Faculty

Eduardo R. Argaiz, MD, PhD, is an attending nephrologist at Mexico's National Institutes of Health and a professor of medicine at the Monterrey Tec School of Medicine. He is Postgraduate Course in Critical Care Ultrasound instructor at the Mexican Institute of Cardiology. Dr. Argaiz is also a board member of the Mexican Society of Echocardiography. [top]

Nibras Bughrara, MD, is an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, surgery, and internal medicine. He completed his critical care medicine fellowship and advanced perioperative echocardiography training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Currently he is the division chief of anesthesia critical care and the founder and director of the Critical Care Echocardiography Program at Albany Medical College in Albany, NY. Dr. Bughrara is the principal investigator (PI) of an ongoing multicenter study on blending focused transthoracic echocardiography learning in existing anesthesiology residency training programs and the PI of a multicenter study on performing focused echocardiographic evaluation in life support for in-hospital cardiac arrest patients. [top]

Rachel Douglas, DO, completed her anesthesiology residency at the University of Washington, was in private practice for a few years in New York, and then returned to academics completing fellowships at both the Mayo Clinic and Toronto Western Hospital. She is currently on faculty at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She has recently published in both JAMA Network and the British Journal of Anesthesia. Her interests are medical education with an emphasis in regional anesthesia and POCUS. [top]

Renuka George, MD, FASA,  was born in India and grew up surrounded by medicine. Two physician parents, residence on a medical campus, and a congenital heart defect hardly left her a choice. Dr. George used these various roles to grow her perspective and appreciation of medicine, ultimately leading her to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Along the way, she graduated with a bachelor of science in business administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, got her medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine, and completed her anesthesiology residency including a chief position at the McGovern Medical School UT Health in Houston, TX. She went on to pursue a regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC and remained as faculty there. She has since served in several leadership roles including the associate program director for the anesthesiology residency, the Medical Director for Rutledge Tower Operating Room, and now Director for the Regional Anesthesiology Fellowship. In all these roles, she has sought to grow her understanding of anesthesia, the operating room and medical education. In her training and clinical practice, she has sought to remove the guesswork from clinical decision making. She attended ASRA Pain Medicine’s Basic Point of Care Ultrasound Course in 2018 and has been a tireless advocate for the utilization ultrasound in medical management since. [top]

Hari Kalagara, MD, is passionate about regional anesthesia and has completed a regional anesthesia fellowship at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. He has attained European Diploma in Regional Anesthesia (EDRA) by the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy and was awarded the ASRA Resident/Fellow of the Year Award in 2017. Dr. Kalagara served as Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Kalagara holds certifications in perioperative echocardiography and critical care echocardiography by the National Board of Echocardiography (NBE). Dr. Kalagara is currently working as an assistant professor in Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the Mayo Clinic with special interest in regional anesthesia and POCUS. He is currently the Chair of ASRA Pain Medicine POCUS courses. [top]

Deepa Kattail, MD, MHS, FAAP, is a pediatric anesthesiologist and pain physician at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada, involved in both acute and chronic pain services, with an academic appointment as associate professor at The University of Toronto Temerty School of Medicine. Dr. Kattail is involved in various organizations advocating for improvements in pain care at the national and provincial levels in Canada, as pediatric co-chair of the Ontario Chronic Pain network, affiliated with Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, member of the National Advisory Committee for Pain Canada and an inaugural board director of a newly launched non-profit, Pain Ontario. Dr. Kattail is also actively involved in dissemination of knowledge through social media and internet portals including substantial contributions to www.SolvingPain.ca, associate editor for the Pain Medicine section of www.OpenAnesthesia.org and board member of www.Baby-Blocks.com. From an educational perspective, she is actively involved in serving as both coordinator and faculty for international workshops focused on expanding clinical knowledge on the use of ultrasound-based procedures including pediatric regional anesthesia and POCUS. She was honored as a 2023 fellow of The May Day Pain & Society fellowship. [top]

Andrez Kwater, MD, is an assistant professor in the department of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He completed fellowship training in regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine at UT Health-McGovern. He currently works in the neuroanesthesia, pediatric anesthesia, and acute pain/regional sections within his department. Dr. Kwater also serves as the associate program director for the regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine fellowship at MD Anderson. His clinical interests include regional anesthesia, POCUS, and education. [top]

Keith May, MD, FASA, completed a fellowship in regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University after 14 years in private practice. He is currently an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, where he also serves as the associate program director for the residency program. His professional interests include resident education,  practice management, and regional anesthesia. [top]

Theresa Northern, DO, MPH, is an anesthesiologist practicing in Colorado Springs at UC Health. She is an adjunct faculty at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Previously she was an assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she completed a fellowship in regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine. She is a Diplomate in Basic Perioperative Transesophageal Echocardiography certified from the National Board of Echocardiography and has completed the Diagnostic POCUS Certificate Program by the American Society of Anesthesiologists. During her residency in anesthesiology at Ochsner in New Orleans, she was selected as a Society for Education in Anesthesia Health Volunteers Overseas (SEA-HVO) Traveling Fellowship Recipient. Recognizing the increasing availability of ultrasound globally and its utility across multiple clinical realms, her dream is to teach POCUS in resource-challenged environments where its impact is exponential. [top]

Rutuja Sikachi, MD, is an assistant professor of anesthesiology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, with specialized training in regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine. Her clinical expertise centers around regional anesthesiology and the use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) to enhance perioperative care. Her research primarily focuses on optimizing pain management strategies to minimize discomfort while reducing the reliance on narcotic pain medications in both the intraoperative and postoperative settings. Additionally, she has contributed to research on the applications of POCUS in the perioperative environment, enhancing diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities in anesthesia practice. Her academic contributions include oral presentations at ASRA Pain Medicine and American Society of Anesthesiologists national meetings. She has co-authored three book chapters covering key topics in general anesthesiology and regional anesthesia. Her expertise in the field has earned her an invitation to a national symposium at the University of Maryland, where she delivered a talk on "Considerations for Medical Pleuroscopy" based on her published work. As an educator and researcher, Dr. Sikachi remains dedicated to refining anesthetic techniques that prioritize patient safety, comfort, and recovery while advancing the role of regional anesthesia in modern perioperative care. [top]

Vijay Anand Sivakumar, MBBS, MD, EDIC, is the director and clinical lead of emergency and critical care medicine at Devaki Specialty Hospital, in Madurai, India. His interests include mechanical ventilation acute respiratory distress syndrome, and POCUS nephrology critical care. Dr. Sivakumar has a lifetime achievement award for his work in COVID. [top]