Addressing The Back Pain Conundrum – Jim Eubanks, MD, DC, MS

Episode Introduction

Dr. Eubanks’ thoughts and statements on this episode do not reflect those of his employer, The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Department of Physical Medicine and Rehab. They are solely his opinions.

Dr. Eubanks is the first medical resident we have had on the show and for good reason. He has a tremendous amount of experience within the world of musculoskeletal and spine care given his masters degree in exercise science and rehabilitation as well as his doctor of chiropractic. Jim worked closely with a physiatrist during his time as a chiropractor and decided to take the step to become one himself. 

Since then, he has become a rising star in the world of back pain and spinal care and was recently given a chair on the clinical practice guideline committee for the North American Spine Society. Beyond his expertise in spinal care and back pain, Dr. Eubanks also loves giving back to the PM&R community by providing mentorship and guidance to medical students and residents through PMR Scholars.

This episode goes over EVERYTHING you need to know on back pain in a 1 hour distilled episode. We talk about why the care for back pain is so broken in the United States, what the current thoughts on back pain are, and what we can do moving forward. This episode is a masterclass in back pain so make sure to listen till the end!

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Show Notes

Episode Outline:

Question 1: Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you hope to accomplish in the future?

Question 2: Given your unique experiences and background, what does preventive medicine mean to you?

Question 3: How did you get into spinal care and back pain?

Question 4: Why did you decide to go from being a chiropractor to attending medical school and becoming a physiatrist?

Question 5: What is the current situation with how we deal with back pain and how did it get to be this way?

Question 6: Given that lower back pain is extremely prevalent and often self-resolving, when should the average person know to get it checked out? What should the know?

Question 7: How does posture relate with back pain? Are the related?

Question 8: How do we move towards better care for spinal and back pain?

Question 9: When it comes to patients that actually require surgery for their pain, is there any sort of prehabilitation that can be done to improve outcomes?

Question 10: What is the role of a physiatrist when it comes to spinal care? What can a physiatrist offer that’s different from a surgeon?

Question 11: How do we improve medical education at the medical school and resident levels to improve spinal care? What about from a policy standpoint?

Question 12: If you’re in a coffee shop and someone asks you how to get healthy, what do you tell them in 2 minutes?

Other:

Statement by Dr. McGill on his views on spinal flexion can be found here 

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