Oct 7, 2021
Dr. Gelfand is a board-certified rheumatologist with over 40 years clinical and teaching experience. Over the last three years he was involved with patient care and teaching rheumatology
to a new Internal Medicine Residency Program of HCA in Myrtle
Beach, SC, until he semi-retired last July, 2018 to devote most of his time to legal medical expert reviews of the medical histories of victims who have died or been harmed from the inappropriate prescribing of prescription opioids for chronic noncancer pain. Since 2010, he has been a founding member and the Rheumatology Consultant for Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing or PROP, the leading physician group in the nation addressing the opioid epidemic, as well as a medical advisor to a number of support and informal groups of people, many of whom have lost loved ones from opioid overdoses.
A note from Dr. Gelfand:
It was Arthur Sackler, not Richard Sackler who marketed Valium to great commercial success. Richard was his nephew and the driving force behind OxyContin, but was a medical student during the earlier Valium and heroin epidemics of the early 70's when I was a medical resident. It is logical that he knew about the psychoactive potential of both benzodiazepine tranquilizers and opioids.
Also, a series of articles just came out on the Comprehensive Pain Clinic of Myrtle Beach which I discussed in my interview. I posted a few on my Twitter account at: Steve Gelfand, MD@SteveGelfand.