Having practiced Orthopedic Surgery for the past few decades, I can say with some authority that the most common presenting complaint of orthopedic patients is pain of some sort—pain from fractures, arthritis, infection, and a myriad of other causes. In general, the role of the orthopedist is diagnosing the source of the pain and treating that source. Over the past several years, however, we have seen pain emerge as a disease entity where treatment of the pain is the primary goal.
Pain management has emerged as a subspecialty from, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology and anesthesiology, and its growth has been nothing short of explosive. As with any rapidly expanding field, new technology both diagnostic and therapeutic has appeared in leaps and bounds and as with any such meteoric growth, it is difficult to tell the worthwhile from the worthless for both the practitioner as well as the patient, especially when desperate patients and large amounts of money are involved.
This is the setting of my latest work, The Pain Doc.
Pain management has emerged as a subspecialty from, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology and anesthesiology, and its growth has been nothing short of explosive. As with any rapidly expanding field, new technology both diagnostic and therapeutic has appeared in leaps and bounds and as with any such meteoric growth, it is difficult to tell the worthwhile from the worthless for both the practitioner as well as the patient, especially when desperate patients and large amounts of money are involved.
This is the setting of my latest work, The Pain Doc.