Dr. Alan Shih, Founder of Head to Toe Healthcare, PLC in Tucson, Arizona, is continuing his journey to learn and bring the latest innovations and ideas to his patients. He recently returned from the United Kingdom where he attended the 2023 World Orthopedics Conference. The conference was a joint event primarily with orthopedics and physical medicine clinicians from all around the world.
During the conference, a doctor from Mexico discussed the prevalence of peripheral nerve entrapment injuries in sports. In his personal experience as a medical professional, Dr. Shih has seen patients with nerve entrapments caused by sports, but he feels the general population has a much higher incidence of lower extremity nerve entrapments than most doctors realize. While there can be several causes of neuropathy, Dr. Shih cites nerve entrapment as a significant contributor to the vast number of people who suffer with numbness, tingling, burning, weakness and abnormal sensations.
During the conference, a doctor from Indonesia presented her data, which showed that steroid injection alone did not provide long term pain free effects for the study's back and neck pain sufferers. However, the combination of shock wave therapy and local corticosteroid improved patients' pain and daily activity levels for a longer time. She concluded that a multimodality regiment approach helped further improve chronic nonspecific neck and back pain for her patients to achieve their best quality of life.
While Dr. Shih has a clinical focus on the legs and feet, opposed to the neck and back, his experience is consistent with the doctor from Indonesia. He feels a multi-modality approach is more effective in improving neuropathy symptoms and improving the quality of life for his patients. Some people may contend that a singular approach would allow you to know the effect of each treatment, and this is how scientific experimentation is carried out.
Dr. Shih concurs that lab experimentation is performed by changing a single variable, but there is a synergy to be gained with multiple concurrent treatments. The analogy Dr. Shih often uses with his patients is based on the idea that if you'd like to get in great physical shape, you would use a multi-pronged approach of both cardiovascular and strength training, as well as a good nutritional diet. If you only chose to lift weights, while you would likely see some improvement, it's unlikely to compare to the combined fitness program.
Dr. Shih says he will continue to learn from providers in different parts of the world to educate himself on emerging treatments that he can use in his practice. The United States is often reluctant to adopt new treatment methods that are not the normal standard in this country. Dr. Shih believes there are different treatment approaches used in other countries that can potentially be implemented in the United States.
"It's important for doctors and medical practitioners in the U.S. to expand their education globally because there are so many healthcare providers worldwide doing amazing things," says Dr. Shih. "Even with the remarkable technology we have in this country, there are areas that we are falling behind, and I believe we have a great opportunity in the healthcare industry to combine the technologies we currently have with emerging and traditional practices to create more effective treatments."
According to Dr. Shih, by learning about new treatment methods in all medical specialties there is an opportunity to see how treatment practices that are intended for something such as shoulder ailments can be used to treat other issues like ankle and neck pain. In his pursuit to further his capabilities in helping his patients who suffer from neuropathy, Dr. Shih will continue his global travels in search of treatments that can potentially be integrated into the American healthcare system.
