Alan Kaye, MD, PhD: The Intersection of Pain and Rheumatology

Due to inflammation in the joints and the body attacking joints and muscles, many rheumatic conditions come with pain experienced by the patient.

It is important to keep abreast of the evolution of pain treatment and techniques like interventional pain management can be used.

In every community now, there are American Society of Interventional Pain-affiliated specialists, and rheumatologists, regardless of location, can go on the website and find 1 of the 5000 members to connect with, Alan Kaye, MD, PhD, of the LSU Health School of Medicine, said in a recent interview with HCPLive®.

There are various rheumatologic diseases and for many of them, there are a lot who have pain.

“We don’t want to be practicing in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s,” Kaye said.

While Kaye’s approach is interventional medicine, other therapies exist rather than opioids, and there are ways to connect to experts who can help guide rheumatologists to the best possible care for a patient experiencing pain.

“These people should be your partners for pain management of these very complicated rheumatologic patients,” Kaye concluded.