John C Chiu, MD

I went to «California Spine Institute» a few years ago and even had physical therapy there. The therapy sessions were good (but no different from any other place). This review is specifically about my experience as a patient. Every time I had an appointment my wait time was around 3 hours (!) even though I would arrive on time. The setup was basically that they have Dr. Chiu and his entourage going from patient to patient (from room to room) and this ends up creating huge delays. First I had to wait in the lobby (a very nice lobby) for about 2 hours. Then I was put a room and waited for another 1 – 1.5 hrs in there before the doctor finally arrived. They didn’t really help me either. Gave me a some cortizon shots in my spine, which provides some very temporary relief, but nothing substantial. Charged a bunch of money for PT. These days I am still in pain.

Dr. Chiu is the most experienced and talented minimally invasive spine surgeon in the world. He has operated on my neck (C3, C5, C6) which was injured from a serious rear-​end collision over 15 years ago. No other doctor could do what Dr. Chiu has done for me. As a patent attorney, I followed technological developments pertaining to herniated cervical disks and pinched nerves for over 9 years from my injury. I didn’t want any fusions in my neck (so I could continue surfing). My research indicated that Dr. Chiu is THE LEADER in minimally invasive spine surgery having been one of the first doctors to practice and develop such procedures. Dr. Chiu is also just a great person to have on your side in these desperate situations some of us are going through. He BELIEVES and LISTENS to me. He LOVES his patients and has NO EGO. He doesn’t get offended when you tell him you researched the internet and think it may be this or that. Finally, I’m not sure if I was the captain or if he was the captain, but we BOTH (as a team) got into a space capsule together (along with his entire medical staff) and launched into the galaxy of healing, positivity and hopefully a new beginning for a 50 year old surfer dude with a thrashed neck. Cheers to Dr. Chiu and his entire staff.

Dr Chiu is a Genius. After 10 years of suffering with other Doctors he pin pointed my problem in minutes and preformed Minimal Invasive Spine Surgery on my L3 and L4 area and I feel 20 years younger again. NO MORE PAIN !!! THANK YOU… Joe F…

I went there for a 2^nd opinion, but ending up spending the whole day and having unnecessary XRAYS, MRIs and other tests. I gave them my own MRIs but they insisted to have another one there. He claims their MRI machine is special which is not true. I took the images to other doctors. They all say poor quality and had to do another one. I called to get my full medical report and history. Guess what they say? MRIs and XRAYs report are not ready after taking them 4 weeks ago.
Doctor asking his assistant to put the CD into his computer because he does not know how the computer works. Imaging have him operate on you!!!1
The staffs are nice but work slow despite the fact they have low number of patients in there.