After completion of a residency and fellowship in pain medicine he developed the Johns Hopkins division of pain medicine in the department of anesthesia and critical care. At age 30 was made division chief making him the youngest division chief at Johns Hopkisn school of medicine. He wrote Psychological Behaviorism theory of Pain with his father Arthur and Hamid Hekmat PhD. This approach unified the biological with psychological perspectives in pain and served as a foundation for multidisciplinary and interventional pain used in many pain clinics today. Early research was on mechanisms of placebo effects and intrathecal therapy for cancer related pain. Other research was on high dose topical
capsaicin, creating the foundational patents for Qutenza patch. He has trained numerous fellows residents and Medical students from Johns Hopkins University in interventional pain and placed a highlight on the lack of education on appropriate pain care. He developed an interventional pain track for Anesthesiology including implantation of neuromodulation devices and was the first academic anesthesiologist to have surgical privileges at any academic university in the United States.
Leadership in academic societies • Founding chair: Interventional pain section
American Society of Anesthesiologists 1996 • President Southern Pain Society 2002–2004 • President North American Neuromodulation Society 2002-2003 • President NJ society of Interventional pain 2014–2015 • President American Society of Interventional Pain 2015–2016 • Chair Board of Examination World Institute of Pain 2015–2019 • Health and Human Services United States Government Subcommittee one alternatives to opioid therapy, pain task force June 18, 2018 -June 2019 • President elect World Institute of Pain 2019-2020 • President World Institute of Pain 2020–2023 • Founder and Chair
Vagus Nerve Society 2022–present ==Industry==