- About
- Specialties & Areas of Expertise
- Locations & Patient Information
- Education & Research
- Accepted Insurance
- External Professional Relationships
I was inspired by my mother. My mother is an ophthalmologist. I was born and raised in Romania, and then she basically became my role model. I spent quite significant time in the hospital with her as a child and a young medical student, so her dedication and devotion to her patients turned me towards the specialty of pain medicine.
Every patient is special. While we're learning medicine that, you know, there are several algorithms and a disease can be treated with some specific medication, every person responds differently to the medication or to interventions. So my philosophy is that we treat every single patient differently. It's an individual. It's like we're treating our parents, our sisters, our uncles or aunts.
Magdalena Anitescu, MD, PhD, is a leader in the field of anesthesia and interventional pain medicine. She is experienced in ambulatory and regional anesthesia as well as in acute, perioperative and chronic pain management. She specializes in caring for patients who suffer from cancer pain, discogenic pain and low-back pain. Her primary clinical focus is on interventional pain procedures (sympathetic nerve blocks, ketamine infusions, kyphoplasty) aimed at alleviating pain due to primary and metastatic cancer. Additionally, she is involved in alleviating pain in cancer survivors.
Dr. Anitescu's research focuses on improving the quality of life for patients with acute and chronic pain. She has studied post-operative pain management, functional anesthetic discography and the utilization of intrathecal drug delivery methods to lessen pain. She has also studied the efficacy of outpatient use of intravenous medications such as ketamine in decreasing pain scores in patients that suffer from long-standing and intractable pain.
Dr. Anitescu is a national and international educator in the field of interventional pain management. She has been an invited speaker to numerous renowned national and professional organizations. In addition to her clinical and research activities, Dr. Anitescu also mentors residents, fellows and medical students in the department of Anesthesia and Critical Care.
Specialties
Areas of Expertise
- Cancer Pain Management
- Back Pain
- Epidural Analgesia
- Interventional Pain Management
- Management of Difficult Airway
- Neuromodulating Techniques
- Discogenic Pain
- Intrathecal Drug Delivery
- Female Pelvic Pain
Board Certifications
- Anesthesiology
- Pain Medicine
Practicing Since
- 2003
Languages Spoken
- English
- French
- Romanian
Medical Education
- Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Internship
- University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics
Residency
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics
Fellowship
- Cleveland Clinic
Memberships & Medical Societies
- American Society of Anesthesiologists
- American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
News & Research
Insurance
- Aetna Better Health *see insurance page
- Aetna HMO (specialists only)
- Aetna Medicare Advantage HMO & PPO
- Aetna POS
- Aetna PPO
- BCBS Blue Precision HMO (specialists only)
- BCBS HMO (HMOI) (specialists only)
- BCBS Medicare Advantage HMO & PPO
- BCBS PPO
- Cigna HMO
- Cigna POS
- Cigna PPO
- CountyCare *see insurance page
- Humana Medicare Advantage Choice PPO
- Humana Medicare Advantage Gold Choice PFFS
- Humana Medicare Advantage Gold Plus HMO
- Medicare
- Multiplan PPO
- PHCS PPO
- United Choice Plus POS/PPO
- United Choice HMO (specialists only)
- United Options (PPO)
- United Select (HMO & EPO) (specialists only)
- United W500 Emergent Wrap
- University of Chicago Health Plan (UCHP)
Our list of accepted insurance providers is subject to change at any time. You should contact your insurance company to confirm UChicago Medicine participates in their network before scheduling your appointment. If you have questions regarding your insurance benefits at UChicago Medicine, please contact our financial counseling team at OPSFinancialCounseling@uchospitals.edu.
Some of our physicians and health professionals collaborate with external pharmaceutical, medical device, or other medical related entities to develop new treatments and products to improve clinical outcomes for patients. In some instances, the physician has ownership interests in the external entity and/or is compensated for advising or speaking about the entity’s products or treatments. These payments may include compensation for consulting and speaking engagements, equity, and/or royalties for products invented by our physicians. To assure objectivity and integrity in patient care, UChicago Medicine requires all physicians and health professionals to report their relationships and financial interests with external entities on an annual basis. This information is used to review relationships and transactions that might give rise to potential financial conflicts of interest, and when considered to be significant a management plan to mitigate any biases is created.
If you are a patient at UChicago Medicine and would like more information about your physician’s external relationships, please talk with your physician. You may also visit the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Open Payments website at https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/ . CMS Open Payments is a national disclosure program that promotes a more transparent and accountable health care system. It houses a publicly accessible database of payments that reporting entities, including drug and medical device companies, make to covered recipients like physicians and hospitals.
Information in the CMS Open Payments database could potentially contain inaccurately reported and out of date payment information. All information is open to personal interpretation, if there are questions about the data, patients and their advocates should speak directly to their health care provider for a better understanding.