There is growing recognition of the value of neuromodulation techniques to treat chronic, intractable pain while reducing patients' opioid requirements. Given the opioid epidemic, this is critical. Two UCSF Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, Division of Pain Medicine faculty members, Drs. Lawrence Poree and Prasad Shirvalkar, who both provide clinical neuromodulation care on the UCSF Neuromodulation Service, are also helping to support the wider use of neuromodulation techniques through ground-breaking research and provider-to-provider education and engagement, presenting at the recent International Neuromodulation Society’s (INS) 14thWorld Congress, in Sydney, Australia, this May. Both faculty are graduates of the UCSF Pain Medicine Fellowship Program.
Dr. Poree provided a plenary talk on closed loop spinal cord stimulation (SCS), as well as a lecture on synergistic waveforms for SCS. In addition, he participated in an educational forum for the public regarding neuromodulation and the opioid epidemic – a session that will be repeated in the SF Bay Area this fall. After Dr. Poree’s INS talks, he was approached for an interview by 9NewsAustralia – for the story, “Breakthrough device could relieve chronic back pain” – you can see the interview here. Finally, Dr. Shirvalkar’s presentation on closed loop deep brain stimulation (DBS) for pain won the Best Abstract Award.
