Back pain became big business in American healthcare long before most hospital systems fully understood how large the demand would become. By the late 1990s, pain clinics had started appearing across suburban medical corridors, especially in states with growing outpatient networks. Some focused on rehabilitation. Others leaned heavily into spinal injections and minimally invasive procedures. Insurance companies were changing policies. Hospitals were moving procedures outside inpatient operating rooms. At the same time, millions of Americans were dealing with chronic pain tied to disc disease, arthritis, spinal stenosis, and nerve damage. The field was expanding quickly, though standards were still uneven from one practice to another.

That was the environment Anil K. Sharma entered after finishing years of medical training in both India and the United States. Sharma graduated from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College in Indore as valedictorian before relocating to America for postgraduate medical training. He completed an internal medicine internship at Nassau County Medical Center in New York between 1990 and 1991. From there, he joined the anesthesiology residency program at Monmouth Medical Center in New Jersey. Colleagues there later selected him as chief resident. He also received the Robert D. Dripps Award, which is given to the residency program’s top graduating physician.

Pain medicine itself was changing during those years. Physicians who originally trained in anesthesiology were beginning to specialize in image-guided spinal procedures. Fluoroscopy became more common. Outpatient treatment centers expanded. Surgical referrals increased. Sharma continued into fellowship training at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation from 1994 through 1995, focusing specifically on pain management. He graduated as the fellowship program’s top fellow. The timing mattered because the specialty was becoming more organized academically and clinically. National organizations were beginning to develop procedural standards, training recommendations, and evidence-based guidelines that would later define the specialty.

In 1996, Sharma founded Spine & Pain Centers of New Jersey & New York. The practice started at a point when outpatient interventional pain care was becoming more common across the country. Rather than relying entirely on hospital-based treatment, many physicians were building office-centered practices that combined consultations, imaging review, follow-up care, and minimally invasive procedures. Sharma’s work focused largely on spinal conditions, including radiculopathy, herniated discs, chronic neck pain, lower back pain, and neuropathic disorders. Procedures included epidural steroid injections, medial branch blocks, facet interventions, and radiofrequency denervation.

The practice later expanded across several New Jersey locations, including Freehold, Millburn, Shrewsbury, Neptune, and Toms River. Sharma also became involved with ambulatory surgical centers connected to those regions. Patients increasingly preferred outpatient settings because procedures could often be completed in a few hours instead of requiring overnight hospitalization. According to federal healthcare estimates, outpatient surgical visits in the United States increased sharply during the early 2000s, particularly in orthopedic and spinal specialties. Sharma’s procedural volume grew alongside those trends. Over the course of more than two decades, he performed tens of thousands of spinal interventional procedures.

His hospital work continued at the same time. In 2003, Sharma became Director of Pain Management at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey. The role placed him inside a larger hospital system while he continued outpatient practice development. Pain management programs during that period were becoming increasingly multidisciplinary. A single patient might move between orthopedic surgery, physical therapy, neurology, rehabilitation medicine, and interventional treatment over the course of care. Hospital pain directors often had responsibilities that extended beyond procedures themselves, including physician coordination, protocol review, and committee participation.

In addition to his professional experience in the field, Sharma has worked for many years with national organizations related to the spine and interventional pain management. For example, from 2007 to 2020, he was a member of the Standards Committee of the Spine Intervention Society. He was even the vice chairman of the Standards Committee during 2012-2013 and co-chaired the society’s annual meeting. Organizations such as the Spine Intervention Society gained increasing importance due to pressure from insurance companies and health care systems to establish procedural guidelines and standards for pain management.

Sharma also became active within the North American Spine Society. Beginning in 2007, he served on the organization’s Evidence-Based Clinical Guidelines Committee. He later joined the editorial board of SpineLine, the society’s publication focused on spinal treatment developments and clinical discussion. During those years, evidence-based medicine became central to healthcare policy conversations. Physicians and medical societies were under pressure to justify treatment recommendations through published research and guideline development. Sharma participated in projects connected to cervical radiculopathy, lumbar disc herniation, low back pain, and adult isthmic spondylolisthesis.

His academic writing reflected many of the same themes found in his clinical work. In 2016, Sharma authored and co-authored systematic reviews published in Pain Medicine Journal examining lumbar interlaminar epidural steroid injections. The reviews evaluated available clinical evidence surrounding image-guided and non-image-guided techniques. He also contributed articles to SpineLine discussing anticoagulants and spinal injections as well as radiofrequency denervation procedures. Beyond journals, Sharma wrote textbook chapters for Interventional Pain Management: A Practical Approach and Symptom-Oriented Pain Management, focusing on discogenic pain and spinal intervention techniques.

Recognition followed throughout much of his career, though often through regional and professional publications rather than national media attention. During the years from 2013 through 2024, Dr. Sharma has been featured several times in New Jersey Monthly’s list of “Top Doctors” in pain management. He was also mentioned in materials published by professional medical societies, as well as other institutions, in connection with outpatient care in spinal pain management in New Jersey.

Dr. Anil K. Sharma still works in the same field, which has seen considerable development since he started working. The field of interventional pain medicine has changed substantially since Dr. Sharma graduated from his pain management fellowship in the middle of the 1990s. Sharma’s career unfolded alongside many of those developments, linking clinical practice, procedural medicine, physician education, and long-term involvement in organized pain management

Disclaimer: This article is intended for informational and editorial purposes only. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment recommendations. Readers should consult a qualified healthcare professional before making decisions related to pain management, spinal procedures, or any medical condition.