Advancing Practice Across the Military and VA Health Systems

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

1-6:30 pm MT

Registration to this event is free to all who are registered for the 51st Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Meeting. 

Registration will be from 12:00-1:00pm in the Phoenix C Foyer, or preregister to ensure your spot!

Register

 

Program

* Faculty and sessions subject to change.

Download as a PDF.

Faculty

Originally from London, Ontario, Canada, LCol Ramzy Abdel-Galil grew up with all the hallmarks of the 1980s: plenty of unsupervised time, unreliable computers, and interests where neither his parents nor people he was closest with knew what he actually did despite seeing him every day. This prepared him well for his life in anesthesiology. He joined the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in medical school, practicing six years as a primary care physician in uniform before completing a second residency as an anesthesiologist. He is now senior practice leader for the CAF anesthesiology group.

Justin Cordova, MD
Bethesda, MD

Major Justin Cordova completed residency at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he now serves as a fellow in regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine. His interests include battlefield care, regional anesthesia, and the medical humanities. He has been published in a number of scholarly journals, including Anesthesiology, Anesthesia & Analgesia, Academic Medicine, and the Journal of Medical Humanities. He is an assistant professor in anesthesiology at Uniformed Services University.

Timothy Dawson, MD
Mercer Island, WA

Dr. Timothy Dawson is the deputy executive director for the Veterans Health Administration Pain Management Opioid Safety and Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. He is field-based at VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, WA, where he is the chief of the anesthesia and pain medicine service line. He is also a clinical professor in the anesthesia and pain management division at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is board certified in anesthesiology, pain medicine, and addiction medicine.

San Diego, CA

Dr. Travis Deaton is a board certified Emergency Medicine physician and current chair of the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care under the Joint Trauma System for the U.S. Department of War. Dr. Deaton previously served as command surgeon for I Marine Expeditionary Force, academic chair of Emergency Medicine at Balboa Naval Hospital, and in multiple operational positions within special operations and conventional units during 13 combat deployments.

Dr. Mykola Demianiuk is an anesthesiologist at Dubnova’s Clinic “STOMATOLOGiYA” and Medical Center “CitiDoctor,” with experience in anesthesia for ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery. Previously, he served as a pediatric anesthesiologist at the National Children’s Specialized Hospital “Okhmatdyt.” Dr. Demianiuk earned his MD in pediatric anesthesiology from Shupyk National Healthcare University of Ukraine and completed his medical degree at Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University.

Bethesda, MD

CAPT Harold Gelfand serves as executive director of the Defense and Veterans Consortium for Integrative Pain Management and as vice chair for research and associate professor of anesthesiology at the Uniformed Services University. He earned his BA from the University of Virginia and MD from Eastern Virginia Medical School, completed anesthesiology training at the National Capital Consortium, and pursued fellowships in regional anesthesia, acute pain medicine, and obstetrical anesthesia at Johns Hopkins. A board-certified anesthesiologist, CAPT Gelfand has served as a regimental and group surgeon supporting deployments to Southeast Asia and missions related to the Global War on Terrorism, including a deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He has held multiple national leadership and editorial roles in pain medicine and anesthesiology and has received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, and Joint Service Achievement Medal.

Dr. Thomas Hickey is full-time staff at the West Haven VA where he is medical director of preoperative evaluation and the PACU, and site director for the anesthesiology residency. Within the VA, he is chairman of the VA New England Healthcare System committee on preoperative evaluation and ERAS, co-chair of the VA’s national pain/opioid consortium for research workgroup on perioperative management of medications for opioid use disorder, and a member of the National Anesthesia Program Acute Pain Management Committee. He is board certified in both anesthesiology and addiction medicine. His research interests focus on the overlap between addiction medicine and acute pain management, particularly on the use of buprenorphine for acute pain management. He and his wife are kept busy by their three kids and all their activities.

Loughborough, UK

LCol Alex Kumar is a consultant in anaesthesia and pain management in the British Army. He is the clinical lead for pain medicine at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre and chairs the UK Military Pain Special Interest Group. He holds the post of clinical lecturer in defence pain management with a research interest in pain after battlefield trauma.

Seattle, WA

Dr. Lauren Mahyar earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, completed her residency at Stanford, and pursued a regional and acute pain medicine fellowship at Virginia Mason. She has worked for nine years at the VA Puget Sound, where she directs the University of Washington CA-2 regional rotation. Her clinical interests include acute and complex perioperative pain management, regional anesthesia, and medical education.

Bethesda, MD

Dr. Friedhelm Sandbrink is a clinical associate professor of neurology and rehabilitation medicine at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and clinical associate professor in neurology at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD. He is chief of pain medicine at the Washington DC VA Medical Center and the executive director for the National Pain Management, Opioid Safety and Prescription Drug Monitoring Program in the Veterans Health Administration.

Cleveland, OH

Dr. Elias Veizi is a pain medicine physician and academic leader. He serves as chief of the Pain Medicine Service Line at the North East Ohio VA Health Care System and as an associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. He is also an investigator with the Cleveland Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) Center. His work focuses on advancing interventional and neuromodulation-based approaches to the treatment of chronic pain.

Oakmont, PA

Now retired from VA Pittsburgh, Dr. Brian Williams addressed enhanced recovery opioid stewardship and meaningful antiemesis. His work was funded by Department of Defense, NIH, and others (SAMBA, IARS). His contributions include Phase 1 PACU Bypass, avoidance of unplanned hospital admissions, foundations of rebound pain, outpatient perineural catheters, multimodal single-injection nerve blocks (in vitro, in vivo, and clinically), 5-drug multimodal antiemetics, and regional anesthesia business plans.