Vanila M. Singh, MD MACM

Pain management specialist, Anesthesiologist


Clinical Associate Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine

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Additional Languages Spoken:
Hindi , Spanish

Biography


Dr Singh is the immediate past Chief Medical Officer in the US Department of Health and Human Services and was Chairperson of the highly regarded HHS Task Force in conjunction with the Department of Defense and the Veterans Affairs. She led this group to the comprehensive and approachable final report submitted to Congress. She is a clinical associate professor of Anesthesiology, Pain and Peri-operative Medicine at Stanford and is a teaching mentor at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Pain Management Best Practices HHS Task Force Report: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/pain-mgmt-best-practices-draft-final-report-05062019.pdf

The Best Practices Pain Inter-agency report that was convened by US Department of HHS in conjunction with Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration is supported by over 160 organizations including the Human Rights Watch, dozens of patient advocacy groups, respected medical organizations including AMA, AAOS, AAPS, ASA, CMA, ASIPP, AAPM, ACOG, CSNS, and dozens of others and key stakeholders such as nursing, social workers, integrative health primary physicians pharmacists and others. There were over 10,000 public comments highlighting the challenges that forced tapering of opioids and the abandonment of chronic pain patients across the nation. The significant patient harms have been a topic of concern with the resulting number of suicides and adverse clinical outcomes pushing patients to the medically unsupervised black market.

Dr Singh has a background in molecular and cell biology, economics, pain medicine, and regional anesthesia with a forte in advanced ultrasound guided procedures for pain and anesthesia medicine. She is double board-certified in pain and anesthesiology. She has served in medical ethics, and to served on scientific editorial boards, committees for the American Society of Regional Anesthesia, American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, California Medical Association, and the Santa Clara County Medical Association . She has an interest & remains involved in health policy with a background in economics. Dr Singh has been invited and has spoken extensively around the country about the opioid crisis and pain management as well as the growing illicit drug crisis afflicting the nation. Dr Singh's practice uniquely focuses on regional anesthesia and peri-operative, subacute, and the development of chronic pain, with an appreciation on complimentary and traditional medicine approaches that emphasizes an individualized patient-centered approach. She has interests that include public health, persistent pain following surgical procedures, and long term chronic and complex pain issues. Dr. Singh has a background and interest in education for medical students, residents, and fellows. She has identified the growing clinical administrative burden of physicians as a challenge to good patient care, and has spoken about EHR and health IT in general. She strongly believes in a compassionate, individualized patient-centered approach to medicine. She completed a masters in academic medicine as part of her professional development to further enhance leadership, educational curriculum development, interdisciplinary work and various presentations and projects with faculty from around the country.

Professional Summary


Education & Certifications
  • Board Certification: American Board of Anesthesiology, Pain Management (2017)
  • MACM, Keck School of Medicine University of Southern California, Masters in Academic Medicine- Education, Curricula Development, Leadership (2016)
  • Board Certification: American Board of Anesthesiology, Anesthesia (2002)
  • Fellowship: New York Presbyterian Hospital (2002) NY
  • Residency: New York Presbyterian Hospital (2001) NY
  • Internship: Yale - New Haven Hospital (1998) CT
  • Medical Education: George Washington University Medical School (1997) DC
  • B.A., U.C. Berkeley, Cell Biology/ Economics (1993)
  • M.D., George Washington University, Medicine (1997)

