Sibel Deviren, MD
Professor
Orthopaedic Surgery
School of Medicine

Her clinical expertise includes disc herniation, spinal canal and neural foraminal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, spondylolisthesis, adult scoliosis, chronic low back pain, other cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine disorders. She performs advanced fluoroscopically guided spine interventions and integrates multidisciplinary and evidence-based approaches into the management of chronic pain. Dr. Demir-Deviren received her medical degree from Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in Ankara, Türkiye, and completed her residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Ankara Education and Research Hospital. She subsequently completed additional training in pulmonary and cardiovascular rehabilitation and spine interventional therapies. She joined UCSF in 1999 as a visiting postdoctoral scholar and became an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in 2002. She was promoted to Associate Clinical Professor in 2010 and Clinical Professor in 2016. She also has served as a Clinical Professor with a joint appointment in the UCSF Department of Neurological Surgery since 2015. Her research has evolved from investigations of degenerative disc disease, Modic changes, paraspinal muscle health, spinal biomechanics, and clinical outcomes to multidisciplinary research in chronic pain, digital health, mindfulness-based interventions, implementation science, and health equity. She has served as Principal Investigator for multiple clinical research projects, including the UCSF NOVA-funded Back Bug Study investigating the potential role of low-grade infection in discogenic low back pain, the Pfizer STRIVE Phase 2b vaccine trial in lumbar spinal fusion patients, and the Nociscan clinical trial evaluating magnetic resonance spectroscopy as a noninvasive approach to identifying painful intervertebral discs. Dr. Demir-Deviren subsequently served as Co-Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded UCSF Core Center for Patient-centric Mechanistic Phenotyping in Chronic Low Back Pain (UCSF REACH). This multidisciplinary program investigated biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying chronic low back pain by integrating clinical phenotyping, advanced imaging, biomechanics, biological measures, and patient-reported outcomes. Her contributions included clinical evaluation and non-operative management of patients with chronic low back pain and collaborative research examining degenerative disc disease, vertebral endplate pathology, paraspinal muscle changes, and advanced MRI approaches. She is currently Co-Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Integrating Nonpharmacologic Strategies for Pain with Inclusion, Respect, and Equity (INSPIRE) study, which seeks to improve equitable access to evidence-based nonpharmacologic care for chronic pain. INSPIRE develops and evaluates a culturally and linguistically tailored, multilingual digital health intervention integrating cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness meditation and exercise, movement-based interventions, telehealth pain-management coaching, and integration with primary care. Following completion of its R61 development and pilot phase, INSPIRE progressed to an NIH-funded R33 pragmatic clinical trial that evaluates the intervention against usual care using patient-centered outcomes and NIH HEAL common data elements. As Co-Principal Investigator, Dr. Demir-Deviren provides scientific and operational leadership and contributes expertise in chronic pain, non-operative spine care, mindfulness-based interventions, and clinical implementation. Her responsibilities include identifying and evaluating appropriate patients for study participation, guiding and training health coaches in mindfulness-based interventions, contributing to implementation strategies that promote sustained patient engagement, supporting integration of patient-reported outcomes into primary care workflows and clinical decision-making, evaluating and interpreting study data, disseminating findings through scientific presentations and peer-reviewed publications, and translating effective components of the intervention into standard clinical care. Dr. Demir-Deviren has authored or co-authored 30 peer-reviewed publications and numerous scientific abstracts and presentations at national and international meetings. Her recent scholarship includes work arising from UCSF REACH on paraspinal muscle biomarkers for chronic low back pain and the 2026 peer-reviewed INSPIRE study protocol describing the pragmatic multisite randomized controlled trial. Her research has received multiple national and international distinctions. She received Best Pain and Spine research recognition from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in 2014 and the Best Pain and Spine Papers Award in 2015. Her work received special poster recognition from the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS) in 2015 and 2016, and two of her studies were nominated for the North American Spine Society Value Award in 2015. She was also part of the research team that received the 2019 ISSLS Prize for work demonstrating the relationship between vertebral endplate pathology, chronic low back pain symptoms, and lumbar paraspinal muscle quality. In parallel with her spine and chronic pain research, Dr. Demir-Deviren has developed advanced expertise in mindfulness meditation and mindfulness-based interventions. From 2021 through 2026, she completed four mindfulness teacher training and certification programs. She incorporates mindfulness, awareness, and compassion-based practices into her work in chronic pain management, clinical education, and the INSPIRE digital intervention. Her current areas of interest also include physician wellness and burnout prevention. Dr. Demir-Deviren is actively involved in education and mentorship at UCSF. She teaches Orthopaedic Surgery residents and interns, Spine Surgery fellows, the UCSF Interventional Spine and Musculoskeletal Medicine Clinical Fellow, and UCSF medical students. Her teaching emphasizes the physiatric approach to spinal disorders, evidence-based non-operative spine care, clinical and radiologic decision-making, and fluoroscopically guided spine interventions. She also teaches at the UCSF Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Education Meeting and serves as a clinical preceptor for the UCSF School of Medicine Clinical Microsystems Clerkship. Her mentorship extends to medical students, residents, fellows, international trainees, research collaborators, and junior faculty. Dr. Demir-Deviren has lectured nationally and internationally on interventional spine therapies, non-operative management of spinal disorders, chronic low back pain, paraspinal muscle health, and mindfulness-based approaches to chronic pain. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, a Senior Fellow of the European Board of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, and a member of the North American Spine Society and International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine. She also serves as Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Wellness Chair at UCSF and as a member of the UCSF Stewardship Review Committee Standing Panel.

• Poster 516 The Comparison of Paraspinal Muscles in Subjects with Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Lumbar Spinal Canal Stenosis.
  PM&R 2014 Emel E. Ozcan Eksi, Ilker Yagci, Brian Feeley, Alan Dang, Sibel Deviren
• Chapter 10: Spinal Injuries
  Occupational and Environmental Medicine, McGraw-Hill, 2013. Demir-Deviren, S.
• Do Paraspinal Muscles Influence the Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Lumbar Spinal Canal Stenosis? North American Spine Society Annual Meeting, (forthcoming, November 12-15, 2014)
  Do Paraspinal Muscles Influence the Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Lumbar Spinal Canal Stenosis? North American Spine Society Annual Meeting, (forthcoming, November 12-15, 2014). Ozcan-Eksi, E., Demir-Deviren, S.
• Superior Recess Access of the Lumbar Facet Joint
  Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques (Submitted) Hanelin J., Singh, S., Demir-Deviren, S.
• The Effect of Paraspinal Muscle Denervation on Balance of Patients with Lumbar Spinal Canal Stenosis. North American Spine Society Annual Meeting (forthcoming, November 12-15, 2014)
  The Effect of Paraspinal Muscle Denervation on Balance of Patients with Lumbar Spinal Canal Stenosis. North American Spine Society Annual Meeting (forthcoming, November 12-15, 2014). Ozcan-Eksi, E., Demir-Deviren, S.
• The Inter-Variability of Four Different Paraspinal Muscles' Fatty Infiltration Measurement Techniques on Lumbar Spine MRI in Patients with Spinal Disorders. North American Spine Society Annual Meeting, (forthcoming, November 12-15, 2014)
  The Inter-Variability of Four Different Paraspinal Muscles' Fatty Infiltration Measurement Techniques on Lumbar Spine MRI in Patients with Spinal Disorders. North American Spine Society Annual Meeting, (forthcoming, November 12-15, 2014). Ozcan-Eksi, E., Demir-Deviren, S.