in adolescents undergoing major surgery. Current trials investigate melatonin to promote healthy sleep and recovery in teens undergoing spinal fusion surgery, and the effectiveness of an mHealth psychosocial intervention to improve pain outcomes for adolescents after musculoskeletal surgery.
My areas of clinical research include pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies of drugs used in pediatric anesthesia practice, Pharmacogenomics of pain medications, Epigenetics of pain perception after major musculoskeletal surgery, novel therapy options in spinal muscular atrophy and emergence delirium in pediatric anesthesia practice.
Faculty in the Division of Regional Anesthesia at Stanford have research interests encompassing a variety of topics related to regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine, including:
- Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS)
- Development of new techniques
- Advances in catheter technology
- Applications of regional anesthesia beyond the perioperative period
- Personalization of acute pain medicine
- Development and implementation of patient care pathways
- Multimodal, opioid-sparing pain relief
- Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS)
- Outcomes and comparative-effectiveness research
- Simulation and education in regional anesthesia
We have a number of ongoing projects involving faculty, fellows, residents, and medical students. Our group has a full-time research assistant dedicated to the execution of high-quality studies. We collaborate with other institutional departments, including the surgical subspecialties, as well as with other anesthesiology departments across the country. The diversity of interests in our core research team ensures that every trainee has the opportunity to pursue a project that aligns with his or her individual goals.
Our Team
Jean-Louis Horn, MD, Edward R. Mariano, MD, MAS, Ban Tsui, MD, Sarah J. Madison, MD, Jan Boublik, MD, PhD, T. Edward Kim, MD, Ryan Derby, MD, Toni Ganaway, BA, Steven K. Howard, MD, T. Kyle Harrison, MD, Cynthia Shum, DNP, MEd, RN, CHSE-A
Laura Simons leads the Biobehavioral Pediatric Pain Lab. The primary goal of this laboratory is to promote the health and well-being of children and adolescents with chronic pain and their families. In line with this goal, research projects focus on biological, neurological, cognitive, affective, and social risk and resiliency factors of the pain experience. Projects include brain imaging, longitudinal clinical cohort, and treatment interventions studies.
The Stanford Chariot Program makes a hospital visit feel as fun as blasting off into space. Our technology improves healthcare and the medical education of the doctors of tomorrow. Innovative virtual reality and tailored technology experiences capture a patient's imagination to alleviate their pain and anxiety, whether they’re undergoing anesthesia or getting a blood draw.
Dr. Pervez Sultan is a Professor of Obstetric Anesthesiology at Stanford University School of Medicine and an Honorary Professor at University College London in the department of Targeted Intervention. His research interests include defining, characterizing, measuring and improving postpartum recovery. He has developed an inpatient postpartum recovery measure which is a recommended core outcome measure for enhanced recovery after cesarean delivery. He has also developed an outpatient global recovery metric and has received funding to develop a postpartum sleep patient-reported outcome measure.
He has authored over 140 peer reviewed publications and presented the Ostheimer Lecture at the 2023 Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology annual meeting.
Dr. Sultan is an NIH funded researcher. He is a principal investigator for a R01 grant awarded by the NHLBI aiming to develop and validate a new PROMIS-based measure to assess postpartum sleep. He is also a co-investigator for a Maternal Centers of Excellence U54 award from the NICHD entitled: Stanford PRIHSM: PReventing Inequities in Hemorrhage-related Severe Maternal Morbidity.
Dr. Sultan is an elected member of the Association of University Anesthesiologists. He serves on the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) Board as the Director from Academic Practice, and on the Annual Meeting and Live Events and Research Committees. He also serves on the International Anesthesia Research Society and is the vice chair of the ASA abstract review subcommittee on obstetric anesthesia and perinatology.
Dr. Sultan is a former Arline and Pete Harman Endowed Faculty Scholar of the Stanford Maternal and Child Health Research Institute at Stanford University and a previous recipient of the UK National Institute of Academic Anesthesia Research Award.
- Stanford Profile
- Researchgate profile
- Google Scholar profile
- NCBI Bibliography
- Twitter: @PervezSultanMD
Dr. Weber leads the Neuromuscular Insight Lab. He is clinically trained as a chiropractor and completed his research training in neuroscience. Dr. Weber’s research seeks to make MRI more quantitative by developing brain, spinal cord, and muscle markers that track sensory and motor function in humans using advanced image acquisition and analysis techniques. Dr. Weber strives to use these techniques to better understand, diagnose, and treat several neurological, neuromuscular, and musculoskeletal conditions including neck and back pain, fibromyalgia, whiplash-associated disorder, traumatic spinal cord injury, hip osteoarthritis, lumbar spinal stenosis, plantar fasciitis, sarcopenia, and chronic pain. His current NIH-funded research aims to better assess the impact of the neural injury in cervical myelopathy and radiculopathy, two common spinal conditions, on the entire neuromuscular system to improve the prediction of surgical outcomes.