Jan 29, 2008 3:10 pm US/Eastern
Local Pain Care Center Takes NFL Approach
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
As millions of Americans suffer from chronic pain, a local center is using a whole new approach and a high-tech system that NFL players use to help ease patients' pain.
Lesley Correa has suffered from chronic pain ever since she injured her hip when she was just 12 years old.
"I've gotten older and my pain is getting increasingly worse for the past year and a half," Correa said. "I've been using a car, so I was really looking for relief."
That's why Correa came to the new Boston Paincare Center in Waltham, which combines several different aspects of pain care management in one place.
First doctors do a comprehensive state-of-the-art physiological and behavioral assessment to determine the best way to help patients.
"We want to find out where they are not functioning properly," said Dr. Donald Counihan with the Boston PainCare Center. "Our primary goal is to help restore function and help them with the pain as humanly possibly."
And one of the tools they're using to do that is a computerized rehabilitation system, which helps re-program the patient's body to work properly again.
It's the same system used by the Patriots and several other NFL teams.
Dr. Counihan explains, "Their brain has lost the ability to communicate with the injured joint. So we begin reeducating and retraining the joint so pain can go away so they can improve a patient's function."
Correa and other patients say they've seen a huge difference since they started the program.
She says, "They have been able to identify the problem area and how I can get relief from pain without surgery."
Patient Patti Duggan says, "When I first came, I was falling 10 to 12 times a day. I had no endurance and no strength in my lower extremities, and now I'm not falling at all."
The Paincare Center also has a state-of-the-art surgical center as well as programs to treat all types of conditions ranging from migraines to nerve pain to sleep disorders. For more information, log onto
www.bostonpaincare.com or call 1-781-647-PAIN (7246).
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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