- Joined
- May 3, 2005
- Messages
- 4,238
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The dark clouds of insurer incursion into physicians practice, reimbursement concerns, charlatanism, and lack of any meaningful accepted advances in the field of pain medicine can create frustration and a nihilistic despair in older pain physicians. But those issues were not present yesterday nor an afterthought as I first hand observed and interacted with some of the brightest young physicians I have yet met at a conference. In particular, George, one of our own here on SDN, demonstrated an encyclopedic knowledge of ultrasound techniques, approaches, and tricks that I had never previously heard of, in spite of my 5 year experience in musculoskeletal US and continued training in the technique. The inventions that were toys to us to be learned as we practiced or were of minor importance in the daily practice of musculoskeletal medicine and pain, were shown to be extremely valuable when coupled with a profound understanding of anatomical nuances, physiology, and pathophysiology as demonstrated by a true master. If George is a measure of the current generation of pain physicians finishing residency, those of us that have fought the battles of a new specialty over the past several decades can rest easy with the knowledge our patients will be in excellent hands of those young physicians that will eclipse the accomplishments of the old guard many times over, and provide patients extraordinary diagnostic and therapeutic care. Perhaps the future is not so bleak after all.
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