Got Pain?

You’re not alone. Estimates put the number of Americans partially or totally disabled by chronic pain at 50 million, and according to the American Pain Foundation, the cost in terms of medical expenses, as well as lost income and productivity, is $100 billion annually. Misunderstood, ignored or not adequately treated-pain has not gotten its fair share of respect in the medical community until quite recently. And while family practitioners are most often the physicians called upon to handle pain, few have been given sufficient training in the specialty.

A feature in the May issue of Good Housekeeping names "35 Top Pain Centers” in the U.S. Working with Castle Connolly, publisher of the popular guide "America's Top Doctors,” the magazine set out to identify “cutting-edge pain centers all over the country, the types of pain each center specializes in and an exceptional practitioner at each clinic.”

One of those "Top 35" is the New Jersey Pain Institute, established in 1989 and jointly operated by UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. William R. Grubb, MD, DDS, associate professor of anesthesiology at RWJMS, is acting director. Other pain centers on the list include Johns Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic, The Cleveland Clinic, NYU Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

According to Grubb, the New Jersey Pain Institute has an outstanding team of trained professionals in this specialty, as well as a full arsenal of therapies to treat both acute and chronic pain. Fellows and rotating residents are trained in the center, ensuring that the next generation of New Jersey physicians will be better schooled in pain management than their predecessors were.