Back Pain Relief - A Multidisciplinary Approach

At the Spine Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a staff of orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, physiatrists, anesthesiologists, specialists in pain management, and other health care practitioners works together to help patients whose complaints range from "I hurt my back, putting in this year's tulip bulbs," to "I've had chronic back pain for years," to patients who've been having severe lower back pain treatment and even spinal cord injury.

At or in close proximity to Puget Sound Sports and Spine Physicians in Seattle are two spine surgeons, a psychologist specializing in the effects of pain on mood and function, a physician who is board certified in pain management, a physical therapist, and an occupational therapist.

If we're fortunate, such clinics could be the wave of the future. More and more often, multidisciplinary programs such as these, with physicians organized by field of concern rather than by specialty of approach, are allowing the emphasis to remain on healing and relieving lower back pain and spinal disease and all of its symptoms rather than on methods of diagnosis and treatment that isolate only one part of what is usually a complex problem. With a variety of physicians joining as colleagues to treat patients in the most appropriate way, patients are more likely to be to get that much needed lower back pain relief.