Honors & Awards
  • Co-Director, Teaching Scholars
  • Iconic women: Asian American Woman Trailblazers 2017 year Calendar: Dr Singh is December, Saris to Suits, Charitable (2017)
  • Invited Endowed Subhash Jain MD Lecture, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (April 2021)
  • Invited Keynote Speaker, 2019 Dr. Loren Roth Quality and Patient Safety Speaker Series:, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (2019)
  • Invited Panel Speaker, Women in Leadership Panel, Gentry Magazine, (June 2019)
  • Invited Speaker, Congressional Telehealth Roundtable (April 2021)
  • Leading Physicians of the world AWARD, International Organization of Healthcare (2017)
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (March 2018)
  • Philip M. Lippe Award, American Academy of Pain Medicine (February 2020)
  • Presidential Commendation, American Academy of Pain Medicine (MARCH 2019)
  • Recognition of public service award, Maryland Society of Anesthesiology (October 2018)
  • Standiford Helm Award, California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (October 2021)
  • Teaching Scholars Program, Regional Anesthesia (2009)
  • Visionary Leader Award, Pain and Business Academy (October 2018)

Memberships
  • Academic Director, American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (2021 - Present)
  • Independent Board Member, Virpax (2020 - Present)
  • Board Member Chair Advocacy Committee, California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (2020 - Present)
  • Member, American Society of Anesthesiology (2002 - Present)
  • Independent Board Member, Lucid Lane (2020 - Present)
  • Board of Directors, California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (CALSIPP) (2020 - Present)
  • Independent Director, BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc (2019 - Present)
  • Advisory Committee, American Alliance of Chronic Integrative Pain Management (2019 - Present)
  • Vice Chairman, National Physicians Council on Health Policy (2016 - 2017)
  • ultrasound committee, american society of interventional pain physicians (2015 - 2017)
  • scientifc planning committee, american society of regional anesthesia (2015 - 2016)
  • editorial board, interventional pain letters (2015 - 2017)
  • council member, california medical association (2014 - 2017)
  • subcomittee health information technology, california medical association (2016 - 2017)

Administrative Appointments
  • Anesthesia Resident, Cornell- Medical Center (1998 - 2001)
  • Clinical Assistant Professor, UCLA (2002 - 2003)
  • Double Major Economics and Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, at Berkeley (1988 - Present)
  • Masters in Academic Medicine, University of Southern California (2011 - 2016)
  • Medical Intern, Yale University Medical Center (1997 - 1998)
  • Medical Student, George Washington University Medical Center (1993 - 1997)
  • Pain Management Fellow, Cornell, HSS, Memorial Sloan kettering, Columbia quad-institutional fellow (2001 - 2002)

Publications

Specializing In

Practice Locations


Pain Management Center in Redwood City Redwood City, CA
Redwood City, CA

450 Broadway Street, Pavilion A, 1st Floor

Redwood City , CA 94063

(650) 723-6238

Make An Appointment More Clinic Information » Getting Here »

Patient Ratings

(54 Ratings)

Overall Rating
4.5/5

View Ratings by Category

4.7/5
Friendliness
Friendliness/courtesy of the care provider
4.4/5
Explanations
Explanations the care provider gave you about your problem or condition
4.6/5
Listens
Concern the care provider showed for your questions or worries
4.5/5
Care provider's efforts to include you in decisions about your care
Care provider's efforts to include you in decisions about your treatment
4.6/5
Recommended to others
Likelihood of your recommending this care provider to others
0.0/5
Wait times
Wait time at clinic (from arriving to leaving)

How Our Ratings Work

The Patients Ratings and comments are gathered from our Patient Satisfaction Survey and displayed in their entirety.

Patient Satisfaction Survey Disclaimer

Patient Reviews

(128 reviews)

