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To make patients as comfortable as possible, the BWH Pain Management Center offers services that ease patients’ pain and help patients maintain quality of life.
As one of the only fully-integrated pain management centers in New England, the center is equipped to treat patients with a variety of interventions and services, including procedures, pharmacological management, psychological techniques and physical therapy.
“We want to offer strategies to help ease pain and to help patients cope with pain,” Robert Jamison, PhD, said. A psychologist, Jamison helps patients work on strategies for relaxation, among other techniques, to help manage ongoing stress.
“We can improve patients’ quality of life and help them adapt to their illnesses,” said Ajay Wasan, MD, MSc, a pain medicine physician and psychiatrist in the center. Some patients need only come to the center several times for treatment, while others battle chronic pain and seek the integrated services on a long-term basis. The center recently added acupuncture to its services, and expects to add massage soon.
In addition to clinical services, the center conducts research to improve practice. In one study, patients record how they feel at certain times of the day with handheld personal digital assistants. Physicians use these logs to measure pain and progress, rather than ask a patient how they felt several weeks later. “People tend to remember pain much better than relief,” said Edgar Ross, MD, medical director of the center. “There tends to be a negative slant on what’s been accomplished.”
In December 2004, the center moved from 75 Francis St. to a suite at 850 Boylston St. with five exam rooms, five procedure rooms, a large recovery area and office space. It treated 14,000 patients last year.
“Our new location allows for collaboration with the primary care practice, Rehabilitation Services and other services at 850 Boylston,” said Ilene Goldberg, administrator.
For more information, visit http://www.brighamandwomens.org/Anesthesiology/pmc/