General Physician 'a perfect match' for Niagara Falls community

Article and Photo by Benjamin Joe

The former reVive Spine Center, at 6941 Williams Road, Niagara Falls, is under new ownership and will be an office dedicated to neurosciences and pain management under the auspices of General Physician PC. Signage for Dr. Franco Vigna’s orthopedic spine office will be changed in the next few weeks.

Paul Insalaco, director of neurosciences, orthopedics and pain management at General Physician, will be overseeing the new site and spoke as the office building transitioned.

“This is a new service line for us at General Physician,” he said. “We have huge complement of primary care, lots of women’s health, cardiology. … Those are our big ones. Then we have smaller, but growing areas like GI … orthopedics and neuroscience, (which) this is really our first one.”

General Physician is part of Kaleida Health and Insalaco said it aligns with Kaleida’s services for health in the hopes of giving the community everything it needs.

Insalaco also said the building needed very little rehab in its interior and, other than signs needing to be changed, the transition has been smooth.

“This office, before our acquiring it, was an orthopedic spine office,” Insalaco said. “That orthopedist was looking to move his family to Florida. So, the way we replaced that spine work was through some neuroscientists, but to round out the services that go along with spine care … pain management was later brought in, about six weeks ago.”

The two neuroscientists working at the office are Dr. Assaf Berger and Dr. Hanna Algattas. The pain management doctor is Dr. Vikas Pilly.

Other services, such as massage, may also come under the umbrella of services for spine care, and EFG testing will definitely be added, Insalaco said.

He explained of EFG testing, “Your nervous system basically functions by electrical impulses traveling up and down. So, if people have tingling or numbness in their hands or feet, it’s a test that allows them to assess that electrical conduction along the system. If there’s impedance in that they can figure out why. … It’s a good way to diagnose carpal tunnel.”

Insalaco also said Niagara Falls, and even Niagara County, was underserved in terms of spinal care, which he said was a specialized field. He admitted, however, that before Vigna’s announcement of moving, there hadn’t been a plan to expand.

“It’s a chance for us to provide services in Niagara County, which otherwise don’t exist in the county and might cause patients to have to travel or even not receive treatment,” Insalaco said. “It’s about meeting the patients where they are, and also grow our footprint, which is a win for everybody.

He added, “Our business development team knew Dr. Vigna was going to be moving on and Dr. Vigna, of course, wanted to make sure all of his patients were taken care of. So, it was really a perfect match.”