Innovation

While most private practice medical offices do not actively participate in medical innovation, we do because we hope that the way we do things tomorrow is even better than how we do them today. We collaborate with others to perfect new treatment options for difficult problems, or to make existing treatments less invasive or safer.

While we want to make tomorrow’s treatments better, we also use the best that is available to us today. We will offer you our medical advice on today’s treatments, and also discuss with you what’s coming down the road to treat your condition. Here are some examples of past or current innovation projects we have worked on:

• Controlled Release
  One of our physicians participated as a researcher in the laboratory at Johns Hopkins that developed a novel way to deliver chemotherapy to the brain. Part of the way the body protects the brain is obvious: the skull, or the cranium. The body also protects the brain from many toxins by making it hard for many chemicals in the bloodstream to reach the brain. Getting useful drugs into the brain across what is called the blood brain barrier has been a challenge. One solution, originated by Henry Brem, MD, is to deliver a chemotherapy agent named BCNU directly to the brain tissue by implanting at the time of brain surgery biodegradable wafers loaded with the drug. As the wafers are reabsorbed by the body, the drug is released slowly and kills malignant brain tumor cells. Not only does this get the drug where it is needed, but it also limits the effects of the drug elsewhere in the body, making it better tolerated. That treatment is now available to patients as Gliadel™.
• Cortical Stimulation
  People who suffer a stroke often have a new neurological problem, such as weakness or a problem with language function. While stroke patients may initially improve, many reach a plateau in their recovery and have to live with permanent disabilities. One of our physicians helped to start in Seattle a company called Northstar Neuroscience that is working to improve the quality of life of stroke survivors and others with neurological impairments by using controlled electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex to hasten recovery or to elevate a person’s functional outcome.
• Anterior Cervical Micro-Foramenotomy (AMF)
  Compression of a nerve root as it leaves the spinal cord in the neck can give a person pain, weakness, numbness or tingling. A disc rupture or narrowing from arthritis can give a person severe pain which often responds poorly to powerful narcotic pain relievers. When surgery is necessary, the most common approach involves a fusion at the front of the spine, which leaves one moving spinal segment forever motionless. The lack of motion at one segment can then lead to accelerated wear-and-tear at the next level up or down. Anterior Cervical Micro-Foramenotomy (AMF) is a novel procedure developed by Hae Dong Jho, MD, a professor of one of our physicians who personally taught him the technique. We are working in collaboration with professors and students at Hope College to make this procedure safer and easier for qualified physicians to perform.
• Percutaneous Neuromodulation Therapy (PNT)
  Percutaneous neuromodulation therapy is a treatment that involves the delivery of electrical current into the body with the hope of relieving pain. One of our physicians participated in a pilot study exploring whether this treatment would have utility in helping patients with severe back or leg pain who had failed most other pain treatment options.
• Therapeutic Cooling
  In some clinical settings, such as following a myocardial infarction (heart attack) or stroke or traumatic brain injury, some clinical evidence suggests that cooling the body, or at least preventing fevers from occurring, may help the body heal faster and improve the eventual outcome. One of our physicians participated in a series of pilot studies exploring in a clinical setting novel cooling techniques under development by Alsius, a medical device company in Irvine, California.
• TransCorp Spine
  TransCorp Spine was founded by spine surgeons and engineers to address the surgical needs of both surgeons and patients in striving for better procedural outcomes and an early return to life activities (SM). TransCorp Spine is a privately-held, early-stage, medical device company dedicated to developing unique, commercially-viable, minimally-invasive and tissue-saving products and procedures for the treatment of spinal pathologies. transcorpspine.com