Vitaly Napadow

Dr. Vitaly Napadow is an Associate Professor at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. He holds secondary appointments at Logan University and in the Pain Management Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Napadow received his PhD in biomedical engineering from the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program and a Master's degree from the New England School of Acupuncture (NESA).

Dr. Napadow's research focuses on understanding brain circuitry underlying aversive perceptual states such as pain, nausea, and itch using non-invasive neuroimaging techniques. His laboratory, in conjunction with Dr. Norman Kettner at Logan University, has pioneered applications of neuroimaging to study how therapies like acupuncture ameliorate these states. His work spans multiple disciplines including neuroimaging, pain research, acupuncture neurophysiology, and brain circuitry mapping.

Analysis of Dr. Napadow's recent publications reveals a consistent focus on the neural mechanisms of pain processing, brainstem imaging, vagus nerve stimulation, and the neurophysiological effects of acupuncture. His research employs advanced imaging techniques including fMRI, PET, and 4D MRI to investigate brain-body interactions in pain and gastrointestinal disorders. A significant portion of his work examines the patient-clinician relationship through brain-to-brain concordance studies.

• Co-President of the Society for Acupuncture Research
• More than 80 publications in leading peer-reviewed journals
• Serves on program committees for several international acupuncture and CAM research conferences

Dr. Napadow's research program has significant implications for developing novel therapeutic interventions for conditions with poorly understood brain circuitry. His work bridges traditional therapies like acupuncture with modern neuroimaging techniques to provide evidence-based understanding of pain mechanisms and treatment efficacy.