Prasad Shirvalkar, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Anesthesia
School of Medicine
Dr. Prasad Shirvalkar is a neurologist and interventional pain medicine specialist who provides the full spectrum of care for chronic pain conditions. This includes conservative, nonsurgical treatments such as medications and nerve blocks.
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He also treats patients with advanced neuromodulation therapy by implanting peripheral and spinal cord stimulators, which are devices that relieve pain by sending electrical signals to the spine.
Shirvalkar cares for hospitalized patients and provides telemedicine visits for established patients. He coordinates with other providers for each patient, collaborating to treat any pain condition.
Shirvalkar's research aims to develop new therapies for hard-to-treat pain disorders, such as post-stroke pain and phantom limb pain, by harnessing technologies such as brain and spinal cord stimulation. He is conducting a study using electrodes implanted in the brain to understand how individuals interpret pain signals, with the goal of personalizing brain stimulation therapies. He is also interested in how sudden, severe pain episodes can progress to become chronic and in whether early intervention can prevent chronic pain.
Shirvalkar earned his doctoral and medical degrees at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He then completed a residency in neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he served as chief resident. He completed a fellowship in pain management at UCSF.
In addition to medicine and science, Shirvalkar has a passion for percussion. He plays jazz drums in his free time and used to play with the Oakland Raiders' band.
Awards
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- Excellence In Research, NIH HEAL Initiative, 2024
- Pioneer Award, NYC Neuromodulation Society, 2024
- Kavli Fellow, National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, 2024
- Kumar Award for New Investigators, North American Neuromodulation Society, 2024
- Best Scientific Abstract, International Neuromodulation Society (Sydney, AU), 2019
- Loan Repayment Award, NIH (2019 and 2021), 2019
- Travel Award, North American Neuromodulation Society, 2018
- Exceptional Physician Award - Honorable Mention, UCSF, 2018
- Outstanding Neurology Resident Award for Teaching, Weill Cornell Medical Center- NYP, 2016
- Chief Resident in Neurology, Weill Cornell Medical Center- NYP, 2015
- Foundations Scholar, American Pain Society, 2014
- National Neurology Scholar, Neurology Resident Scholars Program, 2014
- MBL Fellowship: Neuroinformatics Course, Marine Biological Laboratories, Woods Hole, MA, 2010
- Abstract Selection for Press Release at Annual Conference, Society for Neuroscience, 2010
- Outstanding Research Innovation, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 2009
- Dr. Morris B Bender Family Award in Neurosciences: Hon. Mention, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 2006
- Dean’s Undergraduate Honors Scholar and Founder’s Award for Academic Achievement, New York University, 2003
- First Place speaker in Science at the CAS Research Conference, New York University, 2003
- Psi Chi Psychological Honors Society, New York University, 2003
- CAS Faculty Scholarship, New York University, 1999
Education & Training
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- Fellowship Pain Management University of California San Francisco 2017
- Residency Neurology Weill Cornell Medical College / Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center 2016
- MD PhD PhD - Neuroscience Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 2012
- Postdoctoral Neuroscience Rockefeller University 2012
Interests
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- Neuromodulation
- Phantom Limb Pain
- Deep Brain Stimulation
- Pain Management
- Neuropathic Pain
- Spinal Cord Stimulation
- Headache
- Post Stroke Pain
Websites
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- Shirvalkar Pain Neuromodulation Lab (shirvalkarlab.com)
Grants and Projects
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- Sickle Cell Disease Pain Analgesia and Integrative Network, NIH / NCCIH, 2024-2029
- Corticothalamic network function in chronic pain, NIH / NINDS, 2024-2029
- Weill Investigator Clinician-Scientist Award, UCSF Weill Institute of Neurosciences, 2025-2026
