Dr. Ming-Chih Jeffrey Kao

Dr. Kao is very cold and impersonal. I felt like he rushed to recommend risky (and expensive) procedures too quickly, and didn't give me other alternatives to try first. Appointments are scarce, and often a long wait in the office for the appointment each visit too. His office is also terrible to deal with, and messages can take weeks to get a response.

I don't know yet... Different than the usual.

termination note Dr. Kao, I am extremely disappointed with your lack of effective treatment of my chronic lumbar spine pain. Your policy of NOT prescribing opioids for my type of pain, which has been 100% effective in the past, with NO dependency is unacceptable and ridiculous. Your trial of 5 medications ( 1 of which totally ruined an entire day for me) which were 100% ineffective has been a painful waste of my and your time. I have been without a solution for my pain for months now which resulted in a number of days of untreated pain. I would accept any medication that works. Your suggestion of a nerve ablation safari (you have no way to know which nerve or nerves cause my pain) which would require repeat treatments is, to say the least, undesirable in addition to being a financial windfall to the doctors and hospital preforming the procedures. I am not prepared to wast any more of my time allowing you to screw around with meds that don't work, to quote our president: YOU'RE FIRED!

I was treated without an ounce of compassion. And I was given advice that is antithetical to what multiple other physicians told me, which leads me to question his competence. Scary.

Dr. Kao is kind caring and very smart. He's taken the initiative to find new ways of helping his patients by researching new relevant treatments. He was well prepared for my first appointment. and had read my full medical file, which is quite large. He's noticed that some number of pain patients have Ehlers-Danlos and has worked to find specific treatment to help us recover. After decades of dealing with doctors that treated me like a faker, it's wonderful to be treated with respect.

I couldn't disagree more with the reviews by others. I am a patient advocate who deals with physicians throughout the country and Dr. Kao is among the most capable and patient centered with whom I have worked. My client is dramatically improved since seeing Dr. Kao and I find his team to be very responsive.

Dr. Kao is very unprofessional and absent minded. I have been dealing with trying to get an MRI approved by my insurance, after Dr. Kao gave them incorrect information regarding what the MRI was for. I have already had to reschedule it multiple times due to his error, and have not received any word back from him. I will be filing a formal complaint with Stanford for this.

No preparation done by the Dr. before the procedure. Very casual, not serious about his job!