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Who are we at the INTEGRATIVE PAIN CENTER of ARIZONA (IPCA)?
The Integrative Pain Center of Arizona treats the entire spectrum of painful diseases. Our clients range from people with recent onset of a painful condition who expect to fully recover, to people dealing with chronic pain; from athletes to the elderly. Our approach is tailored to meet the needs of the individual, to optimize health and wellbeing.
For all clients, our in house expertise in anesthesiology, family medicine, neurology, occupational medicine, orthopedics, pain medicine, and pain psychology are integrated with the best of the community's resources in physical therapy, alternative/complementary medicine, surgical treatment and more, as needed, to assure that all appropriate diagnostic and therapeuric approaches are made available; to help our clients make the best choices. Click on this link to see staff bographies.
Who can benefit from a referral to IPCA?
We work with patients of all ages, including children, who are experiencing recent onset or chronic pain related to:
1. Arthritis: Inflammation of joints
2. Recent onset or chronic Back Pain/Sciatica: Muscle strain, nerve damage, muscle loss, osteoporosis, herniated disk or other sources
3. Complex regional pain syndrome: Intense, long-lasting nerve injury with pain typically in an arm or leg
4. Endometriosis: Abnormal growth of the lining of the uterus, which causes pelvic or abdominal pain
5. Fibromyalgia: Generalized pain felt in the muscles and around joints; often described as "aching all over"
6. Headaches
7. Interstitial cystitis: Pressure, pain, and tenderness around the bladder
8. Irritable bowel syndrome: Pain, bloating, gas, and diarrhea or constipation
9. Facial pain: Dental, nerve, or joint problems
10. Recent onset or chronic Neck Pain: Muscle strain, nerve, or joint problems
11. Overuse injuries: Often in hands and wrists from computer use or repetitive motions
12. Pelvic floor pain: Discomfort in the pelvic muscles
13. Peripheral neuropathy: Tingling, numbness, and pain in the hands and feet
14. Postherpetic neuralgia: Nerve damage resulting from a viral infection
What do we do?
We have put together the mix of experts needed to help our patients finds the answer to the three most commom questions: What is causing the pain? What options are there to help me? Where can I get the best treatment? We offer the more common treatments, and also the latest treatments for a wide variety of painful conditions. We are also doing research in new and emerging pain treatments, Click on this link to see more about research at IPCA.
- Precision diagnosis whenever possible – an accurate diagnosis is the key to effective treatment
- Make sure the painful disease is treated optimally. For example, when a patient has painful nerves from diabetes (diabetic neuropathy), good control of the diabetes is important to control the pain.
- Prevention – help patients understand how to keep the painful disease from recurring or getting worse!
- Palliation of pain (often referred to as "Pain Management")– when appropriate we offer medication management; and also injections, complementary and alternative medicine strategies, and more to control pain that cannot be eliminated through treatment of the painful underlying disease process.
- Evaluation of the psychosocial factors that can aggravate pain, and coaching of patients to tech them how to keep the pain from overwhelming their lives.
- Coordination of care among the different specialists and primary care team. Coordination of efforts with physical rehabilitation specialists, surgeons, and complentary/alternative care, for example.
We offer a truly integrated multidisciplinary team-based approach - an approach that has been successfully applied to many types of medical problems and which we find works extremely well for diagnosis and treatment of painfull diseases as well. It takes us beyond treating the problem to helping patients optimize their health.
Clinical Values
- Patient centered care: Understand the patient's situation from their perspective and the factors that shape the patient's response to their diagnosis, present all reasonable treatment options, and help the patient make the right choices - for them.
- Know the Evidence: Strive to integrate evidence derived from listening and understanding with published medical evidence to deliver the best possible treatment recommendations.
- Clinical Integration: Coordinate the efforts of the various healthcare providers involved in diagnosis and treatment of the patient - this value is so crucial to improving outcomes and reducing health care costs that it appears in IPCA's name.
- Education and communication: of the patient and their healthcare team so that they understand what is happening and can participate effectively in decision-making.
- Consistency: In the use of various medical resources, particularly high technology/high expense or high risk resources.
- Safety: Of our patients and our staff.
Organizational Values
- Strive to create a Learning Organization: So that we may respond effectively to the varied needs of our individual patients, our colleagues, our staff, and to change in the healthcare environment.
- Transparency: We want it to be easy those within and outside the program (patients, providers, and insurance companies) to understand why we do what we do and what outcomes we achieve.
- Efficiency: in our use of healthcare, healthcare technology, and administrative resources
- Leadership: To serve as a model for how we might heal the healthcare system from within - this means being active in community outreach, clinical research, and peer education.
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