- Biomarkers for Chronic Primary Pain Diagnosis and Treatment Selection, UCSF Catalyst / NCATS, 2025-2026
- Precision Medicine for Chronic Pain: Personalized Brain Network Modulation for Chronic Neuropathic Pain Syndromes, Marcus Foundation - Transformative Integrated Research Award (MP-TIR), 2023-2026
- An Automated Process for Optimizing and Predicting Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain, NIH Blueprint MedTech Seedling, 2025
- Loan Repayment Program- Closed Loop Deep Brain Stimulation for Chronic Neuropathic Pain, NIH/ NINDS, 2018-2025
- Application of non-invasive transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation for treatment of chronic low back pain, UCSF Catalyst Program, 2022-2025
- Multisite adaptive brain stimulation for multidimensional treatment of refractory chronic pain, NIH, 2019-2024
- Technology development for closed-loop deep brain stimulation to treat refractory neuropathic pain, NIH/ NINDS, 2019-2024
- Neural Signatures of Acute and Chronic Pain States, NINDS, 2019-2024
- The PAINLESS App: A multimodal and ecologically valid application for tracking patient pain states, UCSF Department of Anesthesiology, 2022-2023
- Optimizing Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to Treat Chronic Neuropathic Pain, UCSF Dept Anesthesia New Direction, 2021-2023
- Discovering the biomarkers of lower limb movement and locomotion through human spinal cord recording, UCSF Catalyst (RAP) and NIH NCATS, 2020-2021
- EEG Guided Personalized Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain, UCSF Catalyst / NIH NCATS, 2019-2021
- Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies (SUBNETS), DOD Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 2014-2019
- Brain Rhythms and Episodic Memory Processes, NIH - National Institutes on Aging, 2009-2012
Publications (57)
Top publication keywords:
Fornix, BrainMaze LearningTheta RhythmSeptum of BrainNeuralgiaElectric Stimulation TherapySpinal Cord StimulationElectric StimulationConsciousnessPain ManagementNeurophysiologyMemoryPainChronic PainHippocrateaceae
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First-in-human prediction of chronic pain state using intracranial neural biomarkers.
Nature neuroscience 2023 Shirvalkar P, Prosky J, Chin G, Ahmadipour P, Sani OG, Desai M, Schmitgen A, Dawes H, Shanechi MM, Starr PA, Chang EF -
How SAFE Is Real-world Use of Spinal Cord Stimulation Therapy for Chronic Pain?
JAMA neurology 2023 Shirvalkar P, Poree L -
ID# 1904948 Rational and Plan of Analysis of the Neuromodulation Overcomes Restless Legs Syndrome (NO RLS) Study.
Neuromodulation Technology at the Neural Interface 2025 Marshall T. Holland, Prasad Shirvalkar, Zachary Irwin, Chris Gonzalez, Christopher Earley, Julie Pilitsis, Robert Oster, Harrison Walker -
ID# 1907226 A Randomized Clinical Trial of Primary Motor Cortex Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Trigeminal Neuropathic Pain.
Neuromodulation Technology at the Neural Interface 2025 Julian C. Motzkin, Dennis Lambert, Tenzin Norbu, A. Moses Lee, Andrew Krystal, Prasad Shirvalkar -
Towards individualized deep brain stimulation: A stereoencephalography-based workflow for unbiased neurostimulation target identification.
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2025 Saal J, Kadlec K, Allawala AB, Johnston L, Leriche RB, Vatsyayan R, Han Y, Kist A, Di Ianni T, Dawes HE, Chang EF, Lee AM, Krystal AD, Moussawi K, Shirvalkar P, Sellers KK
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Adaptive spinal cord stimulation improves restless legs syndrome: Case report, literature review, and mechanistic hypothesis.
Sleep medicine 2025 Holland MT, Mekhail MN, Thrash G, George T, Mugan D, Paul C, Shirvalkar P, Grace W, Deer T, McGregor K, Vazquez do Campo R, Earley CJ, Walker HC -
Brain Biomarkers for Pain Sensitivity.
JAMA neurology 2025 Shirvalkar P, Rozell CJ -
Closed-loop deep brain stimulation for chronic pain using personalized symptom biomarkers.
Brain Stimulation 2025 Prasad Shirvalkar, Ryan Leriche, Jeremy Saal, Philip Starr, Edward Chang -
Personalized brain network dynamics of spontaneous and evoked pain - influence of responsive brain stimulation.
Brain Stimulation 2025 Prasad Shirvalkar, Ryan Leriche, Jeremy Saal, Philip Starr, Edward Chang -
Revisiting brain stimulation for chronic pain: New approaches based on pathophysiology.
