Patient access to evidence-based medicine and the best available care in the region was paramount in developing the UC Back, Neck, and Spine Center. As a collaboration within the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, the center includes UC Health subspecialists from across the health system focused on spine care: anesthesiology, integrative health, neurosurgery, neurology, neuroradiology, orthopedics, physical therapy, psychiatry and rehabilitation medicine.
The center was formed after UC Health and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine spent several years studying the delivery of back, neck and spine care to determine if a team approach might be more beneficial for patients and improve patient outcomes.
“UC Health has always been a leader in academic medicine, providing a level of care that other places in the region cannot. Now, we are collaborating with our teams of experts to develop integrated spinal care that is patient-centric, like our new neuroscience facility,” said Joseph Cheng, MD, the Frank H. Mayfield Chair of Neurological Surgery of the UC Department of Neurosurgery at UC College of Medicine and a UC Health physician. “Every patient’s injury and condition is unique, and every patient will receive a personalized approach from our comprehensive subspecialty faculty team of experts.”
The UC Back, Neck and Spine Center provides a multidisciplinary clinic at the new UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute outpatient building, making it easier for patients to receive care for a variety of spine and nerve problems, including surgical and non-surgical treatment, rehabilitation, pain management, integrative medicine and psychological care such as addiction management in patients with chronic pain.
“Back and neck pain can result from a variety of causes, from regular movements, such as simply bending over, to strenuous activity, trauma, aging or infection. Having a multi-specialty care team to be able to appropriately diagnose all ranges of spine and nerve problems and allows us to provide the best patient care available,” said Michael Archdeacon, MD, Peter J. Stern Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UC College of Medicine, and a UC Health physician. “We are all working together with the patient’s best interests in mind.”
The multidisciplinary approach provided at the UC Back, Neck and Spine Center enables specialists to review patient cases together and create individualized treatment plans based on the patient's diagnosis and personal medical needs – with an emphasis upon pursuing conservative options first prior to considering invasive treatments.