Osseointegration in the USA report - shared from Fred Hernandez Hi All It was a long tiring two weeks on the road but well worth it. Our first talk was in Southern, California and was a success. There was lots of positive feedback regarding OI and its use today. Felt pretty good to be a part of helping dispel the false information surrounding Osseointegration and its use with helping amputees today. The next stop was Merida Mexico where we were able to begin the process of setting up an OI clinic. Soon we will be able to offer an affordable option to Americans interested in obtaining the procedure closer to home. The facilities are top notch in an area of Mexico that is mostly English speaking and full of Canadian, European and American transplants and the Yucatan Peninsula also has a very low crime rate. The surgeon is eager to apply his skills to this technology and has previously trained under Dr Aschoff of Germany. This time he will train under Dr Al Muderis back in Sydney to learn the Australian protocol. In the beginning surgeries will be performed by Dr Al Muderis with the assistance of orthopedic surgeon Dr Carlos Reyes of Merida. The most important part of this will be building a South American team to mimic the one in Sydney under the Osseointegration Group of Australia. After Mexico we flew into San Francisco where I had arranged another presentation and where Dr Al Muderis was speaking at the MSTS Conference. Also speaking were OI surgeons Dr Horst Aschoff of Germany and Dr Orjan Berlin of Sweden. It was a good experience to be around people who were not interested in the who’s system is better mentality. These guys are the actual players and are simply interested in advancing the technology and presenting their data for all to see. They all understand OI is still evolving and are continually working towards better results. It would be nice if others in the OI community would adopt this mentality as well and stop hindering its advancement. During my time in San Francisco I was able to meet with Dr Ronald Hillock of Las Vegas, NV. He is the surgeon who performed the first implant surgery on US soil back in April. From what I understand his team still has a ways to go but they are interested in pushing forward so Americans will one day be able to receive OI surgery here. Dr Al Muderis has also agreed to help him with his research and he will be flying to Sydney in the near future to learn more. His work does have the blessing of the FDA and was allowed by them as a custom device. From what I understand it’s fairly common in the medical device community. So for all those conspiracy theorists out there, Dr Hillock’s work is legit and FDA sanctioned. San Francisco was also where Dr Al Muderis revealed his yet to be named new implant. The new implant addresses some of the custom issues a standard implant does not and has some additional features. The best thing about the whole unveiling is that he was able to show off an actual patient; the lovely Miranda Cashin of Sydney, Australia who has been walking around with the implant for the last year now and doing just fine. Miranda was a difficult case and required a custom device that was not previously available. My next stop was Phoenix where I had arranged for a local group to host another presentation. We had another good session and people were again genuinely interested in the technology. He was also scheduled to speak at the OTA conference along with Dr Jan Frolke of the Netherlands. It was interesting to see the exchange between the two surgeons who had never met before. Both have been utilizing the same implant in different countries and completely independent of one another. Yet once they began sharing and comparing their work with one another, it became apparent that they were both on the same track. Their OI research and protocol mimicked one another almost exactly with equally impressive data results. These two OI surgeons are going to be a force to reckon with once they pool their results and begin working together. Up until recently the common thought has been mobility and getting people out of a situation where they were bound to a wheelchair. Now the perception has changed a bit and the implant is being applied so others who can benefit from the quality of life improvements that OI can provide. Both Dr Al Muderis and Dr Frolke have decided to apply their work to help arm amputees. Dr Frolke is performing the first ILP arm implant in the Netherlands this week and Dr Al Muderis will be performing an arm implant next month in Sydney. Once again I expect to hear the negative comments but rest assured the results and forthcoming data will be the true test. Some other good things came out of Phoenix as well. We were able to meet with a few members from Roy Bloebaum’s team from Salt Lake, UT. He has a good team of passionate people working with him. No matter what people say, Roy is still diligently working towards an American OI option focusing on the military. From what I understand they are still looking for their first 10 test subjects and are restricted by the FDA on how they go about getting them and their target date keeps getting pushed back as a result. It’s too bad because their colleagues are in most cases a good ten years ahead of them and without the ability to openly share information; it’s going to be a while before they catch up. Sometimes our country simply has too much red tape and patients suffer as a result. Luckily we have a plan to get around that and will soon be offering an affordable implant at a location that won’t break the bank. The procedure will be available by early next year in the beautiful Yucatan Peninsula of Meridia, Mexico.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 08:34:19 +0000
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