MEDICAL NEWS
By Andie Gibson Innovative care. State-of-theart technology. Cutting-edge research.
Everything about Carilion Clinic’s newest medical facility is designed to make care easier and more accessible for patients with orthopaedic and neurological issues. Perhaps the most exciting part of the multimillion-dollar Institute for Orthopaedics and Neurosciences (ION) in Roanoke is its integrated approach to patient care. The collaborative model lets leading specialists consult on diagnosis and treatment and will reduce the need for patients to make multiple visits.
10 SPRING 2016 | CarilionClinic.org
“This facility enables specialists to see patients together, conference together, and make high-level, complex decisions together on the spot, says Carilion’s Chief of Neurosurgery Gary Simonds, M.D. “The goal of our institute is to better coordinate patient care,” he says. For example, a patient with nagging lower-back pain may schedule an appointment with a spine specialist. While there, she may get an X-ray and see a pain management professional or a spine surgeon. “The body is very well connected, so if you can start treating patients and all
their parts with all their providers in one area, the treatment is going to far exceed the sum of their problems with everyone working together,” says Chair of Orthopaedics Joseph T. Moskal, M.D. About 200 health care professionals provide services in orthopaedics, neurosurgery, pain management, physical medicine and rehabilitation, outpatient therapy services, and imaging at the institute, which opened in January on Franklin Road near the Carilion campus. Skilled care is available for joints, brain and spine, sports medicine, hand and upper extremities, pediatric orthopaedics and