Ratan K Banik

Ratan K Banik is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He holds both an MD and a PhD, and is actively engaged in research and clinical academic work in pain medicine and neuroscience. He is currently accepting PhD students and leads and contributes to multiple externally funded research projects.

His primary research interests lie in the mechanisms of pain, particularly nociception, hyperalgesia, and postoperative pain management. Using both clinical and translational approaches, he investigates novel treatments including intrathecal drug delivery, nerve blocks, and systemic analgesics. His work also extends to health services research, including gender disparities in NIH funding for anesthesiology faculty.

The recent publications from Dr. Banik span topics such as intrathecal opioid conversion, radiofrequency ablation for chronic pain, and preclinical models of inflammatory pain. Collectively, these works reflect a strong focus on improving pain outcomes through pharmacological, interventional, and systematic evaluation methods.

Dr. Banik is a principal investigator on a project analyzing gender disparities in NIH funding and serves as a Co-Investigator on systematic reviews of peripheral nerve blocks for postoperative pain management, funded by AHRQ. These projects highlight his leadership in both clinical research and policy-relevant analysis in anesthesiology.

His research fingerprint includes key terms such as nociceptor, plantar incision, bradykinin, and heat hyperalgesia, indicating a deep engagement with molecular and behavioral aspects of pain. He has published over 50 research outputs, including articles, reviews, and book chapters, demonstrating sustained scholarly productivity.