Learning from Dr. Bradley Fullerton and the Collaborative Care Collective: How White Oak Pain Clinic Applies Advanced Techniques in Canada
- Xiao Yuan
- Aug 5
- 5 min read
A New Era of Pain Management
Chronic musculoskeletal pain affects millions of people across British Columbia. For some patients, many types of treatments provide only temporary relief, leaving patients frustrated and searching for lasting solutions. At White Oak Pain Clinic, we believe in treating the underlying causes of pain, not just masking the symptoms.
Our clinic specializes in advanced injection therapies, including platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and prolotherapy, to help patients in Vancouver and Burnaby find real, long-lasting relief from chronic pain conditions.
What Sets White Oak Pain Clinic Apart
Learning from the World's Leading Experts
This past June, our physicians (Dr. Xiao Yuan, Dr. Jeff Wang, Dr. Min Je Woo) attended the Collaborative Care Collective (C3) Annual Summit in Denver, Colorado. The C3 conference, held from June 27-30, 2025, brought together leading experts in pain management, with our team learning directly from pioneers like Dr. Bradley Fullerton.
But we didn't just attend as students. Our Medical Director, Dr. Xiao Yuan gave a presentation about her collaboration with the internationally recognized physiotherapist Diane Lee. The two of them shared fascinating clinical observations about how the human body responds to regenerative treatments targeting the fascia system.
Collaborative Clinical Observations That Reveal New Connections
Dr. Yuan and Diane Lee spent a year working closely together, carefully documenting clinical observations from a small group of patients. Through their collaborative case studies, they discovered something that had never been demonstrated before in pain management.
Their work together showed that regenerative treatments like prolotherapy and PRP can influence how your body moves and functions in unexpected ways. When they treated areas of damaged fascia (the connective tissue that wraps around muscles), they noticed changes that went far beyond the injection site.
In one particularly interesting case, they observed that injecting the thoracolumbar fascia as it wraps over the sacroiliac joint in the low back led to automatic improvements in shoulder blade positioning on the opposite side of the body. This suggests that treating one area of your body might help reduce pain in completely different areas.
Learning from the Best in the World
At the Collaborative Care Collective summit, our physicians learned directly from the pioneers of modern pain management, including:
Dr. Bradley Fullerton - The innovator behind the fascial approach we use at White Oak Pain Clinic. Dr. Fullerton's methods have transformed how we understand scapulothoracic fascia and its role in chronic pain.
Dr. Phillip Steele - One of the world's best in nerve hydrodissection
Dr. Tim Mazzola - Leader in regenerative medicine and hydrodissection techniques
Dr. Albert Kozar - Specialist in complex pain conditions
Diane Lee - World-renowned physiotherapist and movement expert
Gail Wetzler - Renowned manual therapist in visceral manipulation
Gregg Johnson - Leading physiotherapist in integrated care approaches
Dr. Min Je Woo, Dr. Bradley Fullerton, Dr. Xiao Yuan, Dr. Phillip Steele taking a break together at the conference
The Science Behind Our Success
Understanding Fascia: The Missing Link
Most traditional pain treatments focus on muscles, bones, or nerves. However, recent research shows that many chronic pain conditions actually stem from problems with the fascia - the thin layer of connective tissue that surrounds every muscle, organ, and structure in your body.
Think of fascia like a bodysuit that connects everything together. When fascia becomes damaged, torn, or loose in one area, it can affect how your entire body moves and functions. This is why you might have shoulder pain that actually starts from a problem in your lower back, or neck pain that's connected to your ribcage.
How PRP and Prolotherapy Target the Root Cause
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and prolotherapy are regenerative medicine treatments that help repair damaged fascia and other tissues.
Here's how they work:
PRP uses your body's own healing factors. We draw your blood from your vein and spin it in a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets, which contain natural growth factors that stimulate your body to heal itself. These concentrated platelets are then injected into damaged areas to accelerate natural healing.
Prolotherapy involves injecting a concentrated dextrose (sugar) solution that triggers controlled inflammation in damaged tissues. This "jumpstarts" your body's natural healing process, encouraging the growth of new, healthy tissue to replace damaged areas.
Understanding Dr. Bradley Fullerton's Fascial Approach
Dr. Bradley Fullerton's approach focuses on understanding how fascial injuries create widespread dysfunction throughout the body. At the C3 conference, he presented detailed analysis of scapulothoracic fascia, showing how problems in this connective tissue system can lead to various upper extremity conditions that traditional approaches often miss.
What makes Dr. Fullerton's method unique is the recognition that fascia doesn't work in isolation. His work demonstrates how the serrati fascial system connects scapular movement to trunk stability, and how the infraspinatus aponeurosis influences shoulder function in ways that weren't previously understood.
Dr. Fullerton is an innovative thinker who has combined concepts from several disciplines into his unique assessment approach. He is humble, curious, and an inspiration.
Why This Matters for Vancouver and Burnaby Patients
Living with chronic pain affects every aspect of your life - your work, your relationships, your sleep, and your mental health. Many patients feel hopeless, bouncing from one specialist to another without finding lasting relief.
Our approach, originally developed by Dr. Bradley Fullerton, and now enhanced through ongoing collaborative work like Dr. Yuan's partnership with Diane Lee, offers hope for patients who have tried conventional treatments without success. Dr. Fullerton's fascial approach focuses on understanding how connective tissue injuries create widespread dysfunction throughout the body.
By addressing the underlying biomechanical problems that cause pain, rather than just treating symptoms, we can help restore your body's natural ability to move and function properly. Dr. Yuan has successfully used these cutting-edge techniques to help patients whose pain hadn't improved with many other therapies. From chronic neck pain to persistent shoulder problems to low back pain, patients are finding relief that lasts.
The other physicians at White Oak Pain Clinic are applying the same approaches learned from Dr. Fullerton and other Collaborative Care Collective faculty, seeing meaningful improvements in their patients' conditions.
Learning and Growing in Pain Management
Through our participation in conferences like the C3 Summit and our collaborative work with leading experts in the field, White Oak Pain Clinic continues to learn from and contribute to advances in pain management for myofascial conditions.
This commitment comes from our focus on:
Evidence-based treatment whenever possible
Continuous learning from experienced practitioners
Collaboration with other healthcare professionals
Patient-centered care that looks for underlying causes of pain