 Hi, my name is Dr. Spencer Bertram, and I'm a pain management physician at the Pain Management Program in West Branch. As a specialist in pain, I provide balanced pain management care to diagnose and treat conditions such as neck and back pain, including work-related injuries and sciatica, arthritis pain in the spine and joints, complex regional pain syndrome, nerve damage, muscle spasm pain, shingles pain, and headaches. I started my career as a chiropractor, helping patients improve spinal and joint pain. After practicing as a chiropractor for several years, I decided I wanted to expand my approach to patients with chronic pain and I pursued a medical degree. It's my opinion that making use of as many treatment options as possible is the best way to identify a custom program for each individual patient. My approach combines medications, but also injection therapy, rehabilitation, and behavioral medicine, and to develop a healthy balanced care plan. I am passionate about learning new techniques for pain management so I can offer them to my patients and help them avoid addictive medications as well as invasive surgery. I believe that chronic pain management is all about trying options, and if they don't work, finding other reasonable options that will help. The before and after is the most satisfying part of my job. That's really what it's all about. Seeing the transformation from someone who can barely get off the couch to someone who can get on with their life and complete their work, social, family commitments, that's the most satisfying part of what I do.