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The Best Referrals to PM&R for Back Pain are the Early Ones, says AAPM&R President-Elect DJ Kennedy, MD
Grace Halsey
Video
There is no precise formula for calculating when a patient with back pain is a candidate for referral to physical medicine and rehabilitation but there is a set of basic principles that physiatrist DJ Kennedy, MD, says accounts for the majority of patients referred to him by primary care clinicians.
In a recent conversation with Patient Care, Kennedy, president-elect of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, outlined those and discussed the essential synergy between PCPs and PM&R.
DJ Kennedy, MD, is president-elect of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and professor in and chair of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville, TN, where his practice focuses on nonoperative and interventional spine care. He has served as a senior editor for the journal PM&R, on the editorial board for Pain Medicine, and as a deputy editor for The Spine Journal. Kennedy also is current president of the Spine Intervention Society.
