Dr Nikolic has graduated medicine in 1992 and has been working as a Consultant in Pain Medicine since 2006. He works both privately and on the NHS at St Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospitals.

He covers a wide range of interests, including spintal pain management, myofascial pain syndromes, neuromodulation/spinal cord stimulation, complex regional pain syndromes, headaches and neuropathic pain.

Dr Nikolic provides treatments that are tailored for every patient and rely on a holistic approach including interventional pain management, analgesia optimisation and comprehensive rehabilitation and psychological support when appropriate. He is currently working closely with a team of specialists who are experts in their fields (physiotherapists, osteopaths, vocational rehabilitation specialists/occupational therapists and clinical psychologists).

Dr Nikolic believes that it is highly important to provide a service of the highest clinical standard that is firmly founded on the principles of evidence-based medicine. He is regularly involved in teaching and research in order to keep his professional knowledge and skills up to date.

It is important that HCA is transparent about our relationship with those doctors who provide us with clinical guidance on delivering the best possible care to patients and operating our hospitals safely and efficiently. We set out here some of the ways in which we work together and the amount we pay this doctor for such services.

Dr Thomas, Consultant in Pain Medicine, is currently based at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He is specialised in the treatment of pain when surgery is contraindicated in circumstances like spinal injury, joint and back injury, slipped discs, and medical advice after acute injury.

He began his medical training at St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London Hospital. He then went on advanced training in medicine and anaesthesia in East London, being accepted in 2004 to the Imperial School of Anaesthesia. He was then awarded a fellowship by the Royal College of Anaesthetists in 2009. He continues to be a fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Pain Medicine.

Dr Ramaswamy is a consultant in Anaesthesia, Pain Management, and Neuromodulation at St. Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospital, where he is also the clinical lead for in-patient pain management. Dr Ramaswamy has extensive experience managing acute and chronic pain conditions such as back pain, neck pain, post-surgical pain, chronic musculoskeletal (such as Fibromyalgia), neuropathic pain, headache, facial pain, abdomen-pelvic pain, sports injury, whiplash injury, and cancer pain.

He provides simple and complex pain procedures including cervical and lumbar facet joint/medial branch injections, epidural/root block, radiofrequency treatment of medial branches/nerve roots (all spinal levels) or peripheral nerves, and splanchnic nerve stimulation. His intervention experience ranges from X-ray guided to ultrasound interventions and for a variety of general and orthopaedic anaesthetic procedures, with particular expertise in ultrasound-guided nerve blocks such as nerve catheter insertion.

Dr. Ramaswamy develops a treatment plan based on a patient's individual needs and preferences. He believes in educating patients about their condition and advising them on self-management techniques that patients can use long-term. He also provides advice on pain medications and pain interventions as needed. Dr Ramaswamy works closely with a multi-disciplinary team including orthopaedic surgeons and physiotherapists to provide his patients with the best treatment available.

Dr Ramaswamy received his MD in Anaesthesia (Medal Scholar) from PGIMER, India before earning his certificate of Specialist Training in Anaesthesia and Pain Management in the UK. He then went on to complete an Advanced Pain Fellowship at Imperial Healthcare in London. Dr Ramaswamy has also trained in medicolegal report writing and is familiar with civil procedure protocols such as CPR Part 35 and the PD 35 protocol. He has report writing experience and can provide detailed insights into causality, prognosis, assessing capacity to work, understanding specific roles, assessing ability to function, and commenting on the prospect of achieving pain relief. He can provide medicolegal appointments at short notice and produce a report in a timely manner. He sees patients for personal injury and criminal negligence claims.

Dr Ramaswamy has an interest in medical education and is the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Education Lead at Queen Mary University of London and Bart's Health. He is also an honorary visiting senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and the course director of the MSc in Pain Management.

https://www.pain-expert.org/team/dr-shankar-ramaswamy/

Dr Lieberman is a Consultant in Pain Medicine who offers face-to-face consultation in London or Manchester or remote assessment through Zoom or Teams. He is passionate about all aspects of digital healthcare: his website is chronicpaincare.co.uk and many of his reviews can be found on goo.gl/JFxZuz

Dr Lieberman has expertise in a range of areas including the following:

• RF denervation (Facet Joints, Sacro Iliac joint, shoulder (suprascapular nerve))
• Scar Pain Management
• RF denervation scar pain
• Stellate ganglion blockade
• Headache management
• Capsaicin applications
• Lidocaine infusions
• Management of refractory angina
• ACNES Injections
• Whiplash management
• Caudal epidural injections
• Mirror therapy
• Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Management

He regularly treats chronic non-malignant pain conditions (including the prescription of medical cannabis), complex regional pain syndrome, neuropathic pain, and chronic neck, back, and shoulder pain. He has a particular interest in the management of fibromyalgia, which he treats using a combination of education, pharmacological therapies, and health coaching.

