Description

Despite pain being one of the first attempts at "medicine" by early humans, pain as a medical discipline is relatively young.  Today on Health Is On The Way we are joined by pain physician Dr. Mihir Kamdar from Massachusetts General Hospital's Cancer Pain Clinic to discuss:

• What pain is.
• The important role pain plays as an alarm system for injuries to our body.
• Why pain is connected to our fear and anxiety centers in our brains.
• How mood impacts pain for patients.
• Why for some people pain can become chronic or persistent, even after the underlying injury has healed.
• How multi-modal treatment models address not just the physical but also the  psycho-social needs of pain patients.
• The fact that true multi-modal pain care is inaccessible to most Americans and how digital health programs like Fern Health can scale to help solve that.
• How medical professionals have shifted the focus from patient pain scores to quality-of-life metrics in response to the Opioid crisis.
• The ripple impact unresolved pain can have on patient's familes, social circles, employers and society.

About Our Guest

Dr. Mihir Kamdar graduated from the Emory University School of Medicine, then completed an Internal Medicine Residency at Brigham & Women's Hospital. From there, Dr. Kamdar completed a fellowship with Harvard Palliative Medicine and a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Anesthesia Pain Medicine fellowship. Following these experiences, Dr. Kamdar became a Staff Attending, Palliative Care and Anesthesia Pain Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) where he is now an Associate Director, Palliative Care Division, Department of Medicine, and Director of Cancer Pain Clinic and Attending, Palliative Care and Anesthesia Pain Medicine at MGH. In addition, Dr. Kamdar is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  

This episode is not medical advice nor does MGH or Dr. Kamdar endorse any treatment or program like Fern Health mentioned in the episode.  Please consult your own medical professional for your medical needs.