About John W. Chang, M.D.

drchang@aprsm.com

Education

Medical School: University of Southern California School of Medicine
Internship: Kaiser Foundation Hospital, San Francisco
Residency: Univeristy of California, Los Angeles


Dr. Chang received his M.D. degree from the USC School of Medicine and completed internship training in internal medicine at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco.  He completed his Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency training at UCLA with emphasis on orthopedic musculoskeletal medicine and pain management.  In addition, he has worked at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, a world-renowned hosptial providing inpatient musculoskeletal, neurological, orthopedic, and medical rehabilitation, and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, the only rehabilitation center in California ranked in the top 10 in America by US News. 

Dr. Chang is a board-certified physician of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.  Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, also known as Physiatry, is a medical specialty that seeks to restore optimal function to people with injuries to the muscles, bones, and soft tissues using the most innovative non-surgical treatments currently available.

Philosophy
First, do no harm.  Dr. Chang then strongly believes the next step should be to identify the origin of the symptom/s.  While some procedures only treat the symptoms, the most effective ones treat the origin, the true root cause.

Many chronic pain conditions probably result from the failure of the body's normal healing process, leading to incomplete healing, tissue transformation and incompetence, and eventually, progressively worsening degeneratie changes.  This commonly occurs in the joints, tendons, and ligaments, because unlike muscle tissue, they have much less blood flowing through them.  This makes them much more susceptible to an interruption in the normal healing process.  Sometimes this involves reducing inflammation to decrease pain and swelling.  Sometimes this involves inducing a transient state of inflammation in order to produce new tissue.  There is no one-size-fits-all solution.  However, the goal is always the same: to treat the patient's problem effectively and to improve the patient's quality of life.

Over the years, Dr. Chang has come to believe that while traditional medicine is equipped to treat many patients, it falls short when it comes to healing and improving quality of life.  Medicine falls short especially when it comes to chronic problems that don't respond well to surgery, like tennis elbow, meniscus tears, sprained ankles, temporomandibular syndrome, and plantar fasciitis.  This began his journey to find the most effective procedures available to treat all patients, from those who prefer to watch sporting events to those who wish to participate.

About Aldric Jaesung Shim, M.D.

Education

University of Southern California,
Los Angeles, CA (2005 to 2006)
Fellowship in Musculoskeletal Radiology and Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA (2001 to 2005)
Residency in Diagnostic Radiology
University of California, School of Medicine, San Francisco, Fresno-Central San Joaquin Valley Medical Education Program, Fresno, CA (2000 to 2001)
Resident in Internal Medicine - Preliminary

University of Southern California School of Medicine,
Los Angeles, CA (M.D, 2000)
Dean's Scholar (1998 to 2000)

University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA (B.A. in Psychology 1995)
Dean's Honors List (1995)

Certification and Honors

Licensure and Professional Membership

Board Certified, American Board of Radiology (June 2005)

California State License # A77053, issued November 2001
Radiological Society of North America
American Roentgen Ray Society
Los Angeles Radiological Society
American Medical Association

Current Research: Long-term Effects of Subclinical CAD (Coronary Heart Disease) on Cardiac Function-Subcontract with Harbor-UCLA; funded by the NIH

Presentation at the 56th Los Angeles Radiological Society Annual Midwinter Radiology Conference 2004 - "Computed Tomographic Findings of Acute Radiation Thyroiditis"

Presentation at the 55th Los Angeles Radiological Society Annual Midwinter Radiology Conference 2003 - " Transient Osteoporosis of the Hip."


Research Fellow, KPMG, LLC, Oakland CA (1996) KPMG, LLC, Oakland, CA - compiled data for the National Healthcare Project