ASRA Pain Medicine Update

This July, we feature Rana Movahedi, MD, FASA, in our Member Spotlight series, nominated by Mary Hargett. Dr. Movahedi is currently on staff in the Department of Anesthesiology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles, CA.

“Rana is truly dedicated to education and her commitment has resulted in several teaching awards,” Ms. Hargett states. “In addition to her educational endeavors, Rana continues to participate in humanitarian projects.”

Dr. Movahedi received her medical degree from Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran in 1992. She then completed an internal medicine internship at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, CA, in 2004, followed by an anesthesiology residency at Cedar-Sinai in Los Angeles, CA, in 2007, and a regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine fellowship at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, NY, in 2008. She earned the Basic Focus Assessed Transthoracic Echocardiography (FATE) certificate in 2015 and the Advanced FATE certificate in 2017. Most recently, Dr. Movahedi earned the California Society of Anesthesiologists (CSA) Certificate in Leadership for Health Care Management at the University of California in 2023.

Having taught since 2008, Dr. Movahedi’s current academic appointments include working as program director of the regional anesthesiology and acute pain fellowship and a professor of clinical anesthesiology, both at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Previously, Dr. Movahedi taught clinical anesthesiology at the University of Southern California (USC) before becoming the director of regional anesthesiology and the chief of orthopedic anesthesiology in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of California’s Keck School of Medicine from 2010 to 2019.

Dr. Movahedi’s major leadership positions include appointment to chief resident at the Cedar-Sinai program, division chief of regional anesthesiology at USC, and course director for the introduction of anesthesiology/perioperative medicine to third-year medical students at USC.

Throughout her career, Dr. Movahedi has belonged to a multitude of professional societies. Currently, Dr. Movahedi serves as the CSA assistant secretary, a CSA executive committee member, and an American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) delegate. She is also a member of a plethora of committees, including the ASA membership committee, CSA board of directors, regional and acute pain fellowship recruitment committee and communication committee in the Department of Anesthesiology at UCLA, CSA legislative committee, and CSA pain committee.

An ASRA Pain Medicine member since 2007, Dr. Movahedi has served as faculty since 2012 for several ASRA Pain Medicine meetings, teaching POCUS workshops and presenting at the ASRA Pain Medicine spring meetings. She served as a safety/QA/QI abstract reviewer for the 48th Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Meeting in April of 2023. Mary Hargett states that since before her fellowship, Dr. Movahedi “has never missed a spring ASRA Pain Medicine meeting."