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  David Louis Schechter, MD   

CAREER OVERVIEW
David L. Schechter, MD, is a West Los Angeles area physician who is board certified in Family Medicine and Sports Medicine and has a credential in Pain Management. In addition to private practice, his current or recent positions have included Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, USC Keck School of Medicine, and Attending Staff Physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Dr. Schechter is well-regarded for his general medicine skills, rating an average of 4 stars on Yelp.com. In addition, he is nationally known for both his clinical and written work in the area of chronic pain and its connection to emotions, stress, and other psychosocial factors. In this area, he was Principal Investigator for the Seligman Medical Institute from 2003-2007 and has published a number of papers, along with a workbook, and other materials. He maintains two offices, one in Culver City and another in Beverly Hills.

Dr. Schechter’s connections with Dr. John Sarno, first as a patient while in medical school, then a research assistant, then finally as a colleague, until Dr. Sarno retired in 2012, were instrumental in Dr. Schechter’s work in the burgeoning “mind-body” or psycho-physiological field. Dr. Schechter has combined over twenty years of clinical work with publications and lectures delivered to his peers, on subjects ranging from TMS, sports injuries, nutrition, and exercise, computers in a medical office setting, and utilization reviews with medical insurance companies, as works for the lay public, again ranging from TMS to nutrition for celiac patients.

Philosophy on Health
In all of these specialties, Dr Schechter has focused on treating the whole person, not just the physical injury or biochemical condition, which requires taking the time to get to know his patients personally, as well as their medical conditions.

Tension Myositis Syndrome
In pain management, Dr Schechter is best known for his work in treating back pain as “tension myositis syndrome,” a.k.a. “tension myoneural syndrome,” or just “TMS,” a somatization-like pain disorder that is typically treated without drugs or surgery by educational and psychological methods. He is generally recognized as the foremost expert on TMS on the U.S. West Coast and was the first researcher to publish a peer-reviewed study on the approach in 2007.

HONORS AND AWARDS
Dr. Schechter’s approach in Sports Medicine is marked by a focus on non-surgical approaches including physiotherapy/rehabilitation, prudent use of injections, and cutting edge treatments like platelet rich plasma (PRP). This approach earned him a “Top Doctor” award in sports medicine from U.S. News and World Report in 2012, based on the opinions of his peers, along with a further distinction for being listed among the “top 1%” of his specialty.

In 2007, he received a similar award from Men’s Health, being listed among the “Top Doctors in Sports Medicine” in an article titled “Top Doctors for Men,”. a distinction he received partly on account of his success in treating sports injuries and other painful conditions, typically without surgery.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
Schechter was born in New York City, where he lived until going to college at Princeton in 1976, where he majored in biochemistry. After graduating from Princeton in 1980, he went on to study medicine at New York University, graduating in 1984. At NYU, he met his mentor, John E. Sarno, M.D., the physical medicine specialist at NYU’s Rusk Rehabilitation Institute who developed, named, and popularized the TMS approach to treating back pain.

Post Doctoral Training and Certification
Internship and residency training in Family Practice at the UCLA/Santa Monica Hospital, 1984 – 1987.

Certified in the specialty of Family Practice (Family Medicine) by the American Board of Family Practice (ABFP), 1987. Recertified 1994, 2001, 2008

Certified by the ABFP for added qualifications in the subspecialty of Sports Medicine for Primary Care Physicians, 1993. Recertified 2003

Certified as a Credentialed Pain Practitioner by the American Academy of Pain Management, 2007.

State Of California, Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME) Certified to perform medico-legal examinations, 2000 through present

Honors, Awards, and Notable Appointments in Sports Medicine
US News and World Report, “Top Doctor, Sports Medicine,” 2012.

Men’s Health magazine, “America’s Top Doctors for Men,” April 2008.

Team Physician, United States Figure Skating Championships, Staples Center, Los Angeles, 2002

U.S. Team Physician, Pan American Maccabi Games, Buenos Aires, 1995

Staff Physician, Los Angeles Marathon, 1990-95

Contributor and Consultant to Aerobic Fitness Association of America’s publications, 1989-96

Publications and Recorded Media on Pain Management
“Outcomes of a mind-body healing program for chronic back pain with no distinct structural pathology: a case series of patients diagnosed and treated as tension myositis syndrome (TMS),” Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Sept/Oct 2007. (Available in PubMed.com under ID: 17900039.

“Back Pain as a Distraction Pain Syndrome: A Window to a Whole New Dynamic in Integrative Medicine,” Evidence Based Integrative Medicine, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 3 – 8, 2005.

“Outcome Study of Chronic Back Pain Treated by a Psychologically Based Program,” abstract presented at APS conference, Psychosomatic Medicine, vol. 67, no.1, online, p. A-101, 2005.

“At Home Educational Materials for Chronic Pain,” Practical Pain Management, May/June 2004.

The MindBody Patient Panel: A 75 minute DVD presentation where Dr. Schechter interviews seven patients who have been through the mind-body healing program and helps the viewer understand the methods and approaches that these individuals used to achieve pain relief. At the end, two psychologists also speak to this subject. 2004

The Mindbody Workbook: A Thirty Day Program of Insight and Awareness for Patients with Back Pain And Other Disorders, a workbook for emotional issues in back pain published by Mindbody Medicine Publications, 1999.

The Mindbody Audio Program, a three cd series for patients with back pain that teaches them about a unique mindbody program for pain, 1997.

“Mindbody Approaches to Back Pain,” chapter accepted for publication in Back Pain Relief by Robert H. Miller, ISBN-10: 0884964183, ISBN-13: 978-0884964186 (also online), and

Back Pain Sourcebook by S. Levin-Gervasi, 1998, ISBN-10: 0737300159, ISBN-13: 978-0737300154, (Chapter accepted for publication)

Low Back Pain: Diagnosis and Management, 1997. Interviewed on CME-certified audiotape for American Academy of Family Practice.