Dr. Rajiv Chawla

Qualifications

• MD (Physician)
• FCARCSI, College of Anaesthetists RCSI, Dublin, Ireland
• FRCA, The Royal College of Anaesthetists, London U.K.
• FFPMRCA, The Royal College of Anaesthetists, London U.K.
• FFPMANZCA, Australia and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists

Professional Memberships

• The British Pain Society (BPS)
• Interventional Pain Management Special Interest group (IPM SIG)
• The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)
• IASP SIG on Pain of Urogenital Origin
• International Neuromodulation Society
• Neuromodulation Society of Australia and New Zealand
• Member, International Pain & Spine Intervention Society

Positions

• Director, Melbourne Pain Group
• Specialist Pain Medicine Physician, Barbara Walker Centre for Pain Management, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne
• Specialist Pain Medicine Physician, Austin Health Melbourne
• Specialist Pain Medicine Physician, Melbourne Pain Group Melbourne,
  2023 – Ongoing
• Member of a multidisciplinary pain management team at Victorian Rehabilitation Centre Glen Waverley
• Member of a multidisciplinary pain management team at Dorset Rehabilitation Centre Pascoe Vale
• Former Consultant Pain Specialist, The Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Liverpool U.K., 2010 – 2021
• Committee Member, Victorian Regional Committee, Faculty of Pain Medicine

Publications

• 5-year longitudinal follow-up of patients treated for chronic mechanical low back pain using restorative neurostimulation. Thomson, S., Williams, A., Vajramani, G., Sharma, M., Love-Jones, S., Chawla, R., & Eldabe, S. (2025). Regional anaesthesia and pain medicine, rapm-2025-106899. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1136/rapm-2025-106899
• Restorative Neurostimulation for Chronic Mechanical Low Back Pain – Three Year Results from the United Kingdom, Post Market Clinical: Thomson S, Love-Jones S, Sharma M, Vajramani G, Williams A, Chawla R,Eldabe S Follow-up Registry. British Journal of Pain June’ 2023 https://doi.org/10.1177/20494637231181498
• Pulse Intensity Effects of Burst and Tonic Spinal Cord Stimulation on Neural Responses to Brushing in Patients with Neuropathic Pain: Danielle Hewitt, Adam Byrne, Jessica Henderson, Kathryn Wilford, Rajiv Chawla, Manohar Lal Sharma, Bernhard Frank, Nicholas Fallon, Christopher Brown, Andrej Stancak. Neuromodulation Jul 2023; 26: 975–987 doi.org/10.1016/…
• Development of an interdisciplinary specialist facial pain management programme; Tetlow J, Ainsley C, Twiddy H, Derbyshire G, Chawla R.  British Journal of Pain. 2022 Apr;16(2):161-169. Epub 2021 Jul 19. PMID: 35419193; PMCID: PMC8998525. doi: 10.1177/20494637211027607.
• Restorative Neurostimulation for Chronic Mechanical Low Back Pain: Results from a Prospective Multicentre Longitudinal Cohort: Thomson S, Chawla R, Love-Jones S, Sharma M,Vajramani G, Williams A, Eldabe S Pain Ther (2021) 10:1451–1465 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40122-021-00307-3
• Experiences and Outcomes of Attending a Facial Pain Management Program: A Qualitative Study; Ainsley C, Bradshaw A, Murray C, Goss N, Harrison S, Chawla R. Journal Oral Facial Pain Headache. 2021 Summer; 35 (3):208-217. doi: 10.11607/ofph.2858.
• Classical Predictors Do Not Predict Success with Sacral Nerve Stimulation for Chronic Pelvic Pain; A Retrospective Review in a Single Center. M Kashif, A Goebel, V Srbljak, R Chawla, M Draper, A Cox, M Sharma. Pain Medicine, Volume 20, Issue 5, May 2019, Pages 1059–1062.
• Female chronic pelvic pain: The journey to Diagnosis and beyond. Twiddy H, Bradshaw A, Chawla R, Johnson S, & Lane N. Pain Manag 2017. Epub: 11 Jan 2017.
• The development and delivery of a Female Chronic Pelvic Pain Management Programme: a specialised interdisciplinary approach. Twiddy H, Lane N, Chawla R, Johnson S, Bradshaw A, Aleem S, & Mawdsley L. (2015).  British Journal of Pain. Nov; 9(4): 233-4.
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: Recent updates (2014) Continuing Education in Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain, 14 (2), pp. 79-84. Ganty P. & Chawla R.
• High-Frequency (10 kHz) or Conventional Spinal Cord Stimulation for Complex Neuropathic Pain Patients? M. Sharma, A. Cox, B. Costello, J. Blundell, A. Stockley, J. Dunwoodie, M. Draper, S. Aseri & Chawla R(2015). North American Neuromodulation Society: Abstracts.
• Percutaneous balloon compression for trigeminal neuralgia: Does shape of the balloon matters. Rajiv Chawla, ML Sharma. Indian Journal of pain 2009; 23: 252-55.

