"John J. Bonica... recognized during his experience in World War II that he was unable to provide adequate pain relief for many of his patients if he utilized only the methods afforded to him by his training in anesthesiology. He realized that health care providers who had been trained in other specialties and had managed pain for their patients could add a new dimension to both the evaluation and treatment of complex pain conditions that did not respond to his particular treatment. Although perceived by some to be more complicated and more costly because of the intitial multispecialty evaluations and treatments, multidisciplinary team management of pain has proven to be more effective and less costly overall than when pain is managed by different specialists working independently."