New children's pain clinic to open in SF this spring
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Inside Stad Center's new Mission Bay campus. Photo courtesy of Stad Center
A new hospital center specializing in pediatric pain and palliative care will open its doors this spring at UCSF Benioff's Mission Bay campus.
Why it matters: The Stad Center for Pediatric Pain, Palliative & Integrative Medicine will provide holistic care to children using a blend of Eastern and Western practices, which medical director Stefan Friedrichsdorf says has proven more effective than pain medication alone.
Driving the news: The new clinic was designed to be a "healing environment" for children and will be staffed with dietitians and acupuncturists along with physicians, psychologists and physical therapists.
- Instead of a traditional waiting room, the floor plan prioritizes open spaces that includes a rock climbing wall, indoor swings and an interactive 10-foot-tall digital waterfall.
- The goal is to ensure children can feel safe and comfortable instead of stressed, which can often aggravate symptoms, Friedrichsdorf said. "We help them to heal before they even see the first doctor."
State of play: Research has shown that "if we combine [Eastern and Western practices] ... kids need less medications. They heal faster," Friedrichsdorf told Axios. "It really has shown to provide much, much better symptom control with far less side effects."
- Mindfulness-based activities can help young children increase awareness of their pain and name their experiences, according to Hui Qi Tong, a clinical psychology professor at Stanford Medicine who previously worked at UCSF's Osher Center for Integrative Health.
- It can also help reframe pain as a signal rather than something that's all-encompassing, allowing children to focus on stress and tension reduction, Tong said.
The big picture: The Stad Center was established in 2020 via a gift from then-San Francisco residents Elisa and Marc Stad, who were inspired to champion integrative medical initiatives after visiting the Shanghai Children's Medical Center in China.
- The center has seen more than 8,000 patients annually at its outpatient clinics in Oakland and Walnut Creek.
- Its patients primarily consist of children with acute pain, such as post-surgery symptoms or burns, and chronic pain, ranging from migraines to musculoskeletal ailments.
- They also provide palliative care, whether it's cancer- or organ dysfunction-related.
Between the lines: The Stad Center's blend of Eastern and Western medicine also caters to San Francisco's large Asian American population, who often lack access to culturally competent care.
What they're saying: "My hope is that we are setting the bar ... for children's hospitals in America and worldwide," Friedrichsdorf said.