Vitaly Napadow

Biography

Dr. Vitaly Napadow is an associate professor at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. Dr. Napadow holds secondary appointments at Logan University and in the Pain Management Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received his PhD in biomedical engineering from the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program and a Master's degree from the New England School of Acupuncture (NESA). In conjunction with Dr. Norman Kettner at Logan University, Dr. Napadow’s laboratory has pioneered the application of non-invasive neuroimaging techniques to better understand the brain circuitry underlying aversive perceptual states, and to better understand how therapies such as acupuncture ameliorate these states. Aversive symptomatology, such as pain, nausea and itch leads to significant morbidity and makes up the bulk of outpatient visits to physicians. Many of these symptoms are perceptual states with no clear etiology and there is a lack of understanding of the brain circuitry supporting these perceptions. A better understanding of this circuitry will aid greatly in developing novel therapeutic interventions, which are also lacking. Dr. Napadow is also the co-President of the Society for Acupuncture Research, a non-profit research organization responsible for organizing the premier international biennial conference dedicated to evidence-based acupuncture research. He also serves on program committees for several international acupuncture and CAM research conferences and has more than 80 publications in leading peer-reviewed journals, many of them contributing to acupuncture neuroimaging research.

Research Interest

Radiology