Dr. Merz-Herrala is a physician in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Emergency Medicine. He provides pain and emergency care with UCSF’s Acute Pain Service, Pain Clinic, and the Emergency Department at San Francisco General Hospital, as well as at Bayfront Urgent Care.

His practice emphasizes continuity and collaboration to ensure that each patient receives an accurate diagnosis, timely treatment, and coordinated multidisciplinary follow-up. This includes shared care planning with Rehabilitation, Pain Pharmacy, Pain Psychology, and surgical teams when appropriate. He performs nerve blocks, radiofrequency ablations, epidurals, blood patches, neurolysis, and neuromodulation procedures, including the placement of peripheral nerve stimulators.

Academically, he focuses on improving care quality and efficiency through system design, informatics, and the safe use of artificial intelligence. His goal is to extend evidence-based treatments to the patients who would benefit most while reducing loss to follow-up and preventable suffering. He aims to strengthen care transitions across primary care, urgent care, the emergency department, and inpatient hospital settings.