Desert Pain Specialists

Dr. Court Empey, MD founded Desert Pain Specialists in St. George in 2007 and describes the practice's local roots in terms that are more specific than most: he graduated from Dixie High School, attended Dixie College, and built a career specifically to bring interventional pain medicine to the community where he grew up. The practice is the longest-standing pain specialty clinic in Southern Utah by its own account.

His training covers an unusually complete arc for an independent practice founder: a biochemistry degree from the University of Utah with honors, a Medical Doctorate from George Washington University as an honor graduate, an internal medicine internship and medical anesthesiology residency at the University of Utah, and fellowship training in interventional pain medicine at the Mayo Clinic across campuses in Scottsdale and Rochester. That clinical stack — anesthesiology plus Mayo-trained pain medicine — places him at the credentialing level that hospital systems typically reserve for department-of-anesthesia hires.

Dr. Ryan Workman, DO covers the Cedar City location and surrounding communities. The practice's treatment model is deliberately multidisciplinary: interventional procedures, medical management, physical medicine coordination, cancer pain therapy, psychological approaches, and lifestyle modification are all named within a single framework rather than siloed. The St. George office is at 617 E Riverside Drive, Suite 301; Cedar City is at 1760 N Main Street, Suite 220.

**Verification notes** Website live; Dr. Empey as founder confirmed; 2007 founding confirmed via St. George Utah News coverage; Dixie High School and Dixie College background confirmed; GWU and Mayo Clinic training confirmed on provider profile; both locations confirmed on practice site.