Chris Rishel, MD, PhD

Chris Rishel is a Clinical Scholar in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University. He is passionate about developing technology to maximize accessibility to clinical and scientific knowledge. Starting in 2018, he partnered with Barrett Larson to develop WikiAnesthesia, with the goal creating an open-access crowdsourced platform for information in anesthesia designed for rapid use at the point-of-care. He also conducts research to study perioperative outcomes using large national databases, with a focus on perioperative narcotic use.

Outside of medicine, Chris is passionate about creating music. While at The University of Chicago, he directed the a cappella group Voices, where his arranging, composition, and studio production received numerous international awards. He now serves as a freelance arranger, coach, and producer, and serves as an adjudicator, instructor, and clinician for various vocal competitions and festivals.

Education and Training

• Fellowship: Neurosurgical anesthesia, Stanford University (2021-2022)
• Fellowship: Stanford Fellowship in Anesthesia Research and Medicine (2019-2021)
  • Advisors: Eric Sun and Martin Angst
• Residency: Anesthesiology, Stanford University (2016-2019)
• Internship: Internal Medicine, The University of Chicago (2015-2016)
• Medical School: Medical Scientist Training Program, The University of Chicago (2015)
  • PhD in Computational Neuroscience, advisor David Freedman
    • Thesis: Interactions between cognitive and spatial signals in parietal cortex
• Undergraduate education: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2007)
  • BS in Computer Science
    • Research: The Archon Project, advisors: Chris Prom and Scott Schwartz
  • BA in Chemistry