COMPREHENSIVE ACCIDENT AND INJURY CENTER

Rehabilitation is the discipline focused on restoring a patient's functional abilities to pre-injury or pre-disease status. Functional abilities are defined as those activities in one's daily life, work, or sports and recreational activities that an individual participates in. Relevant impairments (e.g. strength, endurance, flexibility, motor control, etc.) are often intermediate goals of rehabilitation, but the final goal of successful care is return to participation in activities in which the patient was successful before the onset of the injury or disease. Essential to a rehabilitation approach is a focus on patient-centered outcomes such as independence and self-management or self-care skills.

Family Medicine is the medical specialty which is concerned with the total health care of the individual and the family. It is the specialty in breadth which integrates the biological, clinical, and behavioral sciences. The scope of family medicine is not limited by age, sex, organ system, or disease entity.

A provider qualified by a Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.), licensed by the State and who practices chiropractic medicine -that discipline within the healing arts which deals with the nervous system and its relationship to the spinal column and its interrelationship with other body systems.

Doctors of optometry (ODs) are the primary health care professionals for the eye. Optometrists examine, diagnose, treat, and manage diseases, injuries, and disorders of the visual system, the eye, and associated structures as well as identify related systemic conditions affecting the eye. An optometrist has completed pre-professional undergraduate education in a college or university and four years of professional education at a college of optometry, leading to the doctor of optometry (O.D.) degree. Some optometrists complete an optional residency in a specific area of practice. Optometrists are eye health care professionals state-licensed to diagnose and treat diseases and disorders of the eye and visual system.

Physical medicine and rehabilitation, also referred to as rehabilitation medicine, is the medical specialty concerned with diagnosing, evaluating, and treating patients with physical disabilities. These disabilities may arise from conditions affecting the musculoskeletal system such as neck and back pain, sports injuries, or other painful conditions affecting the limbs, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Alternatively, the disabilities may result from neurological trauma or disease such as spinal cord injury, head injury or stroke. A physician certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation is often called a physiatrist. The primary goal of the physiatrist is to achieve maximal restoration of physical, psychological, social and vocational function through comprehensive rehabilitation. Pain management is often an important part of the role of the physiatrist. For diagnosis and evaluation, a physiatrist may include the techniques of electromyography to supplement the standard history, physical, x-ray and laboratory examinations. The physiatrist has expertise in the appropriate use of therapeutic exercise, prosthetics (artificial limbs), orthotics and mechanical and electrical devices.

A supplier of medical equipment such as respirators, wheelchairs, home dialysis systems, or monitoring systems, that are prescribed by a physician for a patient's use in the home and that are usable for an extended period of time.

Interventional Pain Medicine is the discipline of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of pain and related disorders principally with the application of interventional techniques in managing subacute, chronic, persistent, and intractable pain, independently or in conjunction with other modalities of treatment.

Source: NUCC, CMS