Edward Tobinick, MD

My personal experience with Dr. Tobinick was horrific. If I understood how awful his services were at the time I would have filed a lawsuit. Unilocal just deleted my original review of this doctor, and I doubt they did it randomly. So, my personal experience (underline!) is that he is a rip – off artist and if I had my choice he would have his medical license revoked.

My father attended today as a stroke patient. 20 years since his stroke. Alot of spasticity on his right side. Also this was painful to touch from shoulder to ankle. Also has speech impairment.
After attending the LA clinic Dad’s pain has gone completely. His speech is still the same currently although we were told that it can take months for Enbrel to work.
Already walking and getting up and around is better; noticeably. Will be returning in a a week for another treatment. Thanks for helping restore some quality of life. Staff were fantastic.

Be advised, this is not as effective as it is being marketed. I wish there had been Unilocal or some sort of collected reviews for this racket when we were considering it. In 2008 my husband saw a youtube video about Dr Tobinick’s treatment for back pain. They advertised a «free consultation». We brought medical films and records for review. As it turns out, this «free consultation» involved simply sitting in a room watching the expanded youtube video and no further consultation. There was no doctor involved at that point. If you want to see a doctor, it would cost $ 500. After waiting over 2 hours, and in such pain that it was getting worse by the minute in «waiting room hell», we learned that it would cost $ 500 to determine if he was a «candidate» for the treatment. The treatment consisted of a peri spinal injection of Enbrel, a rheumatoid arthritis drug. I have since learned that they use approximately 25mg of Enbrel. They charged a minimum of $ 3000 for this, which includes their «evaluation». It is not covered by insurance as it is considered «experimental» and a off-​label use. The «big sell» was that ONLY Dr Tobinick could do this procedure because he had «the patent» on the use of Enbrel for such conditions in the spine. They even maintained that such treatment could reduce or treat Alzheimers! We later learned Dr Tobinick had some sort of restrictions on his license at the time and could not directly treat patients. He had an associate in place, someone who did his bidding and treatment at his direction. This should have served as a warning of some sort, but when you have been in such horrific pain, and made to wait for hours, you become irrational, your judgement fades Looking back, I think Dr Tobinick KNEW the injection would not help. When we finally sat down with him, he seemed to feel that he had little confidence that it would work, yet he did not send us away, which is what an evaluation is supposed to be able to address. I wonder if having our credit card in hand might have tempered this environment. We went ahead with the injection. NEEDLESS TO SAY, IT DIDN’T WORK. Not right after the shot, which they implied would happen, and not in the ensuing weeks was there ANY sort of recovery. I regret that we didn’t walk out when we were made to wait for hours. I note that his office corridors were lined with old laser equipment. I realized later that he probably had a dermatology practice which was closed. Here is my opinion of this practice: I think he is taking advantage of people in intractable pain. I think UCLA is HUGELY culpable and should not be renting space to a doctor who masquerades as a UCLA staff physician and uses such a credential as gravitas for his «treatment» which has a poor track record. For such a poor track record of success, he is GOUGING people WHO ARE IN PAIN, for the treatment. Charge a fair rate if you know it will likely not work, if it is experimental, or if you know that it is such a large gamble. My advice to others in pain from disc herniation: find a good doctor who does FLEXION DISTRACTION therapy using a combination of modalities, customized for your situation, like heat therapy, electric muscle stimulation and controlled, directed, mechanized traction. This will slowly make a little space, relieving the pressure around the disc which allows the body to heal and make new pathways around the injury, thus reliving the pain. After four treatments of this, my husband’s pain was 95% gone and never returned. A series of 6 treatments out of pocket cost about $ 300 at the time – a huge BARGAIN vs this very questionable practice.