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Alumni Profile: Pacific Graduate Offers Education and Treatment at UCSD Pain Center UCSD
Healthcare's Center for Pain & Palliative Medicine gives patients the chance to find relief through a variety of treatment options. For licensed acupuncturist Erika Novak, the UCSD Pain Center has given her the opportunity to build a patient base and educate the public about Chinese medicine.
Novak, who graduated from Pacific College in 1993, has been affiliated with the Pain Center for five years. Her association began when she started treating patients who also worked at UCSD. One of them asked her to come to the Pain Center to give a lecture about acupuncture, and Novak has been going back ever since. She gives three lectures a year at the Pain Center about the use of acupuncture for chronic pain.
"Most of these people have been in chronic pain for years," Novak said. "They've been through every aspect of Western medicine." Novak recalls one woman who had to have an operation for ovarian tumors, only to discover that her pain was worse after the surgery. Because of cases like these, Novak said most people react positively to her lectures.
"Most people are happy to grasp onto any sense of hope," Novak said. "Most people are really excited to find out that there are other things they can try [to relieve pain]."
Not only does Novak's volunteer work give her a chance to educate people about the benefits of acupuncture, it has also helped her increase her private practice. Novak estimates that 40 percent of her clients are the result of her lectures and referrals from UCSD. In January of 2003, Novak was given staff privileges at the Pain Center, which allows her to give acupuncture treatments on site. Novak is the first licensed acupuncturist to have such privileges at the UCSD Pain Center. Not only hasthis allowed her to give demonstrations at her lectures, it has also opened numerous research possibilities.
In 2004, Novak will participate in a study led by Dr. Leon Thal, chair of the department of neurosciences at UCSD, in which a functional MRI, which measures oxygen levels in the blood, will map the brain activity of patients who are given acupuncture. "We're hoping to come up with ways of proving that acupuncture helps pain," Novak said of the study.
Novak's association with the Pain Center has opened many doors for her practice. Now that she has staff privileges and can participate in scientifically based studies about acupuncture, perhaps Novak can open doors for Chinese medicine.
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