A new spine practice in New York City is aiming to rethink how spine surgery is done.
Endoscopic Spine Institute of New York has four surgeons: Sanjay Konakondla, MD; Albert E. Telfeian MD, PhD; Jian Shen, MD, PhD, and Travis Hill MD, PhD.
Dr. Konakondla and Dr. Telfeian spoke with Becker’s 10 days after opening the Endoscopic Spine Institute of New York.
The two came from academic backgrounds. Dr. Telfeian is with Providence, R.I.-based Brown University and built up the first endoscopic spine center in an academic center, and Dr. Konakondla developed endoscopic spine services at Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger.
The way the two united, along with Jian Shen, MD, PhD, was serendipitous and was years in the making. Dr. Konakondla, one of Dr. Telfeian’s first fellows, said he originally did training at Brown for spinal oncology.
“But then I looked across the hall and I saw Dr. Telfeian looking at a screen with awake patients and tiny incisions and using a camera,” he said. “And I said, I probably should go figure out what’s going on here.”
From that first exposure to endoscopic spine, Dr. Konakondla was in love with the technique. Meanwhile Dr. Telfeian said he and Dr. Shen were friends for decades, and Dr. Shen had the advantage of having roots in New York to build the practice.
“So many things have to fall into place serendipitously for this to happen,” Dr. Konakondla said. “We’re still getting lucky with every step that we get into that we’re making all these new connections and this is rapidly developing into, you know, what we wanted it to be.
In its early days, the practice is already seeing wins.
“We’ve had double digits of referrals to both Dr. Telfeian and I in the first week, and an overwhelming majority of those were operative,” Dr. Konakondla said. “Another big win is that almost every other day, we’re having two or three international surgeons asking us if they can come by the Institute to observe and learn.”
Like many with private practices Dr. Konakondla said a key challenge he anticipates will be negotiating with payers.
“When you bring an outpatient, boutique level, elective surgery to New York City, you have to realize the value of that,” Dr. Konakondla said. “Unfortunately, in the current payer system, that value is not realized and or recognized. I think when we go forward into innovation rapidly developing, but infrastructure still has a lot to catch up on. That’s the challenge we’re facing.”
Endoscopic Spine Institute of New York takes insurance that’s out of network along with cash payments, Dr. Konakondla said.
Dr. Telfeian also said the group is doubling down on its digital presence through TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, shaping the narrative around spine surgery.
“What we’re doing is not just a procedure,” Dr. Telfeian said. “We’re rethinking spine surgery. Dr. Konakondla says spine surgery doesn’t have to be scary, and I’ll tell people that I’m just the mouse who took the thorn out of the lion’s paw … People want these less scary options.”
Thinking long term, the surgeons are looking to grow their practice within the state and beyond.
“Dr. Shen, as soon as we started talking about doing this, was already talking about doing an Endoscopic Spine Institute of Shanghai,” Dr. Telfeian said. “We already have people asking us if they can have a branch in Saudi Arabia. I told Dr. Konakondla that it seems like ESI NY has always been there even though [it opened so recently].”
