Even when testing reveals an imperfection in the spine, a different issue may in fact be causing a patient’s discomfort. That is one reason why chronic back pain is notoriously difficult to treat.
William Abdu is director of DHMC’s Spine Center, which makes back care more coherent. (photo by Jon Gilbert Fox)
Dartmouth Medicine reports on what the Spine Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) is doing to help patients suffering back pain. At DMHC, treatment for back conditions depends not only test results but also on data on treatment outcomes, patient preferences, and input from multiple health-care disciplines.
The unified Spine Center is the key to rendering treatment that is more coherent for all involved. Its creation “centralized care in one spot,” orthopedic surgeon and Spine Center Director William Abdu says. “It’s a whole lot less confusing for people from the outside, as well as people internally, about what to do with spine patients—they send them to the Spine Center.”
Read the full story, published in the Fall 2011 issue of Dartmouth Medicine.