Dr Lieberman qualified in 1990 from The London Hospital Medical College. He gained his fellowship from the Royal College of Anaesthesia in 1996 before subspecialising in Pain Medicine and spending a year as a Chronic Pain Fellow at the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery. He was appointed as a Consultant in Pain Medicine and Anaesthesia at Wythenshawe Hospital in 2001.

Dr Lieberman has more than 18 years of experience working as a medico-legal expert in pain medicine and is able to advise and report on all types of chronic pain conditions with a current instruction ratio of 50:50 defendant/claimant.

Outside of work, Dr Lieberman enjoys gardening and golf. He has completed 3 Etape de Tours and is now a Zwifter.

Dr Fariborz Neirami is Consultant in Pain Medicine and Clinical Lead in Pain at King's College Hospital. He also holds consultations and offers treatments at a number of private hospitals and clinics, including: The Sloane Hospital, Chelsfield Park Hospital, Harley Street Specialist Hospital and Sevenoaks Medical Centre.

Dr Neirami's clinical aim is to reduce pain and increase the function and quality of life of his patients. He sees patients suffering from neck, shoulder, back and pelvic pain as well as headaches and cancer pain. He has special interests in the treatment and management of spinal pain.

Dr Neirami completed his medical degree at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 1992. He specialised in pain medicine and became board certified in Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine in 1995 by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. He later obtained his Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in Anaesthetics from St George's School of Anaesthesia.

He completed a postgraduate fellowship programme in Canada and is a Fellow of both the College of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists.

Dr Deane Halfpenny, Consultant in Musculoskeletal Pain Medicine, works in clinics throughout London including the Princess Grace Hospital, London Orthopaedic Clinic, King Edward’s VII Hospital, and OneWelbeck. He is highly experienced in the management of spinal pain and injury, myofascial pain syndromes, sports injury, CRPS and neuropathic pain.

Dr Halfpenny began his medical education in South Africa, graduating from the University of Witwatersrand before moving to the UK. In the UK he began his specialist training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He then took up posts as a Lecturer and Advanced Pain Trainee, before being awarded the FFPMRCA. He enhances his ability to help patients within his current work by working with a multi-disciplinary team consisting of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, cognitive psychologists, and personal trainers. He works alongside several sports physicians and has assisted high-profile athletes to return from injury or pain back to their competitive sport at an international level.

Dr Halfpenny is currently the Clinical Lead for the London Orthopaedic Clinic and assists in governance and Care Quality Commission roles. He is also a keen athlete himself which enables him to bring empathy and invaluable insight into sports injury and rehabilitation.

Dr Anna Forbes is a UK-trained medical doctor specialising in Integrative Medicine. This is an increasingly popular approach that combines the best of Conventional Medicine and Natural Medicine. Addressing the root cause of illness, using a drug-free treatment approach, allows us to support the body to return to a healthy balanced state. Disease is almost always related to toxicity issues, nutritional deficiencies and/or psycho-emotional factors.

Dr. Forbes qualified in 2006 and left NHS work in 2011. She has trained extensively since 2008 in different types of Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy, Mind-Body Medicine, Nutrition, Functional Medicine, Intravenous Nutrient Therapy, Plasmolifting and Scenar therapy. She also practises Bio-chemical Individualism, which uses a scientific approach to body typing, providing personalised diet and supplement protocols according to body type. The body type that we have determines our disease susceptibility. Different body types lack certain enzymes that require specific combinations of food groups and enzyme supplementation.

Dr. Forbes works with all chronic (long-term) disease using an Integrative and Functional Medicine approach to assessment and treatment. Typically her patients have either hit a brick wall within the conventional medicine framework, are looking for a drug-free approach to treatment or simply want improved outcomes by using a combination of conventional and Integrative Medicine. She works with an expert team of natural therapists alongside cutting edge technology and devices, providing a fully comprehensive health service.

