Francisco M. Torres, MD

The ethical dilemma of accessible parking permits

July 7, 2024Jul 7, 20242

As a pain management physician, I often receive requests to authorize or renew patients' accessible parking permits. These usually are routine, but not always. One morning, a patient, whom I'll refer to as Steve, came into my clinic. Steve was…

As a pain management physician, I often receive requests to authorize or renew patients’ accessible parking permits. These usually are routine, but not always. One morning, a patient, whom I’ll refer to as Steve, came into my clinic.

Steve was mainly a healthy man in his 40s. He had had chronic pain since an accident on a construction job site several years ago. He had successfully filed for disability, with a …

30 years in pain management: Transforming lives beyond opioids

June 18, 2024Jun 18, 2024

Over thirty years as a physician, I have proudly and intentionally developed my subspecialty in pain management. As an interventional physiatrist, it is my chosen calling to improve the quality of life of people in pain and help them get moving again. I’ve had the privilege of overseeing many remarkable recoveries, including those by patients who had little hope when they first came to my office. Though this has been …

Reviving humanity in medicine: Why doctors must embrace the human art of healing

May 27, 2024May 27, 2024

An excerpt from Beyond Diagnosis: Perspective in Medicine and the Human Experience. As my career advances, I have been reflecting on this increasing standardization and what sometimes seems to be a dehumanization of medicine in the United States. While technology…

An excerpt from Beyond Diagnosis: Perspective in Medicine and the Human Experience.

As my career advances, I have been reflecting on this increasing standardization and what sometimes seems to be a dehumanization of medicine in the United States. While technology has the potential to help us bring humanity back to the forefront of medical practice while also improving diagnosis and care, much of the human element has been lost

…

Fulfilling fatherhood and a thriving medical practice: my story

April 23, 2024Apr 23, 2024

I started having children towards the end of my medical school. By the time I became a resident, I already had two young boys. My wife was also a pathology resident at that time. We worked hard and were fortunate to have parents who helped us occasionally. However, we still missed out on a lot when my family relocated to Florida; my sons began their first years in school while …

Unlocking compassion: lessons from a prison clinic

April 4, 2024Apr 4, 2024

The healing potential of human interaction should always be considered, particularly when practicing medicine. Early in my medical career, I worked in the electromyography laboratory at Charity Hospital, Louisiana State University. During my time there, I saw an astonishing variety of patients. Among other things, we were the hospital of choice for the nearby Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, or “The Alcatraz of the South.” This prison was infamous for housing …

From pain management to Port au Prince: a doctor’s journey in disaster relief

February 15, 2024Feb 15, 2024

As medical doctors, we think we can help alleviate physical suffering in almost any situation. When the 2010 earthquakes shattered Haiti's capital, I felt compelled to help. I had extensive pain management experience and training as a physiatrist. I thought…

As medical doctors, we think we can help alleviate physical suffering in almost any situation. When the 2010 earthquakes shattered Haiti’s capital, I felt compelled to help. I had extensive pain management experience and training as a physiatrist. I thought I was ideally suited to lend a hand. At the time, this all seemed obvious. But I had never been in a disaster zone before, which made me hesitant.

Still, my …

A intern’s journey in delivering tough diagnoses

February 6, 2024Feb 6, 2024

I was an intern who had recently graduated from medical school with little hands-on experience when the patient signaled me to his bedside. Initially, I did a double-take, wondering if the man would be asking for me. I glanced anxiously at the morning rounds as they hurried to the next patient. I’d just watched my attending physician present this patient’s case, speaking about him as though he weren’t there. The …

Lessons from treating a transgender patient

January 18, 2024Jan 18, 2024

I was recently reminded that you always learn something from your patients, no matter how long your medical profession is. I was reminded of this when I had the opportunity to treat a young person in transition. I reviewed the chart before walking into the exam room. Among other things, it listed the patient’s chief complaint (i.e., in this case, lower back pain), age of nineteen, female sex, and a …

Drugs and prescribing

Ozempic: miracle drug or a band-aid for obesity?

December 16, 2023Dec 16, 2023

An excerpt from Dr. T's Drop the Fat Diet: 12 Steps to Leaner You Forever. Semaglutide, a medication often marketed as Ozempic, Wegovy, or Rybelsus, has gained immense popularity in recent years. This is especially true in an age where…

An excerpt from Dr. T’s Drop the Fat Diet: 12 Steps to Leaner You Forever.

