Relieve Chronic Back Pain with Spinal Cord Stimulation- EP 17

Premier Pain Talk

On this episode of Premier Pain Talk, host Dr. Michael Danko talks with Dr. Michael Fishman. He is a fantastic pain physician out of the Greater Philadelphia area. They are discussing spinal cord stimulation and some of the new horizons coming with it as well as digital health and data capturing and potentially new options for pain therapy down the road. Tune in!

Episode Highlights:

• Dr. Fishman went to medical school at Jefferson Medical College, and he developed an interest in anesthesia, ENT, and neck surgery. And at the end of the day, he ended up as a surgery resident at a program outside of Philadelphia.
• During his time working with the anesthesiologist at the hospital, Dr. Fishman ultimately found that perhaps there is a better use of his interests to look after patients after surgery and around their surgeries.
• Dr. Fishman’s clinic is like a lab where we get the opportunity to think of new ways to help people and ways to get patients the right treatment at the right time.
• One of the therapies that gets Dr. Danko super excited and makes it not feel like work sometimes, is something called a spinal cord stimulator. It is an implantable device and has been around for many years.
• Spinal stimulation in Dr. Danko’s mind has gone through now maybe even more advancements than cell phone technology or other technology of any type.
• What is ‘The Gate Control Theory On Chronic Pain’?
• Tonic stimulation is something that people should be familiar with, and it's a buzzing electrical sensation or maybe tapping and pulsing. They talk about how it had previously been practiced.
• Over the last few years, there has been a fine tuning of the electrical signals that are being passed in the spinal cord.
• If you talk to a bunch of different pain doctors or different people from industry, you are going to get a bunch of different answers for advancements with changes in the way the electricity is being delivered through devices.
• There is a psychological and social component that is also important to understand when you think about why pain doctors do what they are doing; That is why when they do apply therapies like simulation, it's important to understand biologically why also.
• For humans, isolation, depression, anxiety, status, etc all go in the same path with pain; But we can change the pain experience for the better or for the worse.

3 Key Points:

1. One thing about Yale Haven hospital that everybody should know is it is smack dab in the middle at the junction of I-95 I-91, which means that it is a super busy hospital and gets most of the trauma in the state.
2. DTM therapy is fantastic and the science behind how to fine-tune that therapy is very durable.
3. Getting patients the right treatment is the job of a pain doctor, but it’s also about the right timing being understood and the circumstances/ context for each person to make the best version of themselves that they can be, says Fishman.

Resources Mentioned:

https://premierpaintreatment.com/

https://www.facebook.com/PremierPainTreatment/

https://www.christianhospital.org/painfree

https://celerihealth.com/