ASRA Pain Medicine Member Spotlight

This month’s Member Spotlight is Jarna Shah, MD (@JarnaShahMD), an assistant professor in the division of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences in Little Rock. Her nominator and division director, Dr. Johnathan Goree (@DrJGoree), describes her as “a rising star in both acute and chronic pain at our institution and nationally.”

“Her clinical practice is unique, and I think it lends itself for ASRA Pain Medicine Spotlight,” Dr. Goree wrote. “She is a fellowship-trained chronic pain physician, but she still practices OB anesthesiology. She is currently working with our OB department to develop a practice that is focused on women's health and, specifically, chronic pain post-delivery.”

An active member of ASRA Pain Medicine, Dr. Shah serves on the Public Relations Committee and is the website and social media liaison in the Women in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine Special Interest Group. She was also an active social media ambassador for the Fall 2021 meeting.

A graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she earned both her bachelors and medical degrees, as well as completing an anesthesiology residency, Dr. Shah completed her fellowship in interventional pain medicine at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. She has authored a number of peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and serves as a reviewer for Anesthesia and Analgesia, Pain Medicine, Anesthesia and Analgesia Practice, and PAIN Reports. She is currently involved in four neuromodulation research projects including a role as principal investigator for the Averitas Post Surgical Neuropathic Pain Study.

Dr. Shah serves on her university’s acute pain service advisory and interventional pain program evaluation committees, chronic pain residency rotation director, and is the physician lead of the inpatient opioid orders team. She received the Faculty of the Month Award at the university in January 2021.

“She [is] a great example of how an early career physician can maximize participation in an organization like ASRA Pain Medicine,” Goree concluded.