Midwest Anesthesia and Pain Specialists
Personalized Pain Relief Treatments

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ignificant innovation has been evident in recent years in the pain management sector; however, most solutions focus only on the physical aspect of the pain and not the entire person. Pain not only affects the physical but the mental and emotional as well. Not just the person in pain, but those around them, loved ones, family, and careers.

Midwest Anesthesia and Pain Specialists (MAPS) Centers for Pain Control, in Chicago, stands out with a multimodal approach focusing on all aspects of pain management. It delivers comprehensive care through medication, procedures, minimally invasive surgery, physical therapy, psychological support, and lifestyle changes.
“The combination of this personalized approach and multimodal capabilities has helped us become the largest pain practice in Chicago in just eight years,” says Dr. Thomas Pontinen, MD, co-founder and physician at MAPS.

The Pain Management Maestro

MAPS performs interventional procedures, from simple injections to complex surgeries, treating medical conditions like back pain, sciatica, neuropathy, migraines, autoimmune disorders, and spasticity. Procedures include epidural steroid injections, transforaminal injections, Botox injections for chronic migraine and tension headaches, facet joint procedures, radiofrequency ablations, nerve blocks, spinal cord stimulator implants, kyphoplasty, discograms, and regenerative medicine treatments, such as stem cell injections, PRP, and amniotic tissue injections.
It uses platelet-rich plasma and amniotic tissue injections to support wound healing in trauma and joint injury. Methods like radiofrequency ablations effectively address joint pain, even for a patient who has gone through knee replacement surgery. It also uses chiropractic methods to rehabilitate and improve joint mobility.

MAPS specialists are uniquely positioned to treat back pain with alternatives to surgery that provide long-term relief. It brings a new standard to back pain treatments for patients who have already had surgery or have been suffering for years without relief. The team uses a combination of responsible medication management, physical therapy and minimally invasive procedures like spinal cord stimulator implantation, kyphoplasty, and disc decompression to deliver lasting relief.

It employs a variety of techniques to deliver a treatment plan for managing chronic pain, migraine, and headaches, instead of masking symptoms with medication or steroid injections that provide only temporary relief. Its proven, decade-old, chronic migraine treatments can be utilized for tension headaches, neck pain, and neck spasms.

Its team of expert physicians also uses state-of-the-art technology to identify and treat the root cause of vein pain, like impaired blood flow due to chronic venous insufficiency. The combination of non-surgical, minimally invasive procedures ensures lasting vein pain relief with minimal downtime, enabling patients to quickly return to their daily routines.

The tailored treatment plans ensure patients overcome chronic pain with minimally invasive procedures without using opioids or needing to rely on them as the only means of treatment.

Handling Legalities and Eliminating the Burden of Medical Bills

MAPS’ pain management capabilities are complemented by its expertise in handling workers’ compensation and accidental cases.

Years of experience in the legal field provide the company with an in-depth understanding of the legalities involved around workers’ compensation and personal injuries. It ensures patients are treated by a team that understands the ever-evolving complexity of laws around these claims.

The company realizes how legal cases like personal injuries and workplace accidents are different from regular insurance cases. Having an injury that requires the involvement of legal experts can be scary and complicated, but MAPS’ expertise in the field minimizes this, allowing patients to focus on getting better and back to normal life as quickly as possible.

Dedicated to patient advocacy, it ensures meticulous documentation and accurate billing. The team is also qualified to help workers with insurance claim documentation. It understands the nuances of compensation claims and streamlines the process by guiding patients from start to finish.

Some of its team members, such as Dr. Pontinen and Dr. Adarsh Shukla, MD, have obtained life care planning certifications, enabling them to assess and estimate the long-term care needs of patients not just in the present day but in the future as well. This allows the team to formulate reports which address the patients’ concerns about what their future medical needs will look like, enabling them to plan more effectively.

Tailored Programs for Quick Recovery

The treatment process at MAPS begins with examining patients’ symptoms, conditions, and medical history. A diverse team of 14 providers, who are a team of double-board certified and fellowship-trained physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, diagnose and evaluate the patients’ conditions through a multifaceted approach, designing a personalized care plan. It collaborates with various specialists, including consultants, psychologists, chiropractors, neurologists, spine surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and physical therapists, to ensure full recovery for patients with tailored and multimodal care plans. For example, psychologists in MAPS’ care provider network help patients deal with issues like chronic depression, sleep disturbances, or generalized anxiety disorder, so they can reclaim their lives.

“Pain not only impacts patients physically but psychologically as well, leading to depression and anxiety, impacting themselves as well as relationships with family and friends. That’s why it is equally important to focus on the emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and social dimensions of pain, in addition to the physical, to improve overall well-being and quality of life,” says Dr. Pontinen.

The company’s customized and multimodal approach to pain management focuses on addressing every aspect of pain by employing a range of treatments, including injection-based therapies, minimally invasive procedures, custom bracing, physical therapy, as well as psychological consultation.

In one instance, MAPS provided treatment for a professional MMA fighter who suffered a torn labrum (hip cartilage).The patient had consulted other doctors who recommended surgery, but he was reluctant because the longer recovery time would hinder his training. The lengthy post-surgery recovery time would have prevented him from competing in an upcoming tournament. MAPS provided him with non-surgical pain relief treatment in the form of regenerative injections administered under X-ray guidance. The first injection provided remarkable outcomes, and the second one resulted in a nearly full recovery, enabling him to return to training and compete in the fight.

Changing the Status Quo of Pain Management

MAPS focuses on smart business practices adopted by the co-founders, Dr. Pontinen and Dr. Darrel Saldanha, MD. Client feedback-backed practices, along with innovative pain relief methods, minimize overhead while streamlining workflows and day-to-day processes. This drives efficiency and allows providers to spend more time listening to each patient’s concerns to deliver customized care.

“Our commitment to individualized attention and comprehensive treatment options has established us as a trusted and respected pain practice in Chicago,” says Dr. Pontinen. “We prioritize quality care and see fewer patients per day to maintain a lower patient-to-provider ratio.”
Focus on quality and tailored care has helped MAPS grow dramatically in the last eight years. It now has seven locations around the Chicagoland area, which provide geographical convenience to patients. These clinics have fully equipped procedure rooms, surgical centers with anesthesia capabilities, and MRI centers.

Its success as both the fastest-growing and largest pain practice in Chicagoland within a short span of time is backed by robust patient recovery data and customer testimonials that differentiate it from others in the field.

“People always appreciate our unparalleled care and provide us with positive reviews online and offline. We always take feedback seriously, especially constructive criticism, helping us improve,” says Dr. Pontinen. “Our goal is ensuring more people have access to good treatment.”

MAPS continues to expand geographically and bring in only the best medical doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in the country, who all support its mission of providing patients with personalized care and attention. This approach has helped it build a reputation of trust in the industry and has enabled its dramatic growth.

Patients’ continuing trust and steadily increasing referrals from specialists, surgeons, primary care docs, and, most importantly, patients themselves cement MAPS’s position as the go-to pain relief specialist not only in Chicago but the entire Midwest.