Featured Doctor: Pain Management Specialist, Dr. Alok Gopal, M.D., DABMA

Dr. Alok Gopal, served as vice president of Advanced Pain Relief Centers before becoming part of National Spine & Pain Centers in 2015. He served as vice president of the centers, helping the practice expand as well as establishing their first comprehensive pain center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Dr. Gopal uses a comprehensive team approach to develop a customized plan for his patients’ care to improve their quality of life.

The focus of Dr. Gopal’s practice is management of the spine and other chronic pain conditions with fluoroscopic (x-ray) and ultrasound guided interventions. Dr. Gopal completed a pain management fellowship at Dartmouth Medical School. He trained for his anesthesia residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical center (Harvard Medical School) and received advanced training in anesthesia and pain management at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In the years following his formal education, Dr. Gopal spent time as an assistant professor, teaching anesthesiology and pain management at the Veterans Administration Medical Center at Dartmouth Medical School.

In addition to his medical degree, Dr. Gopal is one of the few physicians in the country who is board certified in medical acupuncture and Chinese Herbals for pain, receiving his training from the UCLA Medical School.

“I am interested in combining alternative medicine with western modalities when appropriate to achieve healthy drug-free pain options for patients.” ~ Dr. Alok Gopal

Dr. Gopal enjoys staying current with new ways to treat pain in anyway he can. He has been able to use this passion to not only keep up to speed on the newest breakthroughs in pain medicine, but also to educate the medical staff by leading a journal club of musculoskeletal medicine at the 445-bed Winchester Medical Center, where he is the Director of Pain Management.

Dr. Gopal has shared his research and knowledge in a variety of publications. Much of his work reflects his interest in the evaluation and management of low back pain. His clinical expertise encompasses a variety of diagnostic specialties and treatments, including but not limited to: epidural nerve block, joint injections, facet joint injections, radiofrequency neurotomy, spinal cord stimulation, IT pump and discography.

More About Dr. Gopal

Dr. Gopal enjoys riding a road bike in the mountains of the Shenandoah Valley in the summer and skiing the same mountains in the winter. He helps run a nonprofit organization in the Shenandoah Valley and, during his visits to India, he volunteers to provide care for an orphanage.