This Doctor Is Changing How Chronic Pain is Treated.

As the opioid crisis becomes an epidemic, Dr. Ramis Gheith is transforming the options of healing.

The opioid epidemic is ravaging the nation. Millions of deaths have been attributed to the crisis. Different states such as Missouri, Tennessee and Ohio are taking it upon themselves to combat the epidemic through various initiatives. Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio says Ohio is in a current crisis and points to the fact that the issue with opioids began almost twenty five years ago with doctors introducing opioids to patients as a way to manage chronic pain.

In an ABC interview, Gov. Dewine stated that, “They (opioids ) were very, very addictive. In spite of that fact, the drug companies kept telling primary care physicians who were advising their patients and prescribing for the patients these drugs were not very addictive.” DeWine blamed the introduction of the “wonder drugs” as “the reason Ohioans seek illegal drugs when they can no longer obtain prescribed opiates.” He blames physicians for overlooking how addictive the pain meds were and are.

One doctor in Missouri agrees and has been taking a proactive approach in how he treats and manages chronic pain. Dr. Ramis Gheith is an expert and leader in the field of Interventional Pain Management and Neuromodulation. Dr. Gheith is the founder and medical director of the Interventional Pain Institute. Dr Gheith shared that during his studies, residents were trained to be more interventional in their training but when he graduated and entered into the field, this was not the case.

Dr Ramis Gheith is changing how chronic pain is treated.

“Hospitals were tying their incentives and bonus structure to the patients pain scores. So if a patient reported a high pain score and low satisfaction rate because of their high pain score then the physicians were incentivised to give them more opioids to bring down their pain score and give them more satisfaction. This led to a vicious cycle of patients being discharged from hospital with large doses of opioids. Large doses of opioids can get a patient dependent within a week,” explained Dr. Gheith. Being in interventional pain management, Dr. Gheith recognized these faults…