September 2021 issue
September 30, 2021 | Nearly 600 pain management specialists from the fields of neurosurgery, orthopedics, rheumatology, neurology, psychiatry, and primary care came together in Las Vegas earlier this month for the Pacific Spine and Pain Society’s second annual meeting. This recently formed society was created to fill a niche in promoting collaboration between interventional pain management and spine physicians. The event, produced by Mantra Meetings, took place at the Aria Hotel, with additional participation from online attendees.
The regional society attracted individuals predominately from the western and mountain states. The first day was dedicated to industry labs at the nearby Oquendo Center, in parallel with the society’s advanced practice provider course, followed by two days of plenary sessions and discussions. Saturday kicked off with a diagnosis-based section on lumbar spinal stenosis and cervical spinal stenosis, followed by sessions on neurostimulation and intrathecal drug delivery.
Presenting spine surgeons included Brian Su, Stephen Falowski, and Rishi Wadhwa. Pierce Nunley delivered Saturday’s keynote address. He discussed the increasing collaboration between spine surgery and interventional pain. Sunday was dedicated to abstracts, as well as sessions on digital health, recent policy changes affecting pain physicians, and practice management.
Industry was represented by both spine and neuromodulation companies, including the following booths: Abbott, Aurora Spine, Boston Scientific, Hartley Medical, Mainstay Medical, Medtronic, Nalu, Nevro, Relievant, Saluda, SPR Therapeutics, Stryker, and Vertos, along with more than 20 table top exhibitors.
Neurotech Reports spoke with founding member and Chairman of PSPS Jason Pope, outgoing president, Eric Lee, and incoming president Ramo Naidu, to better understand the role of PSPS.
Naidu, who began his term as president at the end of the conference, stated that PSPS was formed to address a void within current societies by creating a society which was all encompassing for spine surgeons and pain physicians. While there were numerous surgical societies and pain societies, there were few societies bridging the gap between the two groups. He commented that spine surgeons as a whole were not typically implanting neuromodulation, “PSPS seeks to be the home for existing and novel technologies which address both medical disciplines as well as increasing referral pattens between the two groups, ultimately improving patient outcomes,” he said. He also emphasized that the society expects to get increasingly involved in providing support for reimbursement for these technologies.
Pope, founding member and chairman of the society, stated that one of the drivers in PSPS’ formation was to create a regional society to address regional needs, particularly to support local coverage determinations as well as championing patient needs and referral patterns between spine surgeons and pain physicians. His focus in the society’s formation was to create an evidence-based society which reinforced/supported treatment algorithms, and to provide a forum to openly discuss these technologies, procedures, and patient solutions.
Outgoing president Lee talked about the societies’ surgical patients versus interventional pain patients while every patient is either pre-operative, post-operative, or non-operative, “There is a need to do a better job of having a collaborative effort and synergistic conversations to figure out which therapy is right for which patient at which time.”
While there are a multitude of societies and conferences for both spine surgeons and pain management physicians to choose from, PSPS seems to have found a niche to further collaboration and communication between two specialties which often serve the same patient group, ultimately benefiting patients through improving outcomes.
