Mario Kovacevic, MD, FRCPC

About Dr. Mario

Dr. Mario Kovacevic is an anesthesiologist and interventional pain physician at Afiya Spine & Pain Institute. He is also an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and a staff anesthesiologist at Scarborough Health Network.

He completed medical school at McMaster University and anesthesiology residency at the University of British Columbia. Before medicine, he trained in mechanical and biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto, where his graduate work involved neuromodulation research.

His clinical work focuses on image-guided procedures for spine, joint, and nerve-related pain. He also has an interest in medical education and has helped develop anesthesia education resources used by trainees in Canada and internationally.

His goal is to help patients understand their options, set realistic expectations, and use procedures as one part of a broader pain-management plan.

Purpose of This Website

This website was created to help patients understand their pain and what to expect at the clinic.

Many pain procedures can sound more complicated or more dramatic than they are. The goal here is to explain them in plain language: why a procedure might be offered, what happens on the day of the appointment, what the procedure can reasonably help with, and what it cannot do.

The pages are also meant to make the clinic experience feel less uncertain. Patients should have a sense of the timing, the steps involved, the expected soreness afterward, the possible risks, and the next decision point after the procedure.

This is not meant to advertise a treatment or promise a result. Procedures are tools. Sometimes they help a great deal, sometimes they help partially, and sometimes they do not help. The aim is to give patients clear information so they can ask better questions, prepare for their visit, and understand how a procedure may fit into a larger plan that can include movement, rehabilitation, medication, pacing, sleep, and time.