She's very good Doctor, Professional, very patient with the patient, tacking time to explain everything. I would say she has dedication and and patience.
My care provider was excellent!!!
Compassionate and very knowledgeable very competent and focused on my needs.
Best doctor to hve with in my health care. Managed to see a cause to my health struggles other doctors missed.
The appointment ran on schedule and the medical team was very efficient.
Very, very helpful and empathetic.
She's not a real doctor.
I really felt comfortable with her which is not an easy way for me to feel when it comes to doctors.
Dr. Singh was very good and answered all my questions.
Professional. pleasant
DR Singh is great docter
Thank you for today’s visit / consultation and I appreciate your time, professionalism and support in my time of medical need. Again, I appreciate how quickly & efficiently the pain management doctors & staff are. I look forward to feeling better soon!!
Awesome communicator
She is caring and always on time which is much valued. She takes time to hear my issues and thinks them through, offering good suggestions. I’m very satisfied with her care
She had a lot of patience and empathy towards my mother's condition and she was thorough but complete.
Dr. Singh takes the time to listen to me and then will give me solutions that help me understand all my options. Out of all my doctors, she is by far the most compassionate and helpful.
Very professional, listens well, and very kind.
Vanila Singh seems very thorough in the questions she asked.
She asked a lot of questions and recommended some treatment options other doctors had not mentioned.
Dr Singh is very pleasant. I feel she is very willing to anything possible to help me with my pain. I look forward to continuing my care with her.
She is a wonderful and caring physician
She was great.
Dr. Singh is very nice
Excellent
Dr. Singh provides exceptional care. She thoroughly reviewed my plan since last visit, causes of pain, what has helped, my long term goals, last MRI and physical causes and triggers of pain. Dr. Singh is very caring and thoughtful and I feel she's invested in my care and helping me achieve my longterm goals and better quality of life. Dr. Singh takes the time to listen and also clearly explains complex concepts of pain management and the role of pain medications, non-narcotic pain treatments and other modalities.
Caring, personable, knowledgeable. Easy to talk to, listened and answered my questions. Definitely hope you can stay as my doctor.
Very easy to talk to and I felt she cared about my needs. I greatly appreciate having her on my care team!
Thanks for the advice and help
The Doctor was great. I highly recommend her.
Very easy to talk to and I feel she cares.
Have more patience for people. Be more understanding why people could be upset for continual delay and don’t always question why the patient choose Stanford over other providers.
Whole process was caring and efficient.
She is a wonderful compassionate and knowledgeable doctor. I look forward to working with her on my health journey.
Very Knowledgeable, patient and took time to answer all my questions in short I am glad I got such a fine doctor
Dr Singh is compassionate, kind ,professional and excellent
She was very caring and understands my concerns and needs.
The doctor was lovely. I liked her a lot.
Dr. Singh was great.
Dr. Singh is compassionate and communicative
I wish I had been given post procedure instructions with phone numbers etc. I developed bad headaches after
Happy to be under her care.
The staff was very caring and knowledgeable. I hope the injections work
Very efficient
Easy to talk to, a good listener, empathetic
Thank you so much for your time.. Looking forward to getting healthy once again.
She's intelligent and obviously knows her area of medicine. She has an extremely caring demeanor.
I am very grateful for Dr. Singh's care and patience for me.
Thank you for excellent service/care
I am thrilled to have her as a Doctor. Excellent care, while also getting to know me as a person, not just a patient. I feel I can tell her anything, and receive the best possible suggestions on what to do, take, etc. I love that she is moderate and careful with medications, and she understands my desire to approach things holistically.
Dr. Singh is awesome. She actually takes time to listen to me and really makes me feel heard. This is something that I don't feel about several other local doctors I've seen. I feel like she really cares about helping me feel better rather than rushing me through the appointment. I recommend her highly.
She is thorough and professional. Excellent listener and provided good observations and feedback.
Condescending and short in the communication, repetitive and not helpful. Not sensitive to and responsive to my feeling or inquiries during the visit. 15 minutes late to the meeting I feel was disrespectful and she did not even apologize for the delay.
