No Pain, A Lot to Gain: Dr. Jerald Garcia Leads in Chronic Pain Management

Dr. Jerald Garcia appeared destined for a career in medicine as a 5-year-old, when his favorite activity was playing with his doctor toys. Fast-forward a few decades, and Garcia’s childhood pastime has resulted in a successful career leading a rapidly growing chronic pain management operation.

It’s been 15 years since he first started his practice, a small O‘ahu office where he was the doctor and his wife was his assistant. Today, he operates the Hawai‘i Institute for Pain at three locations—two on O‘ahu and one on Maui—with a team of doctors and medical staff. Garcia’s core work is interventional chronic pain management, which includes high-tech, minimally invasive procedures, including implanting spinal cord stimulators.

Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

“Right now in Hawai‘i, the treatment in this area is very disjointed. You see this doctor to get your injection, then go to another place for therapy, and another place for rehab or behavioral therapy. My goal is to consolidate all those services.”

This year, Garcia is expanding his Hale Pāwa‘a practice to become a “one-stop,” comprehensive center, with cutting-edge surgical, rehab and wellness divisions, along with a new regenerative unit that offers stem cell treatments. As more patients become aware of new treatments, the whole area of medicine will continue to grow and advance—and Garcia wants to be on the cusp of that in Hawai‘i.

“This comprehensive approach is the gold standard of treating patients suffering from chronic pain,” he says. “Right now in Hawai‘i, the treatment in this area is very disjointed. You see this doctor to get your injection, then go to another place for therapy, and another place for rehab or behavioral therapy. My goal is to consolidate all those services.”

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Although trained in anesthesiology, Garcia decided early in his career to devote himself to his sub-specialty of chronic pain management, fueled by the often immediate, dramatic results he was seeing. “You’re using your hands a lot, doing injections, microsurgeries, and you almost immediately see the effect of your interventions—and I love that,” he says.

He says patients sometimes come to him in wheelchairs because they’re in such severe distress they can’t walk. After being treated, he says, they walk out the door themselves. He adds that he once implanted a spinal cord stimulator in a debilitated Maui paddleboarder, who was overjoyed to be able to return to the water. “Things like that make it a very gratifying and satisfying specialty,” Garcia says.