Pain does not kill a person. But pain destroys a person’swill to live.

As an Anesthesiologist with super specialty in Interventional Pain Management & Palliative Care, Dr. Shovan Kumar Rath understands that chronic pain can lead to depression, anxiety, marital & interpersonal problems, decreased productivity, unemployment, compromised social roles, isolation, financial burden, dependence, prolonged analgesics usage, decreased self-esteem with behavioral changes adversely affecting quality of life (QOL) & activities of daily living (ADL). Hence, Dr. Rath’s ultimate goal is to cure and care for people suffering from pain, make them productive human beings for the society and increase their self-esteem so that they can live life as normal individuals.

 In the absence of proper education among healthcare professionals and lack of awareness in the public mind in India, there is misuse of painkillers resulting in high incidence of complications like gastritis, kidney failure, and bone marrow depression.Interventional pain procedures score over both medicine and surgery, as they do not have side effects like medicines. These interventional pain procedures produce immediate pain relief, can be performed with ease without anesthesia as outpatient or daycare and procedure can be repeated safely if required.

Although tremendous scientific and technological advances have been made in the field of Pain Management, the knowledge and techniques are highly underutilized. This is due to lack of dissemination of information to clinicians. The skill of proper pain management lies not in ability to perform difficult advanced blocks but in the determination of appropriate diagnosis and therapeutic modalities.

MD in Anaesthesiology, SCB Medical College, Cuttack

FIAPM (Indian Society for Study of Pain)

FIPP (World Institute of Pain, Netherlands)