FindADoc:
Health Care Providers for RSI Patients
Computer users and musicians who experience the aches and pains that may signal a
potentially dangerous Repetitive Strain Injury, or RSI, are always
advised to see a doctor without delay for evaluation and treatment.
But what if you don't have a regular doctor, or your health care provider
does not seem to know much, if anything, about the diagnosis and treatment
of R.S.I? Many persons now find themselves in this frightening situation.
This is a non-commercial, voluntary effort to address this problem
with list of specific
practitioner references and general suggestions. Most have been contributed by
RSI patients, and many more have been compiled from other sources. All sources
are explained at the start of the practitioner list.
If you HAVE received competent and knowledgable care for
RSI, please consider sharing information about your health care provider
with people who are in sore need of one. E-mail this information
(names, city, office phone numbers), and any other hints about
finding good RSI care, to me.
ONLY THE HEALTH CARE PROVIDER INFORMATION will be added to this list;
each contributors' name and e-mail address will be stripped out and
permanently discarded to maintain
privacy.
I can do NO verification of any kind on the suggestions I receive.
This file is ONLY a raw list of patients' recommendations and must be used
with the great caution one should bring to all health care decisions. A
listing here is NOT the same as a professional referral and I disclaim
any responsibility for decisions made on the basis of this information.
I STRONGLY SUGGEST you check any references here out with your local
medical or professional associations to confirm they are reputable
practitioners. Your library may also have professional listings
in their reference section.
Other Useful Information . . .
(Note: I'm aware that the following list of resources is getting very long and chaotic, but it is well worth your while to look through
it . . . there are quite a number of other doctor "lists" and indices and professional organization websites here that may go a long way towards helping
you find the caregiver you need.
- OTHER "RECOMMENDED DOCTOR" LISTS:
I've come across "patient recommended doctors" lists
recently (4/29/04) on forums concerned with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS), a condition that is more widely implicated
in repetetive injuries than most people realize. These lists are:
-
An excellent article for any patient is David Elfstrom's
How To Talk To Doctors. Read it before you go for
your appointment!
- an important new on-line service is available from
HealthConsult, Inc. . . . they write,
". . . patients can access medical information
about various medical conditions. The website's contents are updated daily
with the latest medical news, a new treatment breakthrough and new medical
trials section, a wellness facts and tips section, a patient information
center about various medical conditions and treatments and a large medical
question and answer database among other features. Please come and visit
us, there is no charge for accessing the information. For patients that
require a personalized medical answer from a physician there is a minimal
charge."
- To find details of over 26,000 UK consultants and over 34,000 GPs,
check at www.specialistinfo.com .
-
Rosemarie Atencio's advice
If You Need To See A Professional.
- A Fibromyalgia & Chronic Myofascial Pain Syndrome
website has a
Care Providers List of "doctors ... knowledgeable in the fields of FMS and MPS."
-
An excellent resource is the
The Association of Occupational & Environmental Clinics Web
page, which has many clinics listed. It's not certain they all
specialize in RSI but your odds of finding help there seem good.
-
An important group concentrating on performing arts injuries is the
Performing Arts Special Interest Group of the
Orthopaedic Section of the American Physical Therapy Association. This site includes
affiliated
clinics that deal with performing arts injuries.
-
The Classical music department of the WWW Virtual Library
used to have a list of
Medical Clinics for Performers (in the US and Canada)
.
-
American Osteopathic Association
-
- home pages of the
Los Angeles RSI Support Group ,
and
The Seattle Repetitive Injury Support Team ,
and The Virginia RSI Support Group.
-
On-line physician listing services are available from
DoctorNet ,
The Doctor Directory ,
DocsOnline,
and
Mednet-Mall .
-
A commercial service that locates doctors for you (at a considerable
fee) is
Best Doctors, Inc.
- Make hospital
comparisons on the basis of Medicare average
charges, average payments, average length of stay and
mortality percentages by diagnosis through
Healthmart .
- The North American Chronic Pain Association of Canada
has a Directory of Canadian Pain Clinics and Pain Specialists and Links to Directories of American Pain Clinics
as well as a great many other valuable links and articles concerning chronic pain.
-
The National Pain Foundation has " An on-line education and support community for persons in pain, their families and physicians."
-
Check on a doctor's qualifications through
Medi-Net Reports.
- Health care practitioner ratings and locators are found at
HealthGrades .
- Information on verifying a Californian physician's license is explained
here
.
- Frequently recommended for learning best body usage, Alexander Technique instructors have
a an Worldwide Professional Organization for finding teachers - not always in alphabetical order, though.
-
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) has developed the
CertifiedDoctor Web site that provide a verification and search service
for physicians. Includes Web links to a LOT of Member Boards too. They also have
this web site with what appears to be a similar function.
