Daniel Su, MD, RMSK, CIPS
A Taiwanese physician specialising in physical medicine and rehabilitation and in pain medicine — and a cellist. Founder and clinical director of A Tempo Regeneration Center for Musicians.
My clinical work covers occupational injuries in musicians and dancers, ultrasound-guided regenerative treatment including PRP and BMAC, and the biomechanical analysis and treatment of sports injuries. For years now the focus has been the health of musicians — treating injury through natural, efficient approaches, and helping performers optimise what their bodies can do.
I have been caring for around 200 musicians a year since 2018, and I have built injury-prevention programmes with every professional orchestra in Taiwan and with more than thirty conservatories, universities and high schools.
I also perform. I give concerts annually, and in February 2025 played the complete Bach Cello Suites in a single programme — partly as a concert, partly as an awareness event for performance-related musculoskeletal disorders.
As a cellist, I know we need a healthier environment for performing artists. As a doctor, I know I can bring key medical knowledge into the performing world. Together, we can make a difference.
Four papers that shape how this clinic works
Novel Ultrasound Examination and Guided Intervention of Peri-Oral Musculature and Fascia in Wind Players with Embouchure Problems: Technical Note
A new ultrasound-based approach to evaluating and treating embouchure problems in wind players. I described the sonoanatomy of the peri-oral muscles and fascia, proposed a practical scanning protocol, and set out the ultrasound findings associated with embouchure dysfunction — along with the role of ultrasound-guided intervention for injured peri-oral tissue. The work shows how ultrasound can identify structural problems affecting airflow, tone production, endurance and control.
Diagnostics, 2025 — MDPIUltrasound Evaluation and Guided Injection of the Subscapularis and Serratus Anterior Muscles Between the Scapula and the Thoracic Cage
An ultrasound approach to the narrow anatomical space between the shoulder blade and the chest wall — the sonoanatomy, the scanning technique, and the procedural considerations for safely reaching these deep periscapular structures. It matters here because scapular, shoulder and upper back pain related to subscapularis or serratus anterior dysfunction is very common among musicians.
Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, 2024 — WileyDiagnostic Ultrasound Findings and Treatments in Cellists with Performance-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Retrospective Study
A study of injured cellists — their clinical characteristics, diagnostic ultrasound findings, injury patterns and treatment outcomes. I analysed how playing-related pain and dysfunction associate with specific anatomical regions, performance demands and ultrasound-detectable tissue change, described the treatments given including ultrasound-guided regenerative approaches where indicated, and evaluated recovery afterwards.
Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 2025 — Science & MedicineUsing Shear Wave Elastography to Guide Perineural Hydrodissection
How shear wave elastography can add information about tissue stiffness around peripheral nerves, helping identify nerve entrapment, adhesion or abnormal mechanical tension — and how that information can guide more precise ultrasound-guided hydrodissection. The work points to elastography as a functional imaging tool for procedural planning, targeting and outcome evaluation in perineural injection therapy.
Available on PubMed Central — PMC7344597I am also a contributing author to an international medical textbook, and received the Best Young Investigator Award from the International Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (ISPRM) in 2013.
- Visiting attending physician, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan
- Founder and clinical director, A Tempo Regeneration Center for Musicians
- Teaching faculty, Taiwan Association of Prolotherapy and Regenerative Medicine
- Teaching faculty, Taiwan Pain Society
- Teaching faculty, Neuromuscular Ultrasound Workshop and Musculoskeletal Ultrasound in Taiwan
- Teaching faculty, World Academy of Pain Medicine Ultrasonography, Taiwan Chapter
- Performing arts medicine
- Platelet-rich plasma injection
- Ultrasound-guided perineural hydrodissection
- Prolotherapy
- Neural regeneration
- Osteopathic manipulation
& qualifications
- Board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
- Board certified in Pain Medicine
- Doctor of Medicine, Taipei Medical University
- Registered in Musculoskeletal Sonography (RMSK)
- Certified Interventional Pain Sonologist (CIPS)
- Certified in Performing Arts Medicine — PAMA, Aspen, Colorado, 2017
education
- Hackett Hemwall Foundation prolotherapy training, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2014
- American Association of Orthopaedic Medicine (AAOM), 2015, 2017, 2018
- American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R), 2015, 2016
- NeuroKinetic Therapy Level III certified, London
- Biotensegrity master class for regenerating fascia, Austin, Texas
- MSKUS ultrasound cadaver training, Fort Worth, Texas
- Michigan State University osteopathic medicine, 2016, 2017
- World Congress of Music Physiology, Osnabrück, Germany, 2018
- Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare annual meeting, 2018
- Human fascial dissection workshop, Cremona, Italy, 2023
- Clinical observer, University of California, Irvine, Department of PM&R
- Assisting faculty, AAOM perineural hydrodissection workshop, Seattle
- Certified in IV nutrition therapy (IIVNTP)
speaking
- More than ten invited medical lectures each year, on ultrasonography, regenerative medicine, performing arts medicine, biotensegrity and pain medicine
- Injury-prevention lectures delivered at thirty music colleges and five professional orchestras in Taiwan
- Presented the embouchure diagnostic and treatment approach at the Performing Arts Medicine Association conference, London, 2024
- Monthly one-day training programme in ultrasound-guided regenerative medicine for physicians from overseas — details here
In conservatories, orchestras and lecture halls
Tell me what has changed in your playing.
Email your symptoms, how long you have had them, and a short video of you playing. I reply personally, and I will tell you honestly whether I think I can help before you book anything.