Dr. Singh seems to know here medicine, but her communication and patient relationship management skills were not great
Friendly. Answered by questions. Compassionate.
she is wonderful, I feel very well taken care of
she's very knowledgeable and additionally provides encouragement in a very positively attitude let her patient much in touched.
Very helpful addressing my concerns with multiple solutions. I feel like she takes the time to really look at different options to help my pain based on my symptoms and body.
Excellent and compassionate
She was fine, limited by technology
She indeed is very knowledgeable, experienced & amicable doctor.
Dr vanilla Sing is peoples Dr with great personality and is very comfortable to chat with about my Health issues
I greatly appreciate that I feel that Dr. Singh truly hears me and really is working with me to get to the bottom of it at the treatment level of my comfort. She is excellent at teaching information I need to understand to be best guided by her as I make decisions which seem quite large to me. I also appreciate that I feel she is accessible if I needed. I feel Dr. Singh is working hard in my best interest and truly cares and takes me seriously. I am grateful for Dr. Singh and that I have access to her care.
All staff are courteous and professional, make me feel like they care about my condition.
Lovely person
Was very impressed with her ability to zero in on the causes for my extreme sciatic pain and to work out a plan that we hope will alleviate that. I am looking forward to continuing to have her care and advice,
Dr. Singh was very easy to talk to and very personable. She listened and understood my condition and was willing to try and find new ways of helping me. I would highly recommend Dr. Singh.
Dr Singh is very thorough, professional and knowledgeable.....I am completely happy with her and my treatment
She is great
I received excellent care!
She was extremely professional, thorough and personable. She explained everything to me completely and gave me encouraging words of hope for relief from my pain.
She's very informed and professional.
Dr Singh was highly responsive to my questions and concerns, spent substantial time reviewing my records and had a good understanding of my history and pain management needs. I look forward to giving her updates on my progress.
Very pleasant pleasant
Doctor understood my extreme chronic pain in my neck, shoulders, upper back, arms, lower back, tailbone, my mental status resulting in a car accident on September 3rd, 2020, which wasn't my fault.
She is great.
Excellent communicator, listens and very nice . She is obviously tops in her practice.
Very pleasant and explained all treatment that was needed for pain management.
She is awesome. Great clinician and great communicator. She walked me through each step. She explained when she wanted to ask me more questions. It was probably the nicest physician visit I have ever had.
Wonderful doctor!!!! Cannot wait to speak with her again. Caring, compassionate, knowledgeable.
She is amazing! Very compassionate, personable and understanding.
Immensely qualified and informative.
I really like working w/Dr. Singh she's really helpful and friendly she gentle w/care.
Dr. Singh is always great and helpful.
All of the doctors that are "training" other docs are very good & the trainees are especially consciousness.
Excellent job.
Always friendly & caring.
Beyond nice dr. Thank you.
Dr. Singh was GREAT I even though I was supposed to be seen at another office, she fit me in, & was precise & quick. Maybe even BETTER than my regular dr.!
Dr. Singh is an amazing doctor and it was so great to be able to see her now that she is back from her leave. She was very helpful and gave me some good ideas to pursue regarding treatment.
Dr. V. Singh provided exceptional care. She allowed my mother to voice her worries and concerns with much patience, kindness, and professionalism.
Exceptional.
Dr. Singh has always kept me well informed about my care and medications.
The doctor was very sweet, and accommodating! She was always asking me if what she was doing was ok!
Dr. Singh explained we were about the care & concern of my condition. She is always very nice.
Nice individual. She Dr. Singh was clearly distracted when we first met. I couldn't help but feel rushed. I've always have had great dr.'s, always partnered w/them, had my best interest, didn't feel that w/Dr. Singh. Not a good connection w/her.
Dr. Vanila Singh is one of the most outstanding doctors at Stanford. I appreciate her comprehensive and compassionate care.
She was very cold and rushed through the appt. and then just left the room and said in a very cold manner "nice to meet you."
The doctor who performed the bilateral occipital nerve block was very hurried, a feeling of "matter of fact" talking to me, like I should know what the procedure entails and very short with me in conversation. I felt very uneasy with her and didn't feel much compassion through out the office visit. I must have been the last patient that day it being Friday.
