Therapists do have room in their schedules to accommodate patients with serious cases who need to be seen immediately, she says.

Doyle admits that there is still room for improvement. "I still think [the wait time] is probably not good," she says.

Patients who feel they are not getting the care they need can always turn to UHS Patient Advocate Kathleen Dias.

Dias says while she does occasionally get complaints about service from students, usually those complaints are not from RSI patients.

Not Just Harvard's Problem

According to Coley, patient complaints about physicians' limited knowledge about RSI reflect a gap in the field of medicine in general, not just at UHS.

In discussing the treatment of RSI at UHS, Coley emphasizes the fact that little research has been done on RSI.

"There are a lot of orthopedists and rheumatologists who believe this doesn't exist," he says.

While some similar phenomenons like carpal tunnel syndrome are well-documented, Coley says "Almost all students coming in with upper-extremity symptoms do not have carpal tunnel syndrome."

"We see an awful lot of people who have some vague symptoms" which are not necessarily associated with a pinched nerve as in carpal tunnel syndrome, Coley says.

Because RSI is so under-researched, Coley says it is unclear which treatments are actually effective.

While massage and physical therapy may help, he says it is not documented whether they are any more effective than complete abandonment of the actions which caused the RSI in the first place.

Coley says most RSI patients at UHS do not have cases severe enough to require surgery, but in some rare cases students are referred outside of UHS to facilities like Spaulding.

Student insurance plans allow three outside referrals a year.

And Coley and Hollis say they are working on increasing UHS physicians understanding of RSI.