ISPINE.ORG Forum - Regan goes South, Coufal comes North

http://globalpatientnetwork.com/misc...tzer-Regan.jpg
Dr. Frank Coufal, Dr. Howard Rosen, Mark Mintzer, Dr. John Regan

Several years ago, I met the amazing Dr. Coufal when I went with Maria to a WC IME exam with him. He was clearly cut from a different cloth and he became one of my ‘go to’ docs. Unfortunately, he was all the way down in La Jolla, so it was difficult to get to him.

About a year later, I learned that we could see him up here in Orange County. Another client booked an appointment with him in his Santa Ana office. Again, Dr. Coufal hit a home run with me and my client. I also met with the director of Orange County Medical Group, Rosann Gonzalez. She kept on talking about Dr. Rosen, their medical director. When she told me that he was a pain management doctor who did prolotherapy and other cutting edge treatments, I asked her if he was a doctor I knew well, Howard Rosen? “You know Howie” was her reply.

Howie is an old friend and soccer buddy. We coached against each other from when our 25 year-old daughters were about 6, until they were 15. He is absolutely one of the nicest men I’ve ever met. I’ve had several of his patients as clients. He will go far beyond the call of duty for his patients. I was so happy to learn that Dr. Rosen and Dr. Coufal were teamed up at OC Medical Group.

In addition to handling a few ordinary cases for me, Dr. Coufal managed to get Medicare to pay for cervical ADR for a client of mine. He also did the revision on kc0iet’s failed ADR and fusion disaster. Shortly after he worked on her, she was able to ditch her wheelchair. I just heard from her and she is still improving and has not used her wheelchair since she returned from California!

When dealing with Grant’s case, I was pleased to discover that Orange County Medical Group had moved to Anaheim. Their new digs are adjacent to the excellent Anaheim Regional Medical Center.

In addition to getting Dr. Coufal to come north, Roseanne convinced John Regan to come south. Dr. Regan performed my second discectomy in 2001 and has been a friend and colleague ever since. You all know him as an ADR specialist (and facet replacements, and nucleus replacements, and, and… ) He is a true pioneer and is one of the early developers of many minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) technologies. He was instrumental in the development of video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) and also many endoscopic and other MISS techniques. He can do a bilateral posterior decompression surgery through a very small entry only on one side.

Dr. Regan has also gone above and beyond the call for many of my clients and other spine patients I know. It has been an honor to work with him and I’m very pleased that we’ll now have the option of seeing him down here behind the Orange Curtain. The picture above was taken at an open house for OC Medical Group several weeks ago.

Congrats to Roseann Gonzalez and Dr. Howard Rosen for building OC Medical Group into the first-class operation that can attract the top talent. Welcome to Dr. John Regan and Dr. Frank Coufal. It’s great to have you here in Orange County.

Edit to add: I want to be clear that both Dr. Regan and Dr. Coufal are maintaining their primary offices. This opportunity for us to see them in Orange County instead of Beverly Hills and La Jolla is and adjunct to thieir primary practices: JohnReganMD.com,
La Jolla Neurosurgical Associates