Getting the best healthcare available, no longer means being treated by a physician based solely on the fact that he or she is the most competent professional practicing in your vicinity. Now that products and services are obtainable from all over the globe, the best healthcare can be received without having to travel to some distant point.  To describe this type of medical care in my own practice, I’ve coined the phrase- Long Distance Therapy.

Even though many medical services are performed today via long distance, chronic pain sufferers are sometimes confused as to how they can be treated for their debilitating pain, without being in the presence of their physician.

To answer their question, I compare my testing, diagnosing and treatment to other medical professionals who often provide medical services without being physically present with their patient. For example: 

• Blood is drawn by a technician without the need of an internist or family doctor being present.
  
• Xrays are taken by a technician without the need of an orthopedist being present.
  
• An EEG is run by a technician without the need of a neurologist being present.
  
• An EKG is run by a technician without the need of a cardiologist being present.
  
• An MRI is run by a technician without the need of a radiologist being present.
  

In all the above, the tests are run by someone other than the specialist. The test results are then sent to the appropriate specialist for interpretation and diagnosis.  Where the specialist is located is unimportant; they can be down the street from where the tests are run, or half-way around the world. 

The important issue in running a test is that the correct test(s) is chosen and run.  For example, if a bone fracture is suspected, an Xray is the appropriate test (not an EKG).

Diagnosing a patient’s condition can also be done by a physician who has never seen the patient. An example is when a nurse practitioner is sent to the patient’s home and then communicates to the physician, what he or she sees.  Acting on this information, the physician orders the appropriate tests, interprets the results and makes a diagnosis. All this is done without the patient ever seeing or talking to the physician.

The important issue in making a diagnosis; is that the correct diagnosis is made.  The correct diagnosis can only be made by a physician who 1) orders the appropriate test(s) that will identify the cause of the patient’s problem and 2) has the training and experience to understand the test results.

Testing, diagnosing and administering a therapy, all without the physician being in the physical presence of the patient

If you live in a rural area and have a complex medical problem, you will be taken to a small community hospital run by the town doctor (general practitioner).  There are no specialists on staff, because most specialists live in larger cities and work at the larger hospitals. So, the community hospital’s general practitioner will contact the appropriate specialist (who may live hundreds of miles away) for assistance with your complex medical problem. 

The general practitioner gives the specialist the details of your problem.  The specialist then orders the appropriate tests to be run and, upon receipt, interprets the tests, makes the diagnosis and determines your therapy.  Your therapy is then administered at the small rural hospital.  You (the patient) usually don’t see or talk to the specialist who is determining your therapy.

Currently, the above example is common practice, so that medical care can be provided when the appropriate specialist is not in the vicinity of the patient.

It is modern technology and medical specializations that allow the patient to be tested, diagnosed and treated by a physician who never sees them. 

It is not the distance or physical presence of your physician that determines the success of your therapy.  What is important is:

1. Running the appropriate tests in order to make an accurate diagnosis. 
2. After determining the actual cause, an effective therapy must be used so as to eliminate your problem.  
   

In Long Distance Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy, I follow a similar protocol to many other specialists who test, diagnose and treat their patients via long distance: 

1. I first talk with my patient in an Initial Phone Consultation, in order to determine what might be the cause of their chronic pain problem.
2. I then guide my patient on how to run specific tests; that in most cases can be done without the assistance of a technician or the presence of a physician. 
3. The patient emails me the test results.
4. I put this information through a series of proprietary computer analyses to determine the cause of the chronic pain problem and the course of action to resolve my patient’s pain.

Chronic pain sufferers from all over the world are successfully treated via Long Distance Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy because of:

• my discoveries of a common cause of musculoskeletal pain - two inherited, abnormal foot structures, known as Rothbarts Foot and PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity. 
• specific tests and computer analyses I invented, which allow me to make the diagnosis of whether my patient has one of these common foot structures.
• an effective therapy I developed - Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy - which permanently eliminates chronic musculoskeletal pain resulting from these foot structures.  
• the highly effective Long Distance Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy, which I developed to help those who cannot travel to due to debilitating pain.

To read more about Long Distance Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy, go to the Treating Patients Long Distance page.

For more information on Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy, read What is Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy.

Long Distance Therapy Increases Options for Chronic Pain Sufferers