Brain Stimulation 2025 Zelma Kiss, Ausaf Bari, Giulia Liberati, Prasad Shirvalkar -
Uncovering the dynamics of psilocybin in human neural pain circuits with intracranial neural recordings.
Brain Stimulation 2025 Tess Veuthey, Prasad Shirvalkar -
Clinical trials in neuromodulatory treatment of drug-resistant hypertension and the need for spinal cord stimulation trials: a PRISMA systematic review.
Bioelectronic medicine 2024 Thrash GW, Wang E, Sun Y, Walker HC, Shirvalkar P, Becker BK, Holland MT -
Neuropathic pain - A clinical primer.
International review of neurobiology 2024 Shirvalkar P, de Andrade DC -
ID: 334564 EEG Signatures of Epidural Spinal Cord Stimulation: A Dosing and Mechanism of Action Study.
Neuromodulation Technology at the Neural Interface 2024 Chad Sitgraves, Prasad Shirvalkar, Lawrence Poree -
ID: 334648 Brain Mapping with Stereoelectroencephalography Reveals Altered Network Topologies in Chronic Pain.
Neuromodulation Technology at the Neural Interface 2024 Ishan Kanungo, Tony Liu, Julian Motzkin, Prasad Shirvalkar -
Neuromodulation for Neuropathic Pain Syndromes.
Continuum (Minneapolis, Minn.) 2024 Shirvalkar P -
Human Cervical Epidural Spinal Electrogram Topographically Maps Distinct Volitional Movements.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2024 Shukla PD, Burke JF, Kunwar N, Presbrey K, Balakid J, Yaroshinsky M, Louie K, Jacques L, Shirvalkar P, Wang DD -
Ambulatory Brain Biomarkers of Chronic Pain: Towards Closed Loop Brain Stimulation.
Biological Psychiatry 2024 Prasad Shirvalkar, Philip A. Starr, Edward F. Chang -
Editorial: Advancements in deep brain stimulation for chronic pain control.
Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) 2023 Staudt MD, Yaghi NK, Mazur-Hart DJ, Shirvalkar P -
Quantifying Pain Location and Intensity with Multimodal Pain Body Diagrams.
Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE 2023 Kwong J, Lin J, Leriche R, Wozny TA, Shaughnessy A, Schmitgen A, Shirvalkar P -
Network targets for therapeutic brain stimulation: towards personalized therapy for pain.
Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) 2023 Motzkin JC, Kanungo I, D'Esposito M, Shirvalkar P -
ID: 221565 EEG Signatures of Epidural Spinal Cord Stimulation: A Dosing and Mechanism of Action Study.
Neuromodulation Technology at the Neural Interface 2023 Chad Sitgraves, Prasad Shirvalkar, Lawrence Poree -
Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: Advances in Cutting Edge Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Neuromodulation, Neuroethics, Pain, Interventional Psychiatry, Epilepsy, and Traumatic Brain Injury.
Frontiers in human neuroscience 2022 Wong JK, Deuschl G, Wolke R, Bergman H, Muthuraman M, Groppa S, Sheth SA, Bronte-Stewart HM, Wilkins KB, Petrucci MN, Lambert E, Kehnemouyi Y, Starr PA, Little S, Anso J, Gilron R, Poree L, … -
Practical Closed-Loop Strategies for Deep Brain Stimulation: Lessons From Chronic Pain.
Frontiers in neuroscience 2021 Prosky J, Cagle J, Sellers KK, Gilron R, de Hemptinne C, Schmitgen A, Starr PA, Chang EF, Shirvalkar P -
Epidural Spinal Electrogram Provides Direct Spinal Recordings in Awake Human Participants.
Frontiers in human neuroscience 2021 Burke JF, Kunwar N, Yaroshinsky MS, Louie KH, Shirvalkar P, Su P, Henry M, Pasvankas G, Poree L, Jacques L, Wang DD -
Corrigendum: Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: Advances in Optogenetics, Ethical Issues Affecting DBS Research, Neuromodulatory Approaches for Depression, Adaptive Neurostimulation, and Emerging DBS Technologies.