• Integrative Medicine consultations
• Functional Medicine consultations
• Intravenous Nutrient Therapy
• Plasma injections (Plasmolifting)
• Nutritional Therapy
• Herbal programmes
• Blood, urine, stool, hair, breath and saliva testing and results interpretation
• Natural Cosmetic Clinic
• Weight Management Programmes
• Pain Clinic
• Gut & Skin Health Clinic
• Adult Detox Clinic
• Children's Detox Clinic

• Drug-free treatment approach
• Chronic disease
• IBS
• Chronic Fatigue
• Lyme disease
• Autoimmune disease
• Stress
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Mental Health disorders
• Cardiovascular disease
• Acute and chronic pain
• Thyroid disease
• EMF Hypersensitivity
• Detoxification (children and adults)
• Gut Health
• Food Intolerances
• Women's Health
• Fibromyalgia
• Insomnia
• Sexual Dysfunction

Dr Joseph Azzopardi, Consultant in Pain Medicine and Aesthetician, currently works within the Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust and sees patients privately in several London-based clinics. He has a wealth of experience in a wide range of pain and anaesthesia concerns including difficult airway anaesthesia, regional anaesthesia, and performing anaesthesia in the developing world. He is also keenly interested in interventional pain management, neuromodulation, and cancer pain management.

Dr Azzopardi began his medical education abroad in Malta, graduating in 1993 before moving to the UK to undergo specialist training in anaesthetic and pain medicine. He underwent specialist training in Dublin and London, and in 2000 became a visiting fellow in Regional Anaesthesia in Uppsala, Sweden. He further developed his knowledge and skillset in Australia by undergoing 2 years of advanced specialist training in Pain Medicine in Sydney and Adelaide. He was then awarded 2 international fellowships: Fellowship of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and the Foundation Fellowship of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. He has since been made a Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists. In his current role, he commits a significant amount of his time to the management of cancer pain, establishing the Multidisciplinary Integrated Cancer Pain Services at Guys and St.Thomas' hospitals.

Dr Azzopardi also works as a medico-legal expert, providing specialist reports and providing statements for courts. He also continues to contribute to medical education, he is currently a member of the London Deanery Pain Training Advisory Group Committee and has previously been the Educational Supervisor for Advanced Pain Training in Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital. He also assists in the education of medical students, teaching at a post-graduate level, medical simulation and is a clinical supervisor for higher specialist training in Pain Medicine.

Dr Azzopardi also contributes to humanitarian efforts, holding the position of Lead anaesthetist on numerous charity missions in Ethiopia with Facing Africa and Project Harar.

Dr Prabhu Gandhimani, Consultant Anaesthetist and Pain Expert, currently works within the Kingston Hospital and Queen Mary’s Hospital in London. He is highly experienced in the management of pain and related disorders.

Dr Gandhimani finished his specialist training in anaesthesia and pain management within a hospital in Yorkshire. Following this, he underwent further specialist training in Birmingham Heartlands and Russell Hall Hospital for 1 year, and afterwards was awarded a Fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine by The Royal College of Anaesthetists. He has also trained abroad in interventional pain procedures and has passed the notoriously difficult American Board postgraduate examination in advanced interventional pain practice. He is now a certified Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice by the World Institute Of Pain. He has worked in his current consultant role for 12 years gaining invaluable experience and he has also taken on the role of Clinical Lead for the Kingston Hospital Pain Clinic.

Dr Gandhimani also has several professional memberships including being a member of the British Pain Society, the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the World Institute of Pain Medicine.

Dr Basil Almahdi, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine, currently works at the Whittington Hospital and sees patients privately in several London-based clinics. He is highly experienced in the treatment and management of spinal and degenerative diseases, sciatica and bone metastases, and palliative treatments for cancer pain and neuropathic pain. He is highly competent in performing minimally invasive procedures for degenerative spinal diseases.

Dr Almahdi qualified in 1997 and was awarded a fellowship in Pain Management at University College Hospital in the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Following this, he further developed his skills at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and The Pain Management Centre in UCLH as a Locum Consultant. During this period, he gained invaluable experience in managing complicated spinal pain problems.

Dr Almahdi is an active member of the research community, and lectures at conferences in Pain and Anaesthesia field around the world. He is also fully fluent in both English and Arabic.