Frank Phillips, MD, is the director of the section of minimally invasive spine surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. He practices with Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush and focuses his basic science research on the biomechanics of spinal reconstruction and biologic strategies. During his career, Dr. Phillips has served as principle for several FDA clinical trials evaluating cervical and lumbar disc replacements. He has also received numerous grants for his research.
"More payors are getting on board with artificial cervical disc replacement because it's hard to argue with the data," he says. "[In the future] there will be innovation in cervical disc arthroplasty, but the regulatory process remains cumbersome. The discs that are out there now will most likely continue to show good results, but it is extremely expensive and time consuming to bring newer designs of disc replacements to the market given the regulatory hurdles. There are theoretically better artificial disc designs out there, but it will be years before we see them on the market in the United States."On the biologics side, Dr. Phillips says that while research has been progressing rapidly, surgeons are still a long way from treating patients. "The holy grail for spine research is regenerating and healing injured or degenerated discs," says Dr. Phillips. "Even if basic science shows a particular growth factor injection will regenerate the disc, researchers are still unsure whether that would alleviate pain in patients. There is also a question as to whether the effects of a single growth factor injection would last for an extended period of time."
In addition to his clinical work and research, Dr. Philips is on the board of directors for the Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery and he serves on several committees for the North American Spine Society. He is co-director of the spine fellowship at Rush and has been a spinal consultant for the Chicago White Sox.
Dr. Phillips earned his medical degree from the University of Witwatersrand Medical School in South Africa and completed his residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals. His additional training includes a fellowship at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland.
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