Frontiers in human neuroscience 2021 Vedam-Mai V, Deisseroth K, Giordano J, Lazaro-Munoz G, Chiong W, Suthana N, Langevin JP, Gill J, Goodman W, Provenza NR, Halpern CH, Shivacharan RS, Cunningham TN, Sheth SA, Pouratian N, Scangos KW, … -
High-Frequency Impulse Therapy for Treatment of Chronic Back Pain: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Pilot Study.
Journal of pain research 2021 Amirdelfan K, Hong M, Tay B, Reddy S, Reddy V, Yang M, Khanna K, Shirvalkar P, Abrecht C, Gulati A -
Analysis-rcs-data: Open-Source Toolbox for the Ingestion, Time-Alignment, and Visualization of Sense and Stimulation Data From the Medtronic Summit RC+S System.
Frontiers in human neuroscience 2021 Sellers KK, Gilron R, Anso J, Louie KH, Shirvalkar PR, Chang EF, Little SJ, Starr PA -
Emerging Therapies for the Treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.
2021 Po-Yi Paul Su, Shikha Sharma, Prasad Shirvalkar, Lawrence Poree -
Musical Hallucinations in Chronic Pain: The Anterior Cingulate Cortex Regulates Internally Generated Percepts.
Frontiers in neurology 2021 Schmitgen A, Saal J, Sankaran N, Desai M, Joseph I, Starr P, Chang EF, Shirvalkar P -
Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: Advances in Optogenetics, Ethical Issues Affecting DBS Research, Neuromodulatory Approaches for Depression, Adaptive Neurostimulation, and Emerging DBS Technologies.
Frontiers in human neuroscience 2021 Vedam-Mai V, Deisseroth K, Giordano J, Lazaro-Munoz G, Chiong W, Suthana N, Langevin JP, Gill J, Goodman W, Provenza NR, Halpern CH, Shivacharan RS, Cunningham TN, Sheth SA, Pouratian N, Scangos KW, … -
The American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN) Practical Guidelines to Study Design and Scientific Manuscript Preparation in Neuromodulation.
Journal of pain research 2021 Eshraghi Y, Chakravarthy K, Strand NH, Shirvalkar P, Schuster NM, Abdallah RT, Vallejo R, Sayed D, Kim D, Kim C, Meacham K, Deer T, Translational Research Committee American Society of Pain and … -
A Tale of Two Cords: Diastematomyelia.
Pain Medicine 2021 Westin Tom, Thoha Pham, Prasad Shirvalkar -
A Deep Brain Stimulation Trial Period for Treating Chronic Pain.
Journal of clinical medicine 2020 Shirvalkar P, Sellers KK, Schmitgen A, Prosky J, Joseph I, Starr PA, Chang EF -
A Comprehensive Practice Guideline for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Compatibility in Implanted Neuromodulation Devices.
Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society 2020 Sayed D, Chakravarthy K, Amirdelfan K, Kalia H, Meacham K, Shirvalkar P, Falowski S, Petersen E, Hagedorn JM, Pope J, Leever J, ASPN MRI Compatibility Working Group, Deer T -
Cognitive Effects of Limbic Deep Brain Stimulation in Patients with Refractory Chronic Neuropathic Pain (1990).
Neurology 2020 Gregory Chin, Heather Dawes, Edward Chang, Prasad Shirvalkar -
Decoding Acute and Chronic Pain State from Ambulatory Intracranial Recordings: Towards Closed-Loop Brain Stimulation (233).
Neurology 2020 Prasad Shirvalkar, Gregory Chin, Heather Dawes, Philip Starr, Edward Chang -
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Pain, Headache, and Comorbid Depression: INS-NANS Expert Consensus Panel Review and Recommendation.
Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society 2020 Leung A, Shirvalkar P, Chen R, Kuluva J, Vaninetti M, Bermudes R, Poree L, Wassermann EM, Kopell B, Levy R, and the Expert Consensus Panel -
Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search.
Database 2019 eter Brown, Aik-Choon Tan, Mohamed A El-Esawi, Thomas Liehr, Oliver Blanck, Douglas P Gladue, Gabriel M F Almeida, Tomislav Cernava, Carlos O Sorzano, Andy W K Yeung, Michael S Engel, Arun Richard … -
Closed-Loop Deep Brain Stimulation for Refractory Chronic Pain.