The doctor was extremely caring and explained how my treatment would proceed.
Dr. Vanila Singh is by far the doctor in a long. She is very professional but at the same time very down to earth. She always gives suggestions and shows kindness & knowledge about my treatments!
Dr. Singh was wonderful at explaining everything in layman's terms!
Dr. Vanila Singh is exceptional. She shows great concern and compassion. She is very knowledgeable and explains things very clearly.
Please contact me directly for more info regarding my visit with Dr. Singh.
The doctor interrupted my appointment 9 times to answer her phone. I thought the patient was the 1st priority, but answering the phone does not give that impression. I am looking for a cure to my pain and the doctor did not take this serious, but was looking for a "cover up" for the pain without exploring a cure.
Quite honestly, trigger point point injection is not something I will ever have done again. The doctor explained what was happening thoroughly.
Dr. Singh provided me with an EXCELLENT/AMAZING experience. She was caring, thoughtful, insightful, open, professional, easy to talk to, and kind. She gave me numerous alternatives and never made me feel judged when I gave her my input and gave me her opinion. She made me feel safe as a patient and that I could trust her. All healthcare providers should be like her! She is the best physician I have ever seen and I wish I could tell everyone to see her! She is brilliant and genuine! Working as a healthcare provider is what she was meant to do in life!!!
Absolutely amazing dr. Very kind. Explains things in an easy to understand manner. Has really helped me in the last year plus. Thankful to have her. Best dr. I've ever seen.
I don't think I have ever had a dr. who seemed to care and talk about my condition as Dr. Singh has and Dr. Hoch.
Very nice.
I was not informed about possible side effects of medication. Had an unusual experience (not lethal) after taking it.
Dr. Singh was very informative about procedure.
Dr. was friendly - however horrible disconnect on what treatment was happening. Pain mgmt. clinic needs some serious revamping - No cohesiveness in staff.
I had to actually ask her if she was angry at me, because she was raising her voice so often. I felt as though she didn't really think I was in pain.
I truly believe that I have the best dr. Dr. Singh is an amazing doctor, easily explaining things. She has taken great care of me. I'm very thankful for her.
She goes above & beyond to be sure I get how she is handling my situation. Explains treatments easily, explains treatment options & makes sure my family understands as well.
Dr. Singh was rude and talked to me like I was an idiot or a child that needed to be scolded for not remembering all the names of my medications. I should have walked out! I was mad at myself for not leaving immediately.
Dr. had poor bedside manners. I understand describing chronic pain is difficult, but dr. interrupted me multiple times, to describe my pain in other terms before I had a chance to finish talking. Listening skills are necessary for pt. treatment. Also, dr. received & had to return non-emergency text regarding another care provider and patient. I understand if there is an urgent page dr. needs to respond to re: another pt., but it was inconsiderate dr. is using my time with her to work on another pt. matter. I asked dr. if page was urgent, and she said no.
If "perfect" was a choice, Dr. Singh would rank that high. She is an amazing doctor, very friendly and explains things in an easy to understand way. She includes my family. I would highly recommend her. I'm very thankful to have her as my doctor.
The doctor seemed rushed and argumentative. Not like my previous experience with her. I wanted to discuss issues with her but due to lateness in day visit rushed -
Doctor was helpful - Seemed busy, and couldn't see my MRI on her computer. (Was uploaded, but had trouble with computer.) Questioned whether the doctor looked at online questionnaire before visit?
Dr. Singh was amazing. Outstanding bedside manners.
Always seemed rushed. Didn't look at my file before seeing me. Didn't remember what was done last time. I had to remind him if he had checked results of tests.
I could not ask for a better dr. I have seen 30+ drs. and by far this is the best dr. I have/had. Very happy w/Dr. Singh.
Dr. had a very nice manner and I believe wanted good communication. Unfortunately this did not happen. Dr. heard what she wanted to hear and did not listen well to patient.
An excellent service has been provided by the provider.
She went above & beyond in spending time with me, clearly explained/answered questions, made me feel at ease would highly recommend her.
Dr. Singh is the best care provider I have ever met.
Good.

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