Semaglutide, a medication often marketed as Ozempic, Wegovy, or Rybelsus, has gained immense popularity in recent years. This is especially true in an age where diabetes and obesity are on the rise. The medication is being seen as a panacea for effortless weight loss. Some doctors and activists have hailed it as a miracle drug …

Christian Youssef & Francisco M. Torres, MD

Debating the role of psychiatric assessments in medical decisions

September 26, 2023Sep 26, 20232

I recently had an incident involving a long-time patient. This particular encounter proved to be challenging. The patient had chronic pain for years and had already exhausted all conventional treatment options. Ironically, he was otherwise healthy and fit. His recalcitrant…

An SCS is an implantable device with two electrode leads connected to a battery-powered pulse generator. …

Patient respect in medicine: Ensuring well-being and trust

August 10, 2023Aug 10, 20232

Treating patients with respect and dignity is essential to the medical profession. This is true even when the patient lies unconscious in the operating room. It seems unnecessary to stress the importance of creating a secure and comfortable environment to ease the patient’s anxiety and stress and develop confidence. Respect is also crucial to promote successful outcomes. By prioritizing these values, medical professionals can ensure that patients feel valued and …

Optimize your knee injury recovery without surgery

July 24, 2023Jul 24, 2023

Recently, growing attention has been given to the fact that some types of surgery may be overrated. This article succinctly summarizes the situation, citing dozens of studies showing that some orthopedic surgeries popular in past decades had no better results…

This issue is deeply personal to me. In 2020, during the pandemic, I sustained an injury to my left knee, experiencing severe pain, swelling, and loss of …

Felix S. Linetsky, MD & Francisco M. Torres, MD

Finding hope and relief: a physical therapist’s journey with chronic pain and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS)

May 19, 2023May 19, 2023

The day Ann entered my clinic, I had already been practicing pain management for over ten years. A 40-something physical therapist, she had a warm smile, a positive attitude—and chronic pain in every part of her back. Twenty-five years earlier,…

Twenty-five years earlier, Ann had been inspired to go into physical therapy to help her family members who suffered from severe chronic pain to the point of disability. However, to her dismay, upon graduating …

Combining academic medicine and private practice: a success story

February 26, 2023Feb 26, 2023

In the United States, physicians are typically categorized as either academics or private practitioners. However, a case can be made that it is possible to construct a career path that incorporates both professional avenues. I was put in an excellent position to realize this during my fellowship at LSU, which structured some parts of its community medicine program in a way that resembled private practice.

I enjoyed my experience as a …

Why taking risks is worth it: a doctor’s journey from uncertainty to opportunity

January 28, 2023Jan 28, 2023

There were no smartphones when I was a medical resident in the late 80s in Puerto Rico. During my last year, while waiting for a lecturer to arrive, I grabbed a medical journal from the conference room table to kill some time. I flipped through the pages, skimming the titles of the articles and looking at some of the advertisements. When I was about to put the journal down, I …

Health technology

How technology is transforming medicine and making distance healing a reality

January 8, 2023Jan 8, 2023

My first job as a "real" doctor was in 1991. During one of those early days in my career, one of my coworkers — a woman who worked in reception — approached me for help. Even then, I could recognize…

My first job as a “real” doctor was in 1991.

During one of those early days in my career, one of my coworkers — a woman who worked in reception — approached me for help. Even then, I could recognize a look of desperation. It reminded me of the look I saw in my sister when all she could do to lessen the pain she had suffered for so long was …

Not listening carefully to a vulnerable patient can become a matter of life or death

November 7, 2022Nov 7, 2022

Paula came to my office on a Monday afternoon, a few months after burying her husband. She and John had been inseparable. They were both my patients, so I knew John had spent the last six months battling lung cancer. They had been married forty-five years when John died. I sincerely offered Paula my condolences on that Monday afternoon. I could tell she was in pain and shared how she …

We cannot ignore nutrition’s impact on both pain and obesity

October 9, 2022Oct 9, 2022

An excerpt from Epigenetics and the Psychology of Weight Loss: How to Lose More Weight with Less Effort. We know that people with chronic pain are more likely to be obese; but does this happen because people with chronic pain…

An excerpt from Epigenetics and the Psychology of Weight Loss: How to Lose More Weight with Less Effort.

We know that people with chronic pain are more likely to be obese; but does this happen because people with chronic pain struggle to exercise and suffer from a high load of stress hormones which promote stress eating, or does it happen because obesity causes more wear and tear on joints, which …

Are we too scared to talk to our patients about their weight?

September 4, 2022Sep 4, 2022

Talking about weight isn't easy. Case in point, I was scheduled to perform five back-to-back fluoroscopically guided procedures. This was not unusual, but all my scheduled patients happened to be seriously overweight. Excess fat and skin made it difficult to…

Talking about weight isn’t easy. Case in point, I was scheduled to perform five back-to-back fluoroscopically guided procedures. This was not unusual, but all my scheduled patients happened to be seriously overweight. Excess fat and skin made it difficult to see my needles during the interventional procedures. Therefore, what was ordinarily a routine procedure suddenly became complex and challenging.

I am an interventional pain management physician. For many of my patients, …

The importance of non-judgmental empathy