Dr. Berkwits began his life journey on a cold morning in Chicago in January, 1957. By age 2 he had acquired a reputation for taking apart any object on which he could get his hands. Sometime around age 7, he began to start fixing anything and everything around the house.
His mother, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, was one of 4 women in her University of Michigan medical school class of 1951. A true early pioneer for women in medicine, her indomitable "You can do anything, if you put your mind to it" attitude was transferred at an early age to her son.
His father, a family practice physician, "hung a shingle" out in the country after completing a year of internship, but later returned to start a general practice in the city of Chicago. Long before the advent of interventional cardiology and coronary artery bypass grafts, he suffered a heart attack at an early age and passed away due to congestive heart failure after a number of years. At an early age, Dr. Berkwits' repair skills were put to good use maintaining the family home.
Dr. Berkwits aspired to be an engineer from as early as he can remember. Having been born into a family of physicians, his interests turned to applying his mechanical and electrical skills to the betterment of the human condition.
An "out-of-the-box" thinker, Dr. Berkwits developed many new ideas as a youth, but after presenting them to physicians with whom he came into contact, he was always told "Oh, that will never work." He could not fathom why the medical field was so resistant to new thoughts. Always fascinated with computers, a 1973 science project entitled "A Problem Oriented Electronic Medical Record System" won honorable mention at the Illinois State Science fair. Electronic medical records are now finally becoming common --35 years later.
By the time he entered college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, his direction had already changed to combining medicine and engineering. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Biomedical Engineering, and a minor in Electrical Engineering.
During the summers between semesters, he worked for EMI Medical, the company that developed the first CAT scanners in the 1970's. He assisted in the development testing of circuitry for new generations of CAT scanners. Still thirsting for more engineering knowledge, he went on to the University of Illinois at Champaign-Illinois and completed a Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering in a calendar year. His Masters project involved the development of a CAT scanner that used ultrasound for imaging of tissue.
Dr. Berkwits entered Northwestern University Medical School in the fall of 1980 and graduated in 1984. During this time, he co-authored papers on computer image analysis techniques for pathological specimens and developed computer simulations of organ growth models.
In January of 1985, Dr. Berkwits began his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. He chose the speciality of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation because he felt it would allow him to apply his engineering skills to solve the physical challenges of the disabled.
In the summer of 1987, Dr. Berkwits started independent studies in the computer simulation of brain function, a new field that was referred to as computational neuroscience. He was hired by E.I. DuPont de Nemours in Wilmington, Delaware, to assist their research efforts and left his medical residency 1 year prior to completion. While at DuPont, he worked on numerous medical imaging projects, including the development of a small MRI scanner. While this product was never commercialized by DuPont, small joint imaging MRI scanners are now commonplace in orthopedic surgeons' offices.
While in the corporate world, however, he missed direct patient care. Picking up where he had left off, Dr. Berkwits resumed the final year of his residency in 1991 at the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison, New Jersey. Dr. Berkwits achieved board certification from the American Board of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation in 1992.
He entered private practice in 1992 at Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital, in Malvern, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. His practice from 1992 through 1994 included care of stroke victims, spinal cord injured individuals, victims of motor vehicle collisions, and brain injured patients. By 1994 he was concentrating most of his clinical time working with orthopedic rehabilitation of patients who had sustained multiple orthopedic injuries in work accidents, and other patients with arthritis who had undergone total joint replacement of the hips or the knees.
During this time, Dr. Berkwits saw many patients who had undergone spinal surgery, only to have no significant improvement in their condition. He would often observe that a patient would be admitted to the hospital with sciatica. An epidural steroid injection was performed, but without the benefit of X-ray guidance (X-ray guidance is essential to a safe and successful injection, as it confirms needle position and verifies that the medication is flowing to the right area.) The patient was then reevaluated by a surgeon after 48 hours (injections can take up to 2 weeks to provide relief). If the injection did not provide relief, the patient was scheduled for spinal surgery. Three days after surgery, Dr. Berkwits was asked to evaluate the patient to see whether they needed inpatient rehabilitation. The first question Dr. Berkwits would ask was "How are you feeling after the surgery? Did you get any relief?" Too often the answer was "No, I do not feel any better." Something was clearly amiss in the way surgical decisions were being made.
As the professional liability climate worsened in Pennsylvania, many of the neurosurgeons left the state. The remaining orthopedic surgeons realized that if they stopped doing spinal surgery, they could save considerable expense on their professional liability insurance payments. Many of the patients suffering from spine pain were now being sent to Dr. Berkwits. Often times, an examination revealed that these individuals would potentially benefit from conservative management, including physical therapy and spinal injections.
At the time Dr. Berkwits finished his residency in 1992, however, there were very limited opportunities for fellowship training in spinal injections. Many of his colleagues in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, had gone for a "weekend course" to learn how to perform spinal injections. Dr. Berkwits, being committed to delivering the highest quality medical care, did not wish to perform procedures for which he did not have formal training. The time had come to acquire another set of tools to provide patients with non-surgical relief.
In 2005, Dr. Berkwits left his practice of 13 years and began a formal 1 year ACGME Accredited Fellowship in Interventional Spine and Pain Management. His training was obtained at Orthopedic and Spine Specialists, in York, Pennsylvania (an affiliate of Sinai Hospital of Baltimore) under the direction of Michael Furman, MD. Dr. Furman is a kindred soul who also has a Masters Degree in Engineering and a penchant for advancing the practice of conservative spine care.
During this one year program of training, Dr. Berkwits acquired the skills necessary to perform fluoroscopically (x-ray) guided precision spinal injections and other spinal and joint procedures. He also had the opportunity to co-author the chapter on Interventional Physiatric Care, published in the third edition of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Secrets. He has lectured colleagues on how to safely perform lumbar fluoroscopically guided injections at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation conference in 2005 and 2007. In September of 2006, Dr. Berkwits achieved subspecialty board certification in Pain Medicine from the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Armed with a new set of skills, having completed the Interventional Spine Fellowship in late December 2005, Dr. Berkwits was faced with the decision of where to practice. After living for 12 years in beautiful Chester County in southeastern Pennsylvania, he and his wife wanted to be in a place with similar natural beauty. An opportunity of employment in stunning Western North Carolina presented itself. Dr. Berkwits began caring for patients in Asheville as part of a surgical practice in June of 2006.
Dr. Berkwits left his surgical colleagues in mid-2008, and set out to realize his vision of a practice with a focus on high-quality conservative non-surgical care of spinal and joint conditions.
In what free time he has left, he enjoys attending Asheville Symphony Orchestra concerts, practicing piano, working occasionally on home improvement projects, and taking photographs of the mountains (the photograph on this website was taken on a hike.) He can often be found jogging on the track at Beaver Lake in North Asheville.
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