Meet the Spine Care Partners
Thomas J. Neuner, DC, JD
Tom serves as Chief Operating Officer and Corporate Attorney for Spine Care Partners. He is past administrator of Michigan Spine and Joint Center, an integrated group of spine care specialists providing services which includes chiropractic, physiatry, interventional pain management and physical therapy. Dr. Neuner is also an allied chiropractic physician with Michigan Head and Spine Institute, one of our nation’s largest neurosurgical groups.
Although currently retired from patient care, he has been in practice as a chiropractic physician directly caring for patients for 35 years. Dr Neuner also has a keen interest in the integration and coordination of varied health care practitioners in the field of spine care continuum.
In addition to duties as a full time clinician, Dr. Neuner is a medical attorney of 26 years holding a J.D. degree from Detroit College of Law, Michigan State University, admitted to the Michigan Bar in 1996. He is a member of the Michigan Health Lawyers Association and American Bar Association.
Brian D. Justice, DC
Brian is Chief Innovation Officer for Spine Care Partners. He is a medical director for Excellus BCBS Pathway Development and Spine Programs. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from The State University of New York at Brockport, Dr. Justice attended graduate school at National Chiropractic College in Chicago, IL. He then spent 28 years in a spine-focused chiropractic practice in a variety of private, industry and hospital settings. Dr. Justice has published articles in peer review journals, served on national health care guideline development committees and presented nationally on value driven health care, quality improvement, pathway development, optimal interdisciplinary spine care, wellness and holistic health. He has recently presented at the BlueCross BlueShield National Summit and Stanford Medicine X. He has been an executive wellness coach for clients such as Wegmans Food Markets and the Rochester City School District. Dr. Justice was also honored with the Rochester NY 2015 Health Care Innovation Award.
John M. Ventura, DC
John Ventura is Director of Education for Spine Care Partners. He is a 1977 graduate of the University of Rochester and 1983 summa cum laude graduate of National College of Chiropractic. He practiced full time in Rochester NY for 30 years. He has served as clinical instructor in the department of family medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine from 1997 to present. He previously served on the adjunct faculty of New York Chiropractic College and D’Youville College.
He currently serves as the vice president of the United States Bone and Joint Initiative (USBJI) and sits on the steering committees of two USBJI programs: Burden of Musculoskeletal Diseases in the United States and MSK-Education. He is a member of the primary care and chronic illness committee of the National Quality Forum. He is chair of the Committee for Quality Assurance and Accountability of the American Chiropractic Association (ACA).
Dr Ventura enjoys time with his 7 grandchildren and playing the piano.
Donald R. Murphy, DC, FRCC
Don is Director of Clinical Pathways for Spine Care Partners. He is a chiropractic physician and primary spine practitioner with over 30 years of clinical practice experience. He has served as Medical Director of the spine care Program for a multi-hospital healthcare system in Rhode Island where he oversaw an integrated, interdisciplinary spine care pathway that focuses on primary spine care. Dr. Murphy is also Clinical Assistant Professor at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Adjunct Professor at Southern California University of Health Sciences and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Research at New York Chiropractic College. He lectures throughout the world on various topics related to primary spine care and is one of the lead instructors for the Primary Spine Practitioner certificate course offered by the University of Pittsburgh. He has published over 100 articles in numerous peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as several books and book chapters. His newest two-volume book, Clinical Reasoning in Spine Pain Vols I and II is the required text for the PSP certificate course. These books can be obtained through Amazon:
Clinical Reasoning in Spine Pain Volume 1 Clinical Reasoning in Spine Pain Volume 2
Marcia Spoto, PT, DC
Marcia is Director Implementation and Quality Management for Spine Care Partners. Dr. Spoto is Professor Emerita of Physical Therapy at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY. She received a bachelor’s degree in Physical Therapy from Daemen College in Amherst, New York and a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College in Davenport, Iowa. She is board certified as an Orthopaedic Specialist by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties. Her teaching responsibilities included musculoskeletal management, pain management, diagnostic imaging and differential diagnosis. Dr. Spoto has 40 years of clinical experience, with a practice focus in spine care. She established STAR Physical Therapy in Fairport, NY in 1983, which continues to serve the Greater Rochester community. She is currently an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh in the Primary Spine Practitioner program. She serves on the Academy of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy (AOPT) Practice Committee and is chair of the APTA New York Public Policy Committee. She is a consultant for Excellus Blue Cross & Blue Shield and has been a member of the faculty of the Excellus BC & BS Spine Care Pathway program.
Bryan "Kendall" Payne, DC, NRCME
Kendall is the Regional Director of Sales for Spine Care Partners. He has been in private practice since 2001 and has served in leadership roles on multiple committees for both state and national health care organizations, including former chairperson of the insurance, education and convention committees of the Kansas Chiropractic Association. He received the Kansas Chiropractic Association ‘Doctor of the Year’ award in 2015. He serves as a consultant to BCBS of Kansas and BCBS of Kansas City. He is a nationally certified medical examiner. In 2016 he was the director of clinical operations for Cleveland University - Kansas City. He currently sits on the review committee of the state of Kansas board of healing arts.
Morris Levene, MBA
Morris serves as Director of Business Development for Spine Care Partners. His career in health care is noted for both innovation and management ability. He served as senior vice president for Excellus BC/BS overseeing company Divisions of Pharmacy, Operations, Medical Management, Claims, and MedAmerica, a long term care insurance company. His significant achievements at Excellus include developing and implementing one of the nation's first hospital cost containment programs. He implemented a three-tier pharmacy program.
Prior experience includes senior director at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association where he implemented and managed a Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan performance measurement program.Another achievement at the BCBSA was using sophisticated statistical marketing research analysis and survey techniques. He has also founded Health Care Industry Advisors, a consulting group to assist clients in navigating through the complexities of the current health- care environment and he is also presently associated with an innovative Rx cost containment company.
David Peyton, DC
David is co-Director Information Technology for Spine Care Partners.
From 2011 to 2019, David worked as a full-time chiropractic clinician serving patients in South Africa in evidence-based primary spine care. During that time, he began working with Spine Care Partners, LLC to develop and deploy an IT platform as a service to deliver high quality spine care training and support primary care and primary spine practitioners across the world.
In 2019, David immigrated to the USA with his wife and children, where he began working in a dual role as clinic administrator for Michigan Spine & Joint Center, and IT co-Director for Spine Care Partners, LLC. In 2021, David transitioned to full time IT co-Directorship with Spine Care Partners.
Matthew C. Proctor DC, ICSSP
Matt joined Spine Care Partners, LLC as co-Director of Information Technology in 2019. Involved in systems development of digital pathway based, best-evidence care delivery consulting involving all stakeholders in spine.
After qualifying in 2010 with a Masters in Chiropractic, he joined the University faculty as a Clinician at the University of Johannesburg Chiropractic Clinic, and later as a part-time lecturer in the faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Johannesburg lecturing Clinical Biomechanics & Kinesiology, as well as Myofascial Dry Needling.
Still practicing as a chiropractor in South Africa, he enjoys a patient-centered evidence-informed biopsychosocial approach to musculoskeletal conditions. He is a qualified International Chiropractic Sports Science Practitioner through Fédération Internationale de Chiropratique du Sport.
About Spine Care Partners, LLC
We listened to you, we understand you, and we’ve responded. Like you, we were frustrated by the plethora of problems in spine care. We needed an easy to implement, sustainable spine program that works. Out of these pressures, our team of world-class spine experts crafted our Best Practices Spine Care Program that helps you bring order to the chaos of your spine care problems. Together, we work with your organization and spine care providers to create better care, better outcomes and better costs in spine care.