Former PPDA Board Member
Former Spine Surgeon. Expertise in Chronic Pain
Seattle, WA (No in-person treatment available, only virtual coaching)
David@BackInControl.com
BackinControl.com/consulting
Books: Back In Control: A Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain, 2nd Edition (2016), Psychophysiologic Disorders: Trauma Informed, Interprofessional Diagnosis & Treatment (2019)
Provides Life Coaching Virtually: YES

Orthopedic Spine Surgeon

Dr. David Hanscom is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon specializing in the surgical correction of complex spine problems in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine. He has expertise in adult and pediatric spinal deformities such as scoliosis and kyphosis. A significant part of his practice was devoted to performing surgery on patients who had undergone multiple prior spine surgeries.

Current Positions:

He is focusing his efforts on bringing effective medical treatments for chronic mental and physical pain back into mainstream medicine. He is creating a business structure, Vertus, Inc. that also will present these concepts to the public.

Structured Spine Care

Around 2001 he began to share his own stress management tools with his patients that were in pain but had no indications for surgery. He had spent much of his career with rehabilitation physicians learning non-operative care. By 2006 a structured spine treatment protocol evolved from his own experience escaping from chronic pain He published a book, Back in Control: A Surgeon’s Roadmap Out of Chronic Pain that is the basis of the program. His website, BackInControl.com is the action plan for DOC project (Direct your Own Care). Even patients with surgical problems often experience resolution of their pain without an operation.

Last Practice Positions:

• Orthopedic spine surgeon, Swedish Neuroscience Specialists, Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA – retired December 2018.

• Co-director of the Swedish Neuroscience Specialists prehab program

• Co-director of the Swedish Pre-op Optimization Project

• Co-director of the Swedish Neuroscience Specialists spine fellowship

Training                         

He received his medical degree from Loma Linda University in 1979.  His residency training began with internal medicine in Spokane, WA from 1979-1981.  Orthopedic surgery training was done at the University of Hawaii from 1981-1984.  He did an orthopedic trauma fellowship at UC Davis in Sacramento, CA.  His spinal deformity fellowship was completed in Minneapolis, MN at Twin Cities Scoliosis Center in 1986. He has been performing complex spinal surgery since 1986.

Other Projects

He is the founder of the Puget Sound Spine Society, which was formed in 1987.  It is a non-profit educational group, which provides a regional forum for physicians from multiple specialties to share ideas regarding optimum spine care.  

Awake at the Wound is a program that applies athletic performance principles to the surgeon and OR staff. The emphasis is focused on consistency of performance. He co-founded the program with his golf-instructor, David Elaimy, in 2006. The concepts are applicable to preventing and addressing professional burnout. Optimizing Physician Performance has been incorporated into the core training for the fellows and residents. 

Books in Progress

• What You Should Know About Back Surgery: A Spine Surgeon’s Surprising Advice

• Chronic Pain and Your Family: Getting Back in Control

• Awake at the Wound: Athletic Performance Principles in the Operating Room