Frontiers in computational neuroscience 2018 Shirvalkar P, Veuthey TL, Dawes HE, Chang EF -
Chapter 47 The Development of Algorithms for Pain Care Including Neuromodulation Therapies Introducing the SAFE Principles.
Neuromodulation 2018 Prasad Shirvalkar, Lawrence R. Poree, Elliot S. Krames -
List of Contributors of Volume 2.
Neuromodulation 2018 Al-Kaisy Adnan, Andreas Alexopoulos, Kenneth M. Alo, Ron L. Alterman, Arun Amar, Pablo Andrade, Sailesh Arulkumar, Ahmed J. Awad, Gordon Baltuch, Giancarlo Barolat, Ernest J. Barthélemy, Neil U. Barua… -
Improving lower limb strength in incomplete spinal cord injury with non-invasive spinal associative stimulation.
Brain Stimulation 2017 M. Cortes, G. Thickbroom, J. Valls-Sole, P. Shirvalkar, A. Pascual-Leone, D. Edwards -
Amyloid-Beta Related Angitiis and Reversible Cerebral Vasoconstriction Syndrome: A Case Report (P6.057).
Neurology 2016 Thomas Tropea, Prasad Shirvalkar, Krithiga Sekar, Kyung-Wha Kim, Apostolos Tsiouris, Ehud Lavi, Alan Segal -
Conference Curriculum Content and Organization in United States Neurology Residencies: A Cross-Sectional Survey (P2.354).
Neurology 2016 Arthie Jeyakumar, Pravin Khemani, Ralph Jozefowicz, Prasad Shirvalkar, Augusto Miravalle, Constantine Farmakidis -
American neuroborreliosis presenting as cranial polyneuritis and radiculoneuritis.
Neurology(R) neuroimmunology & neuroinflammation 2014 Wang E, Shirvalkar PR, Maciel CB, Merkler AE, Safdieh J, Gupta A -
Widespread Leptomeningeal Involvement in Borreliosis (P2.317).
Neurology 2014 Carolina Maciel, Erwin Wang, Prasad Shirvalkar, Alexander Merkler, Joseph Safdieh -
Memory-guided learning: CA1 and CA3 neuronal ensembles differentially encode the commonalities and differences between situations.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2011 Bahar AS, Shirvalkar PR, Shapiro ML -
Memory modulates journey-dependent coding in the rat hippocampus.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2011 Ferbinteanu J, Shirvalkar P, Shapiro ML -
Design and Construction of a Cost Effective Headstage for Simultaneous Neural Stimulation and Recording in the Water Maze.
Journal of Visualized Experiments 2010 Prasad R. Shirvalkar, Mathew L. Shapiro -
Design and construction of a cost effective headstage for simultaneous neural stimulation and recording in the water maze.
Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE 2010 Shirvalkar PR, Shapiro ML -
Infrageniculate Interventions in Female Patients: Improved Patency Rates but Higher Rates of Postoperative Complications.
Journal of Vascular Surgery 2010 Tejas R. Shah, Angeliki Vouyouka, Daniel K. Han, Sharif Ellozy, Robert Lookstein, Prasad Shirvalkar, Michael Marin, Peter L. Faries -
Bidirectional changes to hippocampal theta-gamma comodulation predict memory for recent spatial episodes.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2010 Shirvalkar PR, Rapp PR, Shapiro ML -
The multiple origins and laminar topography of the hippocampal theta rhythm.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2009 Shirvalkar P, Bahar AS -
Hippocampal neural assemblies and conscious remembering.
Journal of neurophysiology 2009 Shirvalkar PR -
Cognitive enhancement with central thalamic electrical stimulation.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2006 Shirvalkar P, Seth M, Schiff ND, Herrera DG -
Regulation of neurogenesis in the aging vertebrate brain: role of oxidative stress and neuropsychiatric factors.
Clinical Neuroscience Research 2003 Evelyn Kim, Prasad Shirvalkar, Daniel G. Herrera