curious about elective

[apellous]

I am a second year student and I am scheduling my rotations now. We only get one elective in our third year and I am think PM&R or radiology. I dont know a whole lot about PM&R. I have looked at a few web sites that are posted here but none really give me a good idea of what kinds of things PM&R docs are doing. i.e. procedures, pain mainagement, spinal injury. How are they helping these pts.


Any info to help me make this decision would be great

Thanx

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[drusso]

You can think of physiatrists as captains of ships. Someone's got to steer! People with severe injuries come to rehab hospitals still somewhat medically fragile, but far enough along in their recovery that they need to get their lives back together. All the therapists (PT, OT, speech, neuropsych, etc) work with them to help get back on their feet (literally and figuratively) and physiatrists direct the the rehab and make sure that no medical issues delay or impair their ultimate level of functioning. This is how it works in the inpatient world.

Outpatient: physiatrists basically have nonoperative orthopedic/neurology type of practices. Lots of pain syndromes, workman's comp issues, medico-legal disability evals, referrals for electrodiagnostic testing, etc. Some physiatrists are very aggressive about doing injections (pain, botox, phenol), some manage pumps (baclofen and pain meds), other do dorsal column stimulators. Others do manipulation. Most are affiliated with numerous oupatient PT clinics where they can refer patients for hands-on therapy.