In 2014 Sidell & Cousins stated that “ People experiencing pain often report mood disturbances, including irritability, helplessness and depression. More complex cognitive responses can also develop, such as loss of belief in the ability to perform tasks and fear avoidance. These in turn can result in loss of employment, breakdown of family relationship, and loss of community status.”

Pain is a burden on the sick individual, his or her family and more generally speaking on society.  Not only that, the cost related to pain treatments is enormous (In the USA, more than the costs for cancer and heart diseases treatments combined).

Therefore it is critical to have an efficient strategy for treating all aspects of pain, which help the patients regain their life and functional capacity.

It is well-known that a progressive active rehabilitation program is much more effective in restoring functional capacity, return to work and reducing pain compared with passive forms of therapy.

There is also evidence that a multidisciplinary rehabilitation approach is more efficient than non-multidisciplinary approaches for rehabilitation.

Here at AMS we have built an ecosystem around this knowledge, acquired in decades of research.  We try to be a “one stop shop” for our patients, with a combined team of orthopedic & sports medicine physicians, rehabilitation and physiotherapists, occupational therapists & kinesiologists, so that we can approach an injury or ailment from multiple angles and offer our patient the most comprehensive care possible.

Our objectives are threefold:

to ensure that we are practicing the best and most recent in evidence based therapy:  by having our therapists participate regularly in continuing education programs and take at least double the amount of continuing education that is required by the professional orders, we aim to ensure that our team keeps abreast of any developments or new techniques in therapy.

to have unity and consistency amongst our treating staff:  which we achieve by requiring all of our therapists to be qualified in active treatment approaches such as The Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (the “McKenzie” Method ) and The Mulligan Concept.

to keep an open mind regarding the effectiveness for other approaches:  our team has Osteopaths and acupuncturists on board to assist us when it’s found to be appropriate.

A huge component in our Multidisciplinary approach is the occupational therapy department. While the previous therapies mentioned deal more with pain reduction, strength training and improvement in ranges of motion, the occupational therapy department’s emphasis is on functional recovery – a return to work and social life. When needed, a psychological intervention can take place with our staff psychologist that specializes in treating chronic pain, cases of domestic violence (IVAC) and so on.

When the case cannot be resolved by the means described so far, we can provide quick access to orthopedic surgeons and physiatrists in order to decrease waiting times for patients in need.

We constantly and consistently aim to get better in helping and answering our patients’ needs, so you can be sure that you and your patients are in good hands.

References and additional reading

  1. Guzmán, Jaime, et al. “Multidisciplinary rehabilitation for chronic low back pain: systematic review.” Bmj 322.7301 (2001): 1511-1516.
  2. Kankaanpää, Markku, et al. “The efficacy of active rehabilitation in chronic low back pain: effect on pain intensity, self-experienced disability, and lumbar fatigability.” Spine24.10 (1999): 1034-1042.
  3. Stathopoulos, Nikolaos, Zacharias Dimitriadis, and George A. Koumantakis. “Effectiveness of Mulligan’s Mobilization with Movement techniques on pain and disability of peripheral joints: A systematic review with meta-analysis between 2008–2017.” Physiotherapy (2018).
  4. Siddall, Philip J., and Michael J. Cousins. “Persistent pain as a disease entity: implications for clinical management.” Anesthesia & Analgesia 99.2 (2004): 510-520.
  5. Scascighini, L., et al. “Multidisciplinary treatment for chronic pain: a systematic review of interventions and outcomes.” Rheumatology 47.5 (2008): 670-678.
  6. HALLIDAY, MARK, et al. “Treatment Effect Sizes of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy for Pain and Disability in Patients With Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review.” journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical 49.4 (2019).
  7. Klaber Moffett, J., et al. “Randomized trial of two physiotherapy interventions for primary care neck and back pain patients:‘McKenzie’ vs brief physiotherapy pain management.” Rheumatology 45.12 (2006): 1514-1521.