Pain is invisible and highly subjective—for physicians, overcoming these barriers requires interpreting the signs of pain through a patient’s actions and words. This can be a delicate process, since the next step a provider takes to relieve a patient’s pain can have long-term effects on their outcome.

Exploring the nuances of patient advocacy, Stephanie Vanterpool, MD, FASA, MBA, Pain Medicine Specialist, Anesthesiologist, and Director of Comprehensive Pain Services at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, has dedicated her career towards strategically empowering patients to advocate for themselves and towards educating clinicians outside of pain medicine to advocate for their patients’ pain.

In this episode of the Pain Matters Podcast, host Shravani Durbhakula, MD, MPH, MBA, and co-host Mustafa Broachwala, DO, are joined by Stephanie Vanterpool, MD, FASA, MBA to discuss how physicians can empower patients by listening to their needs to identify effective pain treatments.

Tune in to discover:

• Approaches clinicians can take to be a better advocates for patients in pain
• What physicians can do to avoid medical gaslighting
• How to balance patient autonomy and evidence-based medicine
• How to address pain in different cultural contexts

References

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