Dancing through the pain: physician executive launches new business to treat patients with chronic pain - Profile

Physician Executive, Jan-Feb, 2004 by Will Bunch

Korevaar says the two dancers, Ostarek and Vrtalova, are instrumental to the clinic and helping her to understand the interconnections between the different muscles, pain, and particular dance steps. "They are playing a key role in terms of educating me," she says, adding that they are preparing a book of "homework" for patients so they can continue their therapy at home.

Her plan for the new clinic calls for an extensive, initial medical evaluation, to be followed by three weekly sessions that include exercise and re-evaluation as well as 40 minutes of one-on-one dance instruction.

It may or may not be ironic, but now that Korevaar has recharged her own career, she's anxious to help others get back to work. "When people are in pain and not working," she says, "that flies in the face of everything we know."

IN THIS ARTICLE ...

Wilhelmina Korevaar's career path as a physician executive has taken many twists and turns. Early on, she didn't even want to be a doctor. Now, she's foxtrotting down yet another path, trying to use dance to help patients relieve their pain.

Will Bunch is a journalist for the Philadelphia Daily News in Philadelphia, Pa.