Psychedelic Medicine
Association
President, Psychedelic Medicine Association
Founder & Chief Medical Officer, Hopemark Health
Abid Nazeer MD, FASAM, is an experienced physician executive and leader, and a practicing psychiatrist in the Chicagoland area. He is board certified in both psychiatry as well as addiction medicine. Dr. Nazeer is the Founder and Chief Medical Officer for Hopemark Health, opened in 2016 as the first dedicated outpatient psychiatric based ketamine clinic in Illinois. He has multi-site operational experience, having grown the company to 7 locations. Hopemark Health has successfully completed over 6000 IV ketamine treatments for mental health and substance use disorders in a comprehensive and interventional care model. Hopemark Health is one of the largest and fastest growing Spravato treatment centers in the nation. The clinic also offers interventional psychiatry services such as Deep TMS, Theta Burst Stimulation, and Neurofeedback. Dr. Nazeer is also the Senior Medical Advisor for Symetria Recovery, where he previously held the role of Chief Medical Officer and helped develop their comprehensive Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) care model while supporting the company’s growth to 12 clinics nationally and developing the psychiatry services division. He is a Medical Advisor to several companies including Speranza Therapeutics, which produces a medical neuromodulation device (ST Genesis) utilized to treat opioid withdrawal syndrome, and a psychedelic focused digital search company called Healing Maps. Dr. Nazeer has held many leadership and executive roles across many settings. Dr. Nazeer has experience in Mergers and Acquisitions, with past success in selling and acquiring his own business, and acquisition of other clinics. As a result, Dr. Nazeer frequently consults and advises interested companies for time-limited engagements.
He is a Fellow for the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and long-standing member of American Psychiatric Association, American Society of Ketamine Physicians, American Medical Association, and Psychedelic Medicine Association. After first serving as Chief Resident at Louisiana State University, Dr. Nazeer led the PTSD clinic at Overton Brooks VA Medical Center before entering private practice settings. Dr. Nazeer is regarded as an expert in the clinical application of ketamine and TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) in a psychiatric outpatient setting. He provides peer education about topics such as screening, assessment, quality assurance, billing, and standards of care; and speaks nationally to other professionals as well as the media about pharmacogenomics, psychedelics, ketamine, and addiction medicine. Dr. Nazeer has focused on using a comprehensive care model supported by validated outcome data to engage in at-risk value-based contract structures with insurance payers.
President & Founder, Kadima Neuropsychiatry Institute
Dr. David Feifel is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist whose career has focused on developing more effective treatments for mental illness. He is a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, at UCSD, and President/Founder of Kadima Neuropsychiatry Institute in La Jolla.
After earning an MD and PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Toronto, Dr. Feifel completed psychiatry residency at UCSD, and then joined UCSD’s Psychiatry Department, rising through the academic ranks to full professor.
During his two decades at UCSD, Dr. Feifel ran a NIH-funded, bench-to-bedside, translational research program. He also established several pioneering clinical programs including the world’s first ketamine infusion program for depression (2008). He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers in top medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, and his work has been featured in many popular publications including the New York Times, Time magazine and Scientific America. Dr. Feifel sits on several expert committees and boards, including the National Network of Depression Centers task force on psychedelic therapy and the expert faculty committee of the American Society of Ketamine Providers (ASKP).
In 2017, Dr. Feifel founded Kadima Neuropsychiatry Institute with the vision of creating a center specializing in providing all the most advanced treatments while also facilitating the development of ever better ones through research and innovation. Currently Kadima provides roughly 4000 ketamine and esketamine treatments a year and is investigating several psychedelics, including psilocybin, LSD and 5-MeO DMT. through ongoing clinical trials, Through its “Project Africa,” Kadima is also helping health officials in Rwanda bring ketamine and psychedelic therapy to that country.
Nurse Anesthetist, Co-Founder, & Clinic Director, Radiance Ketamine Clinic
Greg Jones is a board-certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) by the National Board of Certification and Recertification for Nurse Anesthetists (NBCRNA). He also graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno with a second specialty as a Family Nurse Practitioner.
Prior to specializing in anesthesia, Greg worked as a pediatric nurse at Primary Children’s Medical Center and an emergency room nurse at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also served as the clinical director of Maliheh Free Clinic, providing free medical services to those without insurance. While at the clinic, he saw the crippling effects that mental health disorders can have on people’s lives. His compassion for those suffering from these debilitating conditions grew as he heard their stories and saw their pain.
Greg was first introduced to ketamine over 10 years ago as an anesthesia student. He was amazed by its ability to help patients endure extremely painful procedures with minimal discomfort. As a result, he began regularly incorporating ketamine into his anesthetic practice and saw incredible results. The most impressive of which was for major spine surgery. He found that those that received ketamine during surgery woke up with less pain and required less medication during the post-operative period.
One day while working at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), he went to interview his patient prior to surgery. During the conversation, the patient asked Greg if he would give him some ketamine while he was asleep. Surprised by this, he asked the man the purpose of his unique request. The patient said that he was a psychiatrist and had suffered from major depression since he was a young boy. He then mentioned that he had read several studies describing ketamine’s impressive anti-depressant effects. He was intrigued and wanted to see if ketamine would work for him. Greg obliged to the request and was excited to talk with the man when he woke up. To Greg’s delight, the man said that he felt remarkably better and was sure that it was a result of the ketamine. That night, Greg went home and began researching ketamine’s effect on depression and other mental health conditions. His fascination grew and eventually inspired him to co-found Radiance Ketamine Clinic in Reno, Nevada in 2020 and Vivid Life in Concord, CA in 2023. Greg is also the co-owner of Brain Health Restoration in Reno, Nevada. Greg finds great satisfaction in talking with his patients and hearing how ketamine has truly changed their lives.
When not at the clinic, Greg provides independent anesthesia services at a variety of medical offices in the greater Reno area. He also enjoys cooking, gardening, spending time outdoors, attending cultural events and singing in the Nevada Gay Men’s Chorus.
Chief Medical Officer at Novamind/Co-founder at Cedar Psychiatry
Dr. Reid Robison is a board-certified psychiatrist and Chief Medical Officer at Novamind. Reid is co-founder at Cedar Psychiatry and serves as Medical Director of Center for Change, a top Eating Disorder program. He is currently the coordinating investigator for the MAPS MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy study of Eating Disorders. Reid is adjunct faculty at the University of Utah, founder of the Polizzi Free Clinic, and provides medical support and psychedelic therapy at plant medicine retreats abroad.
As the date draws nearer for a final decision from the FDA on MDMA-assisted therapy, we thought it was a good time to keep hope alive by revisiting the currently-available psychedelic therapeutic: ketamine.
Several new studies have been published since our last webinar on ketamine, and some new formulations have gotten attention as of late, so we wanted to check in with some of those on the front lines of ketamine therapy to find out what practices regarding ketamine therapy are working well and which may not be as effective.
This month we are truly fortunate to have panelists working in ketamine clinics from three different areas of the country discussing a number of topics relevant to the therapeutic use of ketamine, including:
…and much more!
As always, there will be ample time for audience Q&A, so you’ll get to interact with the panelists directly!
So please join us for this live panel discussion on Thursday, July 25th at 5 pm Pacific, 8 pm Eastern. This is exclusively for members of the Psychedelic Medicine Association, so if you have not yet registered, please do so here. And for members, please register for the panel here. A link to the recording will be available afterward if you cannot make it to the live event.
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