My colleagues accepted these side effects as a natural consequence of managing pain. This seemed like insanity to me. I thought there had to be a different, better solution, and it had to come from outside the “house of medicine.” 

At that point in my career, I was an academic family physician and was managing a multispecialty medical group of 30 practitioners. Stepping outside the traditional “house of medicine” was not a simple or easy decision. I was risking the ridicule, censure and quizzical looks of my peers. How dare I say that conventionally-accepted medical practice was not good enough? After all, no self-respecting medical doctor would use any tools that did not require medical license to use, prescribe or recommend.