Meet the Doctors
The Passion Behind the Practice
Prof. Gabor B. Racz, MD
Prof. Gabor B. Racz, MD was born in Hungary and completed M.B. and Ch.B. degrees from the University of Liverpool Medical School in Liverpool, England. He served as house surgeon and physician at the Royal Southern Hospital in Liverpool before moving to the United States in 1963 for an anesthesiology residency at SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York.
Dr. Racz filled numerous assignments, such as respiratory consultant in the neurosurgical head injury unit and Associate Professor at SUNY, until 1977 when he moved to Lubbock, Texas to become the first Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at the new Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He held that position until March 1, 1999 when, as Director of Pain Services, he focused his full attention on treatment of patients, expanding the operations of pain services, and the future development of an international pain institute in Lubbock, Texas.
In 1996, Dr. Racz was honored by Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center when he was awarded the first Grover Murray Professorship recognizing his distinguished achievements in the institution as well as internationally. In December 1998, University Medical Center named Dr. Racz recipient of a one-million-dollar endowed chair in recognition of his “greatness in patient care, teaching and research” at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and University Medical Center.
Under his direction, the International Pain Institute at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center grew to international prominence, attracting patients and visiting physicians from around the world. His innovative work with nerve stimulators, spinal cord stimulators, radiofrequency thermocoagulation, and a wide range of other pain management procedures brings many patients referred to his care from doctors throughout the world. He is a regular faculty member with education groups such as Dannemiller Educational Memorial Foundation, Pain Net, Inc., and American Society of Pain Physicians.
Dr. Racz holds the certificate of Diplomat with the American College of Pain Management as well as the American Board of Anesthesiology certification in Pain Management and the World Institute of Pain’s (WIP) Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice certification. He is an advocate for high standards of certification and training among pain physicians and works toward the advancement of those goals.
Dr. Racz has received numerous recognitions and awards from organizations around the world including Distinguished Professor Award for Lifetime Achievement from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and the Lifetime Achievement Award from American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. He is also listed in all editions (1992-2005) of The Best Doctors in America. Dr. Racz is widely published in book chapters, journal articles, and four books describing his techniques in spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulation, neurolysis, radiofrequency thermocoagulation, and other interventional procedures. He also travels around the world lecturing and instructing workshops.
Dr. Racz is a Founder and past president of The World Institute of Pain and National Pain Foundation and currently serving on the WIP executive board. He also is a founder and first president of Texas Pain Society and director of the annual TTUHSC Pain Symposium from 1983-2012.
According to the US News & World Report, Dr. Gabor B. Racz has been Rated Among the Top 1% in the Nation in his Specialty and is listed in the Becker’s Spine Review for Top 150 Pain Management Physicians to Know.
Avinash S. Chavda, MD, MPH
Avi Chavda, MD, MPH is a Johns Hopkins fellowship-trained interventional spine and pain management specialist.
A Dallas native, he attended St. Mark’s School of Texas where he was a member of the state championship wrestling team and graduated in 2008. He attended Vanderbilt University, where he served as elected class representative for two years, graduating in 2012 with a B.A. in Neuroscience. He then returned to his hometown to attend UT Southwestern Medical School, graduating in 2016 as the first student in school history to earn an M.D. with Distinction in Quality Improvement & Patient Safety.
He continued his residency training at UT Southwestern, graduating in 2020. He then completed an Interventional Spine fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he served as Chief Fellow; no prior fellow held this title. He completed additional, advanced fellowship training in interventional pain management directly under Aaron Calodney, MD and a visiting fellowship under Doug Beall, MD. Simultaneously, Dr. Chavda earned an MPH in epidemiology from Harvard.
Throughout his career, Dr. Chavda has balanced technical excellence with compassionate, empathetic care for a wide variety of patients. He has completed over 3,000 interventional pain management procedures and is devoted to partnering with patients and the healthcare system to restore function, to minimize addiction risk, and to eliminate health outcome disparities. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
Dr. Chavda has research interests in neuromodulation, orthobiologics, and radical life extension. In his free time, he enjoys playing the piano, lifting weights, and training for memory competitions. He can memorize the order of a shuffled deck of playing cards in less than two minutes and more than 100 random digits in less than five minutes. He placed 2nd at the 2018 USA Memory Championship.