Marshall: This is Oklahoma Pain and Wellness Center podcast with Dr. Chan.
Dr. Chan: Morning Marshall, thank you for inviting me here to get a podcast.
Marshall: Absolutely, we’re so excited to have you on the podcast today. You are one of the physicians with Oklahoma Pain and Wellness, and Dr. Chan, how long have you been working with Oklahoma Pain and Wellness?
Dr. Chan: I just joined Oklahoma Pain and Wellness Center in June of this year, so I’ve been here about three months.
Marshall: So, you’ve been with Oklahoma Pain and Wellness for three months, now Oklahoma Pain and Wellness, it is one of the Tulsa pain management centers here in town, and what is your specialty? What is your specialty as a physician?
Dr. Chan: My specialty is anesthesia and Tulsa pain management. I’m board certified and fellow trained in both specialty.
Marshall: I know that most people they hear about anesthesiologists, but what specifically does that mean? What in an operating room, or in surgery, or what you do on a daily basis? What really does that mean?
Dr .Chan: I don’t really do anesthesia nowadays. My main practice is in Tulsa pain management. In anesthesia, the doctors generally provide sedation, or general anesthesia nerve block for surgical cases.
Marshall: And how does that relate now to Tulsa pain management?
Dr. Chan: In anesthesia, we do a lot of nerve blocks, epidural injections for acute post operative pain, and as an extension of that, a lot of anesthesiologists just started going into chronic Tulsa pain management where the same type of blocks is used.
Marshall: So, you’re taking the same procedures or the same practices and applying it to Tulsa pain management, because ultimately that’s what you’re trying to manage. Is you’re trying to manage the pain, whether it be chronic pain, or just post-operative pain.
Dr. Chan: That is correct. We also do some medication management, we approach pain as a comprehensive pain management, which involves medication management, injections, spinal cord simulator, pain pumps.
Marshall: I know that a lot of the listeners they’re asking who is Dr. Chan? Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your bio, and what makes Dr. Chan, Dr. Chan.
Dr. Chan: Sure. I was educated in Singapore, I got my medical education in Singapore. I’ve been in the US since 2003. I did my internship at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, and then I moved to San Francisco, where I spent three years doing my residency in anesthesia, followed by a year at the same, at UCSF pain management clinic for my pain fellowship.
Marshall: Actually you covered all the coasts all across the USA.
Dr. Chan: That is correct.
Marshall: You were in Massachusetts, and then you went all the way across the country to San Francisco.
Dr. Chan: That is correct. Now I am in the Midwest.
Marshall: So, let me ask you, are you a Patriots fan?
Dr. Chan: No, I’m not.
Marshall: What about a 49ers fan? No 49ers.
Dr. Chan: No 49ers.
Marshall: That’s fair. At what point did you actually move to Tulsa?
Dr. Chan: I moved to Tulsa in June of this year, just specifically just to work for Oklahoma Pain and Management Center.
Marshall: How did you first hear about Oklahoma Pain and Wellness?
Dr. Chan: I was looking for a job in and around the Southwest Missouri, in Northeast Oklahoma area. At the time I was working in Joplin, and just so happened that a job opening opened up here, and I interviewed and the rest is history.
Marshall: What got you into the pain management field, the anesthesiology and pain management?
Dr. Chan: I’ve always wanted to pain management. I like doing procedures, I’m good with my hands, and so it’s a natural extension that I move from anesthesia into chronic pain management.
I do enjoy interacting with patients, so that is also a reason why I got into pain management.