About Peter A. Pellionisz, MD, PhD
I am an interventional psychiatrist and biomedical engineer working where brain stimulation meets functional imaging — personalized brain stimulation, guided by imaging.
Background & Philosophy
An engineer's route into psychiatry
I began as a builder of imaging instruments. As an undergraduate at UCLA I worked on selective plane illumination microscopy for rapid three-dimensional imaging of live specimens. As an MD–PhD student in the UCLA–Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program, I earned a PhD in bioengineering developing Dynamic Optical Contrast Imaging (DOCI) — a label-free, fluorescence-lifetime imaging technology for identifying tumor margins in real time during head and neck cancer surgery. That work produced two patents, more than a dozen publications, and, most importantly to me, a system that made it into the operating room.
Residency brought me to psychiatry, where the same instinct — use physics and imaging to make treatment precise — found its natural home. I completed the research track at UCSF Psychiatry with distinction in neuropsychiatry and interventional psychiatry. My work now centers on noninvasive brain stimulation combined with functional imaging: fMRI connectivity-guided TMS targeting, low-intensity focused ultrasound for treatment-resistant depression, and kilohertz transcranial magnetic perturbation (kTMP) for anhedonia. I collaborate closely with colleagues in neurology, radiology, and head and neck surgery, and I gained practical interventional psychiatry experience through UCSF and Acacia Clinics.
The thread across all of it is the same: bringing measurement to medicine's least measurable specialty, so that the right circuit gets the right treatment.
[RESEARCH VS. CLINICAL CARE — please write this line yourself. Everything described above is established in your CV as research. State plainly which of these, if any, you offer as clinical treatment (TMS, focused ultrasound, ketamine/esketamine, medication management, psychotherapy), at which location, and how a patient would access it. If the stimulation work is research-protocol-only, say exactly that and point readers to /research.html. Without this sentence, patients will assume they can be treated with TMS or focused ultrasound here.]
Credentials
Training & Background
Education
- MD–PhD — UCLA–Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP); PhD in Bioengineering
- Doctoral dissertation, 2020 — "Clinical Translation of Dynamic Optical Contrast Imaging for Label-Free Tissue Identification and Surgical Navigation in Head and Neck Oncology," University of California, Los Angeles
- Residency, Psychiatry — University of California, San Francisco; research track, completed with distinction in neuropsychiatry and interventional psychiatry
- Undergraduate — University of California, Los Angeles
- [Years — your CV gives a year only for the dissertation (2020). If you want graduation and residency years shown (e.g. "MD–PhD, 2013–2021" and "Residency, 2021–2025"), send the exact spans and I will add them to the lines above; otherwise delete this line.]
Certification & Licensure
- Specialty training — Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco (research track), completed with distinction in neuropsychiatry and interventional psychiatry. This is the residency training that underlies the board status below.
- Academic affiliations — Stanford University · University of California, San Francisco [APPOINTMENT TITLES — your CV lists these two affiliations but gives no title for either. Supply the exact appointment and department for each (e.g. "Clinical Instructor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University"), or delete this bracket and leave the affiliations standing on their own. Check with each department before publishing a title on a private-practice site.]
- [BOARD STATUS — do not publish until you confirm it. Your CV title line reads "Board Eligible Psychiatrist," which may be out of date. Replace this with exactly one of: (a) "Board-eligible in psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology," or (b) if you have passed and hold an active certificate, "Certified in Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (certificate valid through YYYY)." Send the wording plus your certificate date.]
- [STATE MEDICAL LICENSURE — list every state where you hold an active, unrestricted license, e.g. "Licensed physician — California." Tell me whether you want license numbers displayed (optional; patients can also verify you on the state board's site). If you intend to see patients by video, include every state in which those patients may be located, since licensure is what determines that.]
- [PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS — e.g. American Psychiatric Association, Clinical TMS Society, International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound. List only current memberships, or delete this line.]
- [NPI number and Medicare participation status (participating, non-participating, or opted out) — needed on this page or on /fees.html so patients know what they can submit for reimbursement. Delete here if it belongs on the fees page instead.]
Selected experience
During residency I supervised junior residents in the UCSF Bipolar Clinic and on the inpatient psychiatry services. Earlier, in the biomedical engineering laboratory at UCLA, I mentored undergraduate and medical students, several of whom went on to medical school and residency at UCSF and Stanford, including in otolaryngology–head and neck surgery. I also co-founded Sling Health LA, a student-run medical device incubator that brings medical, law, engineering, and business graduate students together on longitudinal device-development projects. My training was supported by an NIH Medical Scientist Training Program fellowship, and my work has been recognized with selection as a Paul & Daisy Soros Graduate Fellowship finalist and travel awards in focused ultrasound in psychiatry. The full record of research, publications, talks, and honors is on the research page.
Beyond the Office
A little more personally
[OPTIONAL — you gave no personal details, so nothing here is invented. If you want this section, write two or three sentences in your own voice: where you live, what you do outside of work, languages you speak with patients, community or teaching involvement. Patients frequently cite this section as the reason they felt comfortable reaching out. If you prefer a strictly clinical page, delete this entire section (the <section> block containing this paragraph).]
Wondering if we'd be a good fit?
[How a prospective patient should start — write one sentence. Say whether you offer a brief introductory phone call, how long it is, whether it is free, who takes it (you or staff), and how quickly you respond. Delete this line if you do not offer an intro call, and point to the contact form instead.]