Melanie Henry, MD, MPH

HS Clinical Professor
[email protected]
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Biography: 

Dr. Melanie M. Henry is an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist. She is boarded in both specialties. She joined the UCSF faculty in 2006 after her UCSF anesthesia residency and pain fellowship. During her fifteen years at UCSF, Dr. Henry has served in leadership capacities, included her title position of Director of Telehealth and Outreach past Director of Acute Pain Services at UCSF Medical Center Mount Zion and Director of Practice Management at PMC. She is currently a California Society of Anesthesiologists (CSA) delegate. In addition, she is the division representative for the UCSF Spine Center. She works with the UCSF Spine Center faculty to create a multidisciplinary treatment plan for spinal surgery patients that encompass the preoperative, intraoperative and post operative settings.

Dr. Henry earned a Master’s in Public Health in epidemiology and biostatistics from Tulane School of Public Health. She worked in Environmental Health Science investigating silicosis and asbestos in the mining industry as well has reviewing heavy metal quantities in water. She earned her medical degree from Tulane School of Medicine. She completed her anesthesia and pain medicine training at UCSF.

Dr. Henry is very active in developing educational pain modules for pain physicians. She developed the Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome module for Continuing Medical Education for the California Society of Anesthesiologists. In addition, through her contribution to the Mini Medical School for the Public featured on UCSF TV, she has gained recognition both nationally and internationally as a leader in pain medicine treatment modalities. See link below for video.

She treats a wide array of chronic pain conditions such as piriformis syndrome, failed back surgery syndrome, discogenic and facetogenic low back pain, chronic regional pain syndrome (CRPS), assessment of spinal surgical patients, and cancer pain. She is highly skilled in both fluoroscopic and ultrasound guided techniques. Dr. Henry performs many types of pain relieving procedures, such as epidural steroid injections, joint injections, radiofrequency ablation and spinal cord stimulation. Her approach to pain management is individualized to each patient. Dr. Henry embraces the integrated specialists approach, such that pain psychology, physical therapy and neurology will work together to find the most appropriate treatment plan for the patient.

Dr. Henry is a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), California Society of Anesthesiologists (CSA), American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA), International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS). She is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care at UCSF.

Publications: 
Burke JF, Kunwar N, Yaroshinsky MS, Louie KH, Shirvalkar P, Su P, Henry M, Pasvankas G, Poree L, Jacques L, Wang DD. Epidural Spinal Electrogram Provides Direct Spinal Recordings in Awake Human Participants. Front Hum Neurosci. 2021; 15:721076.
Southwell DG, Osorio JA, Liverman CS, Friedman LM, Naidu RK, Poree LR, Henry MM, Jacques L. Intrathecal catheter-associated inflammatory mass in a neurofibromatosis type-1 patient receiving fentanyl and bupivacaine. Surg Neurol Int. 2017; 8:159.