Research

• Ongoing, RocKet, Trial Endpoint Adjudicator, The effect of perioperative ketamine on the risk of development of chronic post-surgical pain in patients undergoing elective or expedited surgery and anaesthesia for major orthopaedic, abdominal or non cardiac thoracic surgery. https://www.anzca.edu.au/research/anzca-clinical-trials-network/our-clinical-trials/clinical-trials-pending-publication-and-announcement-of-results/rocket-reduction-of-chronic-post-surgical-pain-with-ketamine
• Co- PI for Reactiv8 for Chronic Low back Pain PMCF study. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01985230
• Co- PI for Nevro CA2017 NSRBP study: A Multi-Centre, Prospective, Pragmatic, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial to Compare HF10 Therapy to Conventional Medical Management in the Treatment of Non-Surgical Refractory Back Pain.
  https://www.hra.nhs.uk/planning-and-improving-research/application-summaries/research-summaries/ca2017-nsrbp-study-rev-a/
• Co PI 2015 – 2018, Member of the steering group of The Endometriosis Priority Setting Partnership which is led by the University of Edinburgh and the project is independently overseen by the James Lind Alliance (JLA), a non-profit making initiative established in 2004. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funds the infrastructure of the JLA to oversee the processes for Priority Setting Partnerships (PSPs). PSPs aim to help patients, people who support them, and clinicians to work together to agree which are the most important treatment uncertainties affecting their particular interest, in order to influence the prioritisation of future research in that area.
• 2010 – 2018, Member of Scientific Subcommittee of the Pain Relief Foundation overlooking research applications and grants for small projects and for PhD.
• PI 2011 – 2012, Multicentre NIHR portfolio study. “A Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Randomized Withdrawal Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of CNV1014802 in Patients with Trigeminal Neuralgia”.
• 2008, Co-investigator for the trial “Low-dose intravenous immunoglobulin or 0.9% saline in the treatment of primary trigeminal neuralgia refractory to Carbamazepine – A randomised double blind parallel placebo-controlled multicentre trial in an outpatient setting.

International Contributions

• 2025 – Presentation at 38th Liverpool Course Clinical Management of Chronic Pain, Liverpool. Liverpool, United Kingdom
• 2024 – Presentation at 37th Liverpool Course Clinical Management of Chronic Pain, Liverpool. Liverpool, United Kingdom
• 2021 – Panel Member of “Chronic Pelvic Pain Guideline” group for European Association of Urology, The Netherlands
• 2021 – Lecture “Setting up a Specialised service” Presented on setting up pelvic pain service at The Gulf Pain School
• 2021 – European Pain Federation Virtual Pain Education Summit 2021 interdisciplinary session on- Multidisciplinary female pelvic pain management
• 2021 – Plenary Lecture on “Restorative Neurostimulation for Low Back Pain” 1st International and 30th National Conference of Research Society of Anaesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology (RSACPCON 2021) India2019 – Present, Editor of the Specialty section of Pain Medicine for ​Journal of Anaesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology is a quarterly peer-reviewed international journal; https://journals.lww.com/joacp/pages/editorialboard.aspx
• 2019 – Present, Editor of the Specialty section of Pain Medicine for ​Journal of Anaesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology is a quarterly peer-reviewed international journal; https://journals.lww.com/joacp/pages/editorialboard.aspx
• 2018 – Present, Visiting Faculty in Pain Medicine at the Department of Anaesthesiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, India
• 2010 – Present, Co-organiser and Faculty at the Annual Liverpool Course on Clinical Management of Chronic Pain “A practical Approach”. This course has been organized annually in Liverpool UK with excellent feedback every year.
• 2010 – Present, Member of Education Subcommittee of the Pain Relief Foundation, Liverpool UK, overlooking teaching activities and organising courses.
• Member of organising committee of the European Pain Federation’s EFIC Winter cancer pain school in Liverpool 2014, 2016, 2018. I have chaired a session on this course and made presentations on Head and Neck Cancer Pain.
• Organised the 2014 North of England Pain Group meeting, where I also chaired a session on PMP. This meeting was well received by 110 Pain specialists with excellent feedback.