I am a British doctor who has lived in the USA since 1979. I graduated in medicine from Oxford University in 1973 after taking a Master’s degree in Philosophy and also a Postgraduate Diploma in the History and Philosophy of Science. My postgraduate training, at Oxford, Duke, the University of Singapore, and the University of North Carolina, includes Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease, Anesthesiology, and Family Practice. I have trained in clinical hypnosis at Duke, acupuncture at UCLA and Vancouver, and myofascial pain treatment from the revered Dr. Janet Travell.
For some 25 years, much of my work was with chronic pain, and the practice I opened in Raleigh in 1989 was the first multidisciplinary pain clinic in the Triangle. I divided my time between my clinical practice, and teaching about pain treatment. Institutions that have invited me to teach their staff include Johns Hopkins Medical Center, the Cleveland Clinic, Duke University Medical Center, UNC School of Medicine and many others around the country.
Over the years, I found I was increasingly being asked to help people with conditions that were puzzling, or complex, or unfamiliar to most doctors. I now devote myself entirely to working with people who have just one of these conditions, namely Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), and conditions that resemble it.
The only medical specialty that claims EDS and related conditions, is that of genetics. Geneticists are trained to diagnose such conditions, but very few get involved with their treatment. Because of this, most patients with these conditions will never see a doctor with much, if any, experience in treating them. That is why I’ve increasingly devoted myself to educating patients in how to get better medical care, and providing information for their doctors on how to better treat them: hence this website.
Alan Spanos MD, MA