The Primary Care-PM&R Collaboration Can Help Keep Patients Out of the OR

"I think it's one of the most important relationships as a PM&R doctor that I have."

DJ Kennedy, MD, president-elect of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, spoke with Patient Care® recently about the mutually beneficial partnership between primary care and PM&R physicians, starting with the evidence that an early referral from the fomer may help the latter keep a patient out of the operating room.

DJ Kennedy, MD, is president-elect of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and professor in and chair of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville, TN, where his practice focuses on nonoperative and interventional spine care. He has served as a senior editor for the journal PM&R, on the editorial board for Pain Medicine, and as a deputy editor for The Spine Journal. Kennedy also is current president of the Spine Intervention Society.