Dr. Martinez
Owner and Lead Physician
Dr. Mike Martinez is a double board-certified Interventional Spine Pain Specialist and Anesthesiologist (American Board of Anesthesiology and National Board of Physicians and Surgeons).
He grew up in a small refinery town called Texas City, Texas, where he learned hard work firsthand from his father, who worked for a local pressure vessel fabrication shop, and his mother, a dedicated homemaker. In addition to hard work, they stressed the value of a strong education and made sacrifices to enable Dr.Martinez to have the best education possible.
Dr. Martinez incorporates these values on behalf of each of his patients to address the root causes of their pain through cutting edge technology with a personal touch. Dr. Martinez has extensive experience with pain management, anesthesia, steroid and sacroiliac joint injections, infusions and non-invasive spine surgery.
Medical Training:
Dr. Martinez attended a local Catholic School from middle school through graduation. His strong academic performance was rewarded with several scholarships to attend his first-choice school: The University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with a BA in Biology and the equivalency of minors in Spanish and Business.
Dr. Martinez then went on to work in a variety of jobs from the Sam’s Club cafe in his hometown, to international shipping and receiving of architectural lighting in Guadalajara, Mexico. One of the best lessons he learned from his father was ‘never be too proud to roll up your sleeves to work and earn a living’.
Dr. Martinez continued his education at UNTHSC Medical School right here in Fort Worth. He interned in Toledo, Ohio, at St Vincent’s Mercy Medical Hospital for a year, and completed his anesthesia residency at the University of Missouri, and pursued his Fellowship in Galveston at the oldest medical school in Texas – UTMB.
While in residency at The University of Missouri, Dr. Martinez worked hand in glove alongside Dr. Charles Edwards to provide cutting edge therapy for pediatric patients on high dose narcotics. They found that there were many children with long term maladies that necessitated narcotic therapy with such frequency that it resulted in increased tolerance and often adverse side effects.
With the help of Dr. Edwards, and with the full support of the Mizzou Children’s Hospital, he was able to reduce or eliminate narcotics from these patients’ treatment by relying on IV ketamine infusions. In 2014, Dr. Martinez presented these findings on the usage of Ketamine Infusions for Central Sensitization at the Midwest Anesthesia Residents Conference in Chicago and was awarded the top prize. This first foray into pain medicine ignited a passion for Dr. Martinez.
Being from Texas and knowing the reputation of the UTMB pain department, he became the first resident at MU to take an off-campus rotation at UTMB Galveston, which in turn led to his acceptance into the UTMB Pain Fellowship where he had the opportunity to train under Dr. Gulshan Doulatram, Dr. Daneshvari Solanki and Dr. Courtney Williams. At UTMB, he worked closely with faculty on a medical quality improvement project, co-wrote a chapter with Dr. Doulatram for a pain management textbook and continued his readings on ketamine and other methods of multimodal pain management.
After his fellowship, Dr. Martinez and his wife Brooke took a leap of faith and chose to move to Fort Worth to take on his first post-training opportunity. He began his first job in Weatherford, TX, the historic cutting horse capital of the world. There he was involved in semi-rural healthcare, which he found equally rewarding and challenging by providing Anesthesia and Interventional Pain coverage for Parker County.
Seeking to pursue both a new medical and artistic challenge, Dr. Martinez chose to open his own practice –Way Out West, in Fort Worth, returning to the city that gave him the opportunity to begin his medical career. Sticking true to his Texan roots of hard work, cowboy boots, and ’74 Ford pickup trucks, he has attempted to encapsulate the spirit of the Stockyards in the halls of the Way Out West Spine and Mobility Clinic.
Personal
Dr. Martinez has a baby girl with his wife Brooke, the two loves of his life. When he’s not working with patients, Dr.Martinez loves spending time with them and with their three rambunctious dogs named Mojo, Moneypenny and Bisoux – 2 Catahoula mixes and a Boston Terrier.
Dr. Martinez’s hobbies include pistol and rifle marksmanship, and whenever he has an opportunity, he takes friends and family to the range. He always teaches gun safety as he knows from first-hand experiences in the medical community the injuries that gun wounds can inflict.
During the summer, Dr. Martinez enjoys playing adult kickball and indoor soccer. He enjoys visiting Fort Worth’s vast collection of art museums and dabbles in photography using a mirrorless digital camera and even a drone to take aerial shots on vacation to scenic countries.
