We're excited to share some big news from White Oak Pain Clinic! In August 2024, our team learned some cutting-edge and amazing new ways to help people who have chronic muscle, nerve, and other musculoskeletal pain.
Learning New Things from Expert Teachers
We invited Dr. Phillip Steele, a leading pain-management doctor from the United States, to teach our team in a private 3-day course. He showed us new ways to use ultrasound imaging to find exactly where pain is coming from. Dr. Steele is known as one of the best in the world in using ultrasound for the brachial plexus nerves and he was a fantastic teacher.
The workshop was also enriched by the participation of Diane Lee, a world-renowned physiotherapist. In a very rare opportunity, she and Dr. Steele checked out three patients whose stubborn pain was not improving with our treatments. We all learned from each other's expertise and found new ways of helping these patients!
It was truly humbling to learn from these two, who are giants in their fields. They were enthusiastic teachers with inquisitive minds. It has been 7 month since the course and from using the new knowledge and techniques we learned, we have definitely noticed improved outcomes for some of our patients who previously had stubborn pain.
Finding the Real Source of Pain
Sometimes pain isn't just about one spot in your body. During the course, we found something really interesting. We saw that a patient's neck injury was affecting the way her lower back moved. As far as we know, this was the first time anyone has discovered this connection! Another patient's shoulder was weak because of a problem in their hip. This shows how pain in one part of your body can cause trouble somewhere else.
Why This Matters for Our Patients
Our team spent three full days learning these new skills. We learned how to:
Use ultrasound machines to give us better clues on where your pain is coming from
See our blog post about our premium high-resolution ultrasound machines
Find hidden problems that other practitioners might miss
Use nerve hydrodissection and PRP/prolotherapy treatments in the exact right spot to fix the root cause for pain
Innovative Ways of using PRP (platelet-rich plasma) and Prolotherapy
When we do expensive treatments like PRP (platelet-rich plasma), we need to make sure we maximize the benefit from each treatment. The new skills we learned from this workshop lets us use prolotherapy and PRP in a more powerful way by injecting the spots that truly matter.
Is someone's tennis elbow pain caused by poor control of their shoulder blade movements? We can figure that out and help fix it.
Is someone's rotator cuff pain caused by a chronic injury at their low back? We can figure that out and help fix it.
Is someone's low back pain caused by a chronic injury at their neck? We can figure that out and help fix it.
By adding these skills, we are bringing higher quality care to those who need prolotherapy and PRP treatments in Vancouver, Burnaby, and nearby areas.
We Keep Learning to Help Our Patients Better
Even though we've learned these new skills, we know there's always more to learn about helping people with pain. We're excited to use what we've learned to help people feel better and to continue learning even more.
Very few doctors in Canada know how to look at pain the way we do. We add innovative and cutting-edge treatments onto traditional techniques. We can see how different parts of a person's body works together, which helps us treat the real cause of pain, not just the spot that hurts.
What We Can Help With
Before this workshop, we were already one of the leading clinics for treating soft-tissue pains in the Vancouver and Burnaby area. Now, our doctors can help with many kinds of pain even better than before:
Neck pain and whiplash
Shoulder pain
Lower back pain
Pain from nerve entrapments (pinched nerves)
Pain from chronic muscle tears
The team at White Oak Pain Clinic will do our best to help you feel better!
Comments