Referring patients to the right people

Hi Derek and Michael,

I’m a primary doctor (in Chicago if it matters) and I was wondering if either of you had any advice about how to find practitioners I can trust to refer my patients to for help managing their MSK pain and injuries (Assuming they don’t want to consult with BBM, which I do recommend to them). Are there any organizations, types of degree programs, specific named philosophies that I can look for that would clue me in to them being more knowledgeable about pain science and less likely to nocebo my patients, instill kinesophobia etc. Or anything that I should look out for specifically to avoid? Right now I’ve just being going with trial and error, and have had much more bad results than good. Obviously if there were any specific people or groups you could recommend in Chicago that would be fantastic, but I certainly understand that you likely can’t. Any recs you could give would be very much appreciated. Thanks for everything.

  • JR

Hi JR,

If you’re from Chicago:

Entropy Physiotherapy. Sarah Haag and Sandy Hilton. You will not find two clinicians more involved and up to date in the chronic pain literature and management. Sandy is on a podcast called Pain Science and Sensibility. Affiliated with PT Inquest (Erik Meira and JW Matheson) and the NAF physiotherapy podcast (Adam Meakins)

Carol Courtney: University of Illinois-Chicago. Head of the Fellowship program. Up to date on the pain research.

I also sent you a PM

JR,

I will second what Matthew said regarding Sarah and Sandy at Entropy. I hold Sandy is extremely high regard when it comes to the current pain literature. That being said, I do not know how well equipped they are to handle any barbell athletes for any specific training. Sandy is extremely open to discussion though and will likely know people in the area that may be more fashioned to that particular subset. Most of us that read a lot all talk to each other and run in circles of people who like to argue/discuss the literature so Sarah and Sandy are great places to start.

As to the specific question of finding clinicians that stay up to date on the research, unfortunately I do not have any certifications that I hold in high regard. If you are looking for PT you are normally better off by searching for a PT with an OCS or SCS but that is only marginally better than none. I do not have either of those certifications and will likely never sit for them, but at least individuals who have taken those tests have had to do some independent learning.

http://aptaapps.apta.org/DirectoryofCertifiedSpecialists/default.aspx

Derek

Thank you both!