Isolation, Case Surges and Telemedicine Complicate Pain Medicine Nearly 2 Years Into Pandemic

Navigating pain care for both patients and providers alike has continued in complexity two years after the first COVID-19 cases were discovered in China and about 21 months following the beginning of U.S. shutdowns in March 2020. “Things have been really hard in Arkansas recently,” Johnathan H. Goree, MD, an interventional pain physician, told Pain Medicine News in an interview at PAINWeek 2021, where he conducted a lecture on the pandemic’s effects on pain care. As COVID-19 cases have surged in Goree’s home of Arkansas—largely due to low rates of vaccination, he said—problems from staffing shortages to telemedicine access issues have kept providers on their toes, readjusting their practices to reach their patients at need.