The Politics and Economics of Orthopedic Medicine

[mmglobal]

ADR Seeker, welcome to the forum.

Please tell us more about yourself... are you a patient looking for solutions?

The M6 and NeoDisc are interesting designs. As with all of the devices, features and differences from one to the next.... all come with advantages and disadvantages. So much of what is said about them and what we initially understand, is marketing spin. It's difficult to separate the important issues from the spin.

I wish I could write more about these devices now. I originally wrote about the M6 from SAS-7 in Berlin. See here: Mark's SAS7 Blog.

Interestingly enough, migration is one of the problems with Neo Disc because the jacket is so flexible and what keeps the core in place is the jacket. It is a beautiful design and is so simple and somewhat smaller invasive procedure. (This may also be something of the marketing spin more than important data because the important work in a disc replacement surgery has to do with getting behind the vertebral bodies to remove osteophytes and decompress the neural structures.)

There is so much more to say... but I have to run.

Again... Welcome!

[ADR seeker]

Originally Posted by mmglobal

ADR Seeker, welcome to the forum.

Please tell us more about yourself... are you a patient looking for solutions?

The M6 and NeoDisc are interesting designs. As with all of the devices, features and differences from one to the next.... all come with advantages and disadvantages. So much of what is said about them and what we initially understand, is marketing spin. It's difficult to separate the important issues from the spin.

I wish I could write more about these devices now. I originally wrote about the M6 from SAS-7 in Berlin. See here: Mark's SAS7 Blog.

Interestingly enough, migration is one of the problems with Neo Disc because the jacket is so flexible and what keeps the core in place is the jacket. It is a beautiful design and is so simple and somewhat smaller invasive procedure. (This may also be something of the marketing spin more than important data because the important work in a disc replacement surgery has to do with getting behind the vertebral bodies to remove osteophytes and decompress the neural structures.)

There is so much more to say... but I have to run.

Again... Welcome!

Thanks,

I can see how an old style ADR can be in many cases such as young herniations be better than a fusion but the ball and socket ADR all over rotate. For me with the problems in my neck the fusion probably would be better than an old syle ADR but it still won't be very good and even with the new ADRs we are still in the orthopedic dark ages IMO. They are not even using motion X-rays as a diagnostic tool.

It's a bit scary when you go to a surgeon and your grasp of the bio mechanics of the spine exceeds theirs. Fixing a spine is more than just stabilization and restoring motion it a combination of the two and many other factors. A motion limiting shock absorbing disk that closely mimic the real thing is probably a better choice for most people.

The best choice would be tissue regeneration and PT that is not rooted in false assumption, pseudo-science and conjecture. Again, we are in the Medical Dark Ages and the brief medical renaissance that came about in the 40's and 50's quickly died when medicine ceased being a profession and morphed into a business and then became the biggest industry in the US.

I need a new cervical spine. C 5-6 is the worst and the cascade continues do to dark ages medicine.

[teg]

Hey Mark,
I will take the opportunity to jump in here because I feel that I am a walking spokesperson for both sciences ADR and Fusion. While fusion of the intervebral bodies of the spine has been the "gold standard", my cervical spine has yet to agree with the ages of wisdom behind this science.

I live with the domino effect from my fusion of c6-c7, yet never questioned the skill of my surgeon. Here in DC, he is listed among the best. Yet, the fusion has left me in a significant amount of pain and a likely future of more surgery.

My three-level ADR by Dr. Bertagnoli changed my life. WHile spine surgery is no panacea, mine was a complete success. I hope that as this forum goes forward, we lear from each other's experience. "what is good for the Government, is good for the poeple. (My two cents.) We are a financially incentived medical society in the US and innovation takes a back seat to progress.

Thelma

[james]

health care in US is all politics.
Why we import so many engineers from China and India, but we do not import many medical doctors ?

US medical system puts so many barriers in front of foreign doctors to make it hard for them to come to US.

Let them come to US and I am the one who decides whether to see them or not.

[ADR seeker]

Medicine should be run by the states and the federal government now that medicine is no longer a profession. The rate of health care inflation and extreme profiteering is beyond obscene it is criminal.

Disease is something to be eliminated and not exploited for profit. People are not commodities or cash vending machines.

[don_wagner]

James you are partly correct. If qualified foreign doc's made it into the states, they'd soon catch on and join in with the rest of the doc. crowd. Why do you think so many foreign grad students flood the top US grad institutions? They want the green card to get the green money.

[mmglobal]

I know a few leading surgeons who have transplanted themselves to the US even though they had successful practices overseas. Dr. Fabien Bitan in NY had nearly 200 ADR's under his belt in France before coming to the US and being a principal investigator for many new technologies and becoming a very heavy hitter in pediatric scoliosis. Dr. Lali Sekhon brings an amazing amount of experience to the US. He has done some amazing revisions.

Mark

[theBadCormorant]

Originally Posted by ADR seeker

Medicine should be run by the states and the federal government now that medicine is no longer a profession. The rate of health care inflation and extreme profiteering is beyond obscene it is criminal.

Disease is something to be eliminated and not exploited for profit. People are not commodities or cash vending machines.

Coming from Scotland, the USA does seem very odd in the money grabbing attitude it has to looking after their own citizens. Is it really true that if you don't have money you don't get treated (other than real basic stuff)

Our NHS is certainly not problem free, but if you get ill and that illness causes you to get poor, at least you have no worries in gaining access to some of the best medical care available. Just seems a little more civilised.

[Maria]

One needs to see if the surgeon involved does charity work if not able to afford surgery or look to a county facility for treatment which will still involve some degree of services/cost.

There may not be a "free service" but there may be quite a reduction if a person should qualify. We just underwent I believe a 2nd annual HealthCare Event in Los Angeles where all services were free. People stood in line for a great deal of time to get some kind of admittance for this event and then were allowed in on one of three days. I wish this was something that were a far more common occurrence because so many people need services. Of course something like orthopedic surgery wouldn't be performed there but at least one could get an evaluation and possibly some form of treatment that day or some kind of assistance.

Even with insurance co pays and uncovered services can really either put a serious dent into one's pocketbook or almost be a deterrent to using the insurance plus there are so many rules that one practically needs a JD to get thru all the babble about when what can be done...