Back Pain (ACP Key Diseases)

For all their exposure to the problem, primary care physicians often have little formal education on the management of back pain. Most medical students are not required to take a rotation in physical medicine and rehabilitation. Additionally, and for good reason, most patients are not convinced that their family physician is the person to see for back problems and seek out specialist care as soon as practicable. Back pain is a complex tangle of social, psychological, physical, and medical factors that frustrates disease-orientated physicians and excites physical medicine and rehabilitation types. For this problem, diagnosis-treat-cure is supplanted by rehab strategies to minimize impairment, disability, and handicap. Physical medicine approaches to cure and rehabilitation approaches to quality of life are centerpieces of back pain management. The newest volume in the ACP Key Diseases series, Back Pain presents 40 chapters of vital information divided into five sections: Back Pain Basics; Acute, Subacute, and Chronic Back Pain; and Special Issues, including pregnant and elderly patients, and athletes and younger patients. Clinicians will find this an invaluable resource for successful back pain therapy.

Andrew J. Haig, M.D.

Andrew J. Haig, M.D. is tenured joint Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Surgery at The University of Michigan. His expertise spans clinical, education, research, and administrative aspects of health care.

Dr. Haig’s administrative career has focussed on program development and leadership. He developed and was the first medical director of The Center for Rehabilitation Services, a comprehensive inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation clinic at Theda Clark Regional Medicial Center, in Neenah, Wisconsin. Also in Wisconsin he was the developer and first co-director of The Novus Occupational Medicine Clinic. At the University of Michigan he lead development of the Interdepartmental Spine Program and served as its first medical director from 1989 to 2002.

His research has focussed on two areas—health care service delivery for chronic work disability, and damage to the back muscles. Dr. Haig’s research career began as a member of the University of Vermont’s influential back pain research group under John Frymoyer and Malcolm Pope. Funded by the NIH and others, his research has standardized EMG testing to diagnose spinal disorders, and has validated the effectiveness of multidisciplinary teams in assessing disability. He is an expert on Locked In Syndrome, a type of severe paralysis. As co-director of the $4 million Rehabilitation Engineering and Research Center for Ergonomics from the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research, he works closely with experts in ergonomics, occupational medicine, and public health.

The U of M Spine Fellowship, one of the best in the country, is under Dr. Haig’s direction. His students, residents, and fellows have received numerous awards for their work under his direction. He is on the editorial board of two medical journals and is editor of a soon to be released textbook on back pain sponsored by The American College of Physicians.