Academic medical centers have a special advantage when it comes to helping make the most exciting spine technologies more accessible in the long run, Nolan Wessell, MD, said.
Dr. Wessell, of Aurora-based University of Colorado School of Medicine, discussed the unique position he has as a spine surgeon in that setting during an upcoming episode of the “Becker’s Spine and Orthopedic Podcast.”
Note: This is an edited excerpt.
Question: What are the big trends you’re following in healthcare today?
Dr. Nolan Wessell: We just had the North American Spine Society meeting [in November], and through the exhibit floor, it’s really clear to me that integration of robotics and artificial intelligence and patient-specific surgical plans is where spine surgery is headed. We’ve seen robotics in general surgery for quite a while. We’ve all heard about the Da Vinci robot that’s probably been around for 15 to 20 years. Robotics in spine care is somewhat in its infancy, but when you start to integrate that with preoperative planning and using large scale, database learning and AI algorithms to help plan a patient specific surgery, or even custom, 3D printed patient specific implants, it really begins to change the game. Right now, the costs for some of those technologies are quite high, but as development progresses, like anything else we expect those costs to come down, and hopefully that translates to better value and better outcomes for patients.
Q: What do you think it will take from these companies to help costs come down to make these technologies more accessible to any practice setting and to patients?
NW: Cost is at the forefront of everything we do in healthcare right now. I work at a large academic institution and when it comes to development of these new technologies, I really look at the larger centers as the ones that need to lead the charge. Being a big academic center, we have a robust portfolio of research projects that are ongoing. We have an easier ability to get large scale federal and regional grant funding, and we need to be smart about how we use that money. I hope that a portion of it is invested in advancing these types of technologies because ultimately that’s going to benefit not just orthopedic patients but the broader healthcare system as a whole. If we have technologies that allow us to do a broader spectrum of surgeries in a more ambulatory setting with smaller incisions and reduced recovery, that’s going to change the game in terms of orthopedic care.
Q: How have you been tracking these governmental shifts, whether it’s related to reimbursement or this research funding?
NW: One thing to be certain of is that it’s constantly going to change in the American political system. It really doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you sit on, we can expect that every few years, there’s going to be a little bit of a shift in terms of which party maintains control, and that is going to result in a shift in various types of funding as providers and as academic institutions.
At the University of Colorado we have a new dean, John Sampson, MD, PhD, and he is really working hard to set up a financial structure that provides more stability across the entirety of the med school, so that if we encounter periods of time where federal funding is reduced, we have the reserves on hand so that we can maintain a robust faculty of not only providers, but research staff as well. Hopefully endowments continue to grow. As we continue to grow our cash reserves, we’re well suited to whatever weather, whatever storms we might face as political persuasions fluctuate.
