More than 50 million adults in the U.S. are dealing with pain in their joints, muscles and ligaments - generally arthritis pain. Rheumatology offices across the country have begun to locate and treat pain with ultrasound machines, but that technology is not always available to the poor or uninsured. NY1's Erin Billups filed the following report.

Angela Martinez was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis 20 years ago.

"It's not like normal pain, it's more like when you broken [sic] your elbow," she says.

Martinez has gone through many different treatment regimens to deal with the chronic, sharp pain, in her knees, sometimes in her feet - and now elbows.

In addition to oral medications, steroid injections have been helping her cope - numbing the pain for months at a time.

But making sure the right area is injected isn't easy.

"The doctor was looking the a part of where to inject and I was always screaming. It was really painful," recalls Martinez.

It's been less painful the last few times she's had an injection because of Jacobi Medical Center's new Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Program.

"The ultrasound has a number of advantages so when we do procedures you can see the needle going directly into the joint. Whereas if you do them guided by the anatomy, which is commonly done, you don’t know 100 percent if you're in the joint," explains Dr. Beverly Johnson, Rheumatology Chief at Health + Hospitals Jacobi.

The pain is often the result of inflammation, which shows up red in the monitor. The ultrasound also helps to diagnose other issues like a tendon tears, bone destruction or decoy veins.

And it's used to see if patients are actually responding to their medication.

"You can start see changes in their bones and tendons on the ultrasound far before when you can see it on an x-ray," says Johnson.

This technology is just now becoming standard treatment, and having it here at a city hospital, means anyone, those with Medicaid to the uninsured can access it.

"This has been extremely helpful for us to have this technology here because we are able to diagnose problems in the office in a few minutes, instead of waiting a long time to get an MRI. With an MRI would be very expensive," notes Johnson.

For Martinez, the ultrasound-guided injections means a little less pain... and more time for things that bring her joy.

"After the injection I can do everything I can move, I can dance, I can jump, I’m doing yoga," says Martinez.