For National Pain Awareness Month: A Different Approach to Chronic Pain

September is National Pain Awareness Month, created in 2001 by the American Chronic Pain Association to raise awareness about chronic pain and the need for better treatment options.

For many patients, traditional treatment options have included pain medications or invasive surgeries.

But double board-certified anesthesiologist and pain-management physician Dr. Myrdalis Díaz-Ramírez says there may be another option for some patients: regenerative medicine.

Here's why.

Looking Beyond Traditional Pain Management

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After more than 25 years treating chronic pain, Dr. Díaz-Ramírez says she began looking for a different way to help her patients.

She found it in regenerative medicine, an approach that uses the body's own cells, blood or tissues in an effort to support healing and repair damaged tissue. But now, more of those treatments are available in the U.S., and locally here in Tampa.

"I wanted to do more than manage symptoms," Díaz-Ramírez says. "I wanted to see if we could help the body heal and improve how patients function."

For patients looking to avoid long-term pain medication or surgery, regenerative medicine may offer another option to consider.

Díaz-Ramírez believes so strongly in the potential of regenerative medicine that she has shifted much of her focus from traditional pain management to these treatments.

At her new Tampa practice, Dr2Spine, Díaz-Ramírez uses treatments including Platelet‑rich Plasma (PRP) and Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate (BMAC), which use components of a patient's own blood or bone marrow.

The goal is to use the body's own biological processes to help address pain and damaged tissue.

"The body has an incredible ability to heal," Díaz-Ramírez says. "Regenerative medicine is about working with those natural processes."

From Sports to Everyday Patients

Regenerative treatments for pain remain an evolving area of medicine. But PRP has been used in elite sports medicine for years.

"When Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers injured his knee, he looked to regenerative medicine in the form of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy to help speed his recovery and get him ready to play in the Super Bowl that season," Meier Orthopedic Sports Medicine writes.

One study of professional and major Division I team physicians found 93 percent of those surveyed used PRP. College team doctors reported treating an average of nearly 70 athletes per season, while NFL physicians treated about 60.

"PRP injection treatment for acute grade 2 hamstring injuries in NFL players allows for faster return to play with a 1 game overall difference," the NIH writes.

"Athletes have had access to regenerative treatments for years," Díaz-Ramírez explains. "Now more everyday patients are asking whether these treatments could be an option for them, too."

Now Díaz-Ramírez wants patients outside Florida to consider Tampa, too.

She says Americans have traveled overseas for years seeking regenerative treatments. She wants them to know some options are available closer to home, with a U.S. physician and local follow-up care.

And some patients are already making the trip.

Traveling to Tampa for Pain Relief

One patient traveled from Alabama specifically to see Díaz-Ramírez in Tampa.

Closer to home, Sarasota resident Mercedes Soler, of Solmart media, says she trusted Díaz-Ramírez with her own care.

Regenerative medicine was the beginning to a path of healing and recovery," Soler says.

Díaz-Ramírez was also recently named a 2026 Tampa Magazine Top Doctor, an honor based on nominations from fellow physicians.

But she says her bigger goal now is to make Tampa a place patients think about when they're considering traveling for regenerative pain treatment.

The CDC says medical tourism is a multibillion-dollar global industry and millions of Americans travel internationally for medical care each year.

The agency also warns that traveling for medical procedures can come with risks, including infections and challenges getting follow-up care. This is one of the reasons Díaz-Ramírez wants patients to come to Tampa instead.

"Follow-up care matters," Díaz-Ramírez says. "My patients know they can call or email me with questions. I'm here before, during and after their treatment."