- Links to many state medical credential boards are at
National Organization For State Medical and Osteopathic Board Executives Docfinder
- The Federation of State Medical Boards maintains a Directory of State Medical Boards to permit you to learn more about your health care providers.
- The National Committee for Quality Assurance maintains a Recognized Physician Directory that lists
physicians meeting a quality of care in some specific areas of practice.
-
American Medical Association
Web site includes their
Doctor Finder to help find practitioners, including info
on specific individuals.
- The National Association of Myofascial Trigger Point Therapists
(includes practitioner directory.)
-
Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
Board of Registration in Medicine has developed a
Physician profile database of 27,000
physicians licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts.
-
Pain Net, Inc. includes pain treatment
resources for professionals and has a state-by-state listing of affiliated
pain medicine practitioners. Or call toll free at: 888.800.0PNI (888.800.0764)
-
The Southern California Orthopedic Institute
Web site offers a wide variety of informational resources on anatomy, sports injuries, and orthopedic procedures for
the education of the general public.
-
Hellerwork
is said to be an effective form of bodywork to treat RSIs; their site
includes a
practitioner list.
- Some buzz has been made recommending The McKenzie Method ,
and their website provides listings of their practitioners.
- Additional massage therapist listings can be found at
MassageTherapy.Com.
Or, contact the
American Massage Therapy Association at
847-864-0123, or the
National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and
Bodywork at 800-296-0664.
- Many important insights about pain and suffering at www.nosuffering.com , sponsored by the Pain Relief Center of Northern Arizona.
-
- Excellent advice at Breaking the Pain/Stress Cycle .
- Look up
chiros at Chiropractor-Finder.
- Similarly, there's "find a chiropractor" .
- UK residents can search for Physiotherapists in the UK. Try
selecting for specialists in "ergonomics".
-
A list of Rolfing practitioners in the
USA and
worldwide
can be found at the
Guild for Structural Integration.
-
The National Academy Of Pain
Management Professionals ; lists M.D.'s and chiropractors and other professionals.
-
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
provide a number of informational and provider-location resources on their site.
- The Hand THerapy Certification Commission maintains a
List of certified hand therapists.
- Some persons report positive results with
The Bowen Technique: find a practitioner
through their website.
- Dr. Richard J Sanders explains Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
and offers both literature and a phone number to call.
- If you are diagnosed with ulnar nerve problems, read about
these resources before
undergoing surgery.
The Indiana Hand To Shoulder Center has a very
nicely done Web site relevant to upper extremity injuries, including videos of procedures.
- The
Performing Arts Special Interest Group of the American Physical Therapy Association has a list of affiliated
clinics
-
NEUROMUSCULAR DISEASE CENTER of Washington University School of Medicine.
- Acupuncture is generally recognized to be useful for pain relief: to look into it,
spend some time at Acupuncture.Com . New: a website with
practitioner directory, from the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture.
-
Vocalists and voice-computing users may be interested in
VOX CURA voice care specialists.
- Australians should check the RSI & Overuse Injury Association of the Australian Capital Territory .
- Good information on chronic pain treatment is on the Web page of
the
American Society for Action on Pain
.
- http://www.tellmeabouttos.com/index.htm has many resources for
people with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome including on-line forum, chat,
doctor list, and more.
- Tips for the Independent Medical Examination (IME) in an Injury Claim
- Find Worker's Rights Clinics in southern California.
- Dealing with RSI means wading through a lot of confusing medical
terminology. See this
On-Line Medical Dictionary.
In addition, you may find good background information in the on-line
Merck Manual of Medical Information
, and at
MedTerms.com
- When getting evaluated for insurance or worker's comp., you may encounter medical
documents with "ICD-9" codes categorizing your condition. If you want to know what
these codes mean, see
ICD-9 Search or
International Classification of Functioning,
Disability and Health
Some general health reference websites:
AllRefer Health - Comprehensive and credible health information on more than 4000 topics.
- People with chronic, difficult-to-treat pain such as RSI frequently resort to
alternative medical treatment. There are many helpful alternative
therapies, but there are also unfortunately a great many others that are either
worthless, harmful, or even fraudulent. An excellent resource to help sort
out which is which is
QuackWatch. Check it out.
Similarly, there are a lot of nutritional supplements touted for treating RSI, and some may be useful, but
because of lax U.S. regulations it's up to you to make sure you're actually getting what you pay for.
Do your checking at Consumer Labs . Note that
they do not certify that approved supplements do what is claimed for them! They are simply certifying that they contain what they say they contain, in the amounts they claim, and without unlisted contaminants, and in the "Wild West" of supplement marketing, that's not something you can take for granted.
Go to the RSI Page
or the
Musicians Injuries Page.
Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln / RSI FindADoc Web Page /
Paul Marxhausen
