SUMMARY
Anushka Irani, B.M., B.Ch., Ph.D., is a rheumatologist and researcher with a passion for improving the lives of people living with chronic pain conditions, particularly fibromyalgia. With expertise in both clinical care and advanced pain research, she bridges neuroscience, patient experience and clinical medicine to transform how chronic pain is understood and treated. Dr. Irani is passionate about bringing scientific discoveries into real-world clinical practice and mentoring the next generation of clinicians and researchers. She welcomes opportunities to mentor and supervise emerging investigators and Ph.D. students with a shared interest in chronic pain.
Focus areas
- Neurobiological pain mechanisms. Dr. Irani investigates the neurobiological underpinnings of chronic pain, particularly in fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Her research uses neuroimaging to identify brain patterns and descending pain modulation pathways, reinforcing the biological basis of central pain processing in rheumatic disease.
- Stratified medicine and patient phenotyping. Recognizing the heterogeneity of fibromyalgia, Dr. Irani works to identify clinically meaningful subgroups based on neurobiological, physiological and immune profiles. By combining data from neuroimaging, sensory testing and biomarker assays, she has developed a stratified medicine framework that predicts treatment response and guides individualized care.
- Remote and digital assessment tools. To enhance clinical care, Dr. Irani develops remote assessment platforms that integrate multimodal data — such as sleep patterns, autonomic function and physical activity — collected via wearables and digital questionnaires. These tools seek to streamline previsit evaluations, allowing in-person appointments to focus on personalized treatment planning.
- Sleep in chronic pain. Her work highlights both medication and nonmedication-based strategies to improve sleep in fibromyalgia, generating early real-world evidence that digital treatment tools may be effective.
- Patient voice. She uses digital and social media platforms such as Reddit and X to understand how patients manage chronic pain and to identify gaps in current healthcare systems, ensuring that research and clinical care remain centered on patients.
- Translational research and clinical integration. Dr. Irani is committed to bridging the gap between research and clinical practice. Her research projects are designed to be embedded within existing fibromyalgia clinics to enable real-time data collection and integration into electronic health records. This facilitates the translation of research findings into actionable clinical tools and supports the development of top-tier care models for chronic pain management.
Significance to patient care
Dr. Irani's research helps healthcare professionals better understand why individuals with fibromyalgia experience pain even in the absence of clear physical injury. Dr. Irani studies how the brain and nerves work in these patients and how the immune system might be involved. The results of her research can lead to new ways to treat pain that are tailored to each person. She is also creating tools that let patients share important health information before their appointments, so doctors can focus on what matters most during visits. This means faster, more personalized care and fewer unnecessary tests or treatments.
Professional highlights
- Lead author, Pain: Mechanisms and management and Generalised pain syndromes (including fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome) modules, EULAR Online Course on Rheumatic Diseases, European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR), 2023-present.
- British Society for Rheumatology:
- Member, 2021-present.
- Best Practice Award, Remote Clinical Management, 2022.
- International Association for the Study of Pain:
- Member, Terminology Task Force, 2023-present.
- Member, 2018-present.
- Advanced Pain Discovery Platform Research Grant, UK Research and Innovation, 2022.
- Doris Hillier Grant, Foundation for Medical Research, British Medical Association, 2022.
- National Institute for Health and Care Research:
- Subtheme lead, UK Musculoskeletal Translational Research Collaboration, 2021-2022.
- Winner, New Media Competition — Researcher Category, 2014.
- Doctoral Research Fellowship, 2010.
- University of Oxford:
- Medical Sciences Internal Fund Pump-Priming Award, Medical Sciences Division, 2019.
- Oxford-UCB Prize Fellowship, Medical Sciences Division, 2017.