He earned his Bachelors degree at the University of Pennsylvania, with a major in the Biological Basis of Behavior. He completed his medical school training at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he was selected to Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honor society. He completed his PM&R residency and a fellowship in neuromuscular disease at Thomas Jefferson University. He then joined the full time faculty in the department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Jefferson where he practiced for nine years. It was there that he developed an interest in chronic pain. He studied with Dr David Simons, the father of myofascial pain and trigger point diagnosis and treatment.