13th Annual Samuel J. Hassenbusch Lectureship Award 2018 : Vanila M. Singh, M.D., MACM

Vanila M. Singh, M.D., MACM, was named Chief Medical Officer for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on June 12, 2017.

The Chief Medical Officer serves as the primary medical advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health on the development and implementation of HHS-wide public health policy recommendations. The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health includes 11 core public health offices, including the Office of the Surgeon General, 12 advisory committees, and 10 regional offices. Dr. Singh’s portfolio includes issues related to pain medicine, including opioid use and misuse; medical ethics; and public health. 

For the past 13 years, Dr. Singh has been a clinical associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Board-certified in both anesthesiology and pain medicine, she specializes in treating patients with complex chronic pain issues. Her practice focuses on regional anesthesia with a specialty in advanced ultrasound- guided procedures for pain management and anesthesia medicine. 

She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor of science degree in both molecular and cell biology and economics. She received her medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. Dr. Singh completed her internal medicine internship at Yale University School of Medicine and her anesthesiology residency and pain medicine fellowship at Cornell-Weill New York Hospital, which included training at Memorial Sloan Kettering and the Hospital for Special Surgery. She received a master’s degree in academic medicine through the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine in 2016.

Dr. Singh has been active in national medical organizations, serving as the Vice Chair of the National Physicians Council on Health Policy; an editorial board member of the Pain Physician Journal for the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians; and a member of the California Medical Association’s (CMA) House of Delegates. She also served on the CMA’s Council on Ethical, Legal and Judicial Affairs, and more recently, as a member of its Subcommittee on Health Information Technology. Dr. Singh was an invited faculty speaker and member of the Scientific Planning Committee for the 2017 national meeting of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia. She is involved in the Santa Clara County Medical Association as Vice President of Professional Conduct.