Patient Outcomes

VSELs – State of the Art Regen Med or Fairy Dust?

There has been a two-decade-long debate in Regenerative Medicine concerning tiny stem cells. I had largely forgotten about these Very Small Embryonic Like (VSEL) stem cells until a patient came into the clinic claiming that he had been treated with them. So what is this and why should we care? Let’s dig in. What Are…read more

Listening as a Diagnostic Tool in Medicine

Sir William Osler is the physician identified with creating much of our modern medical education system of internship and residency. He would often tell his students something like what I have written above. The goal was to get them to understand that even back at the turn of the 20th century, listening to the patient…read more

Is R3 Stem Cell Really an Award Winner?

R3 is a marketing company run by a defrocked orthopedic spine surgeon that has gained lots of attention for flaunting FDA regulations and claims about its private-labeled stem cell products that can’t be verified. Not to be dissuaded, they have now created a host of artificial awards and press releases or what I called the…read more

Paragon Integrated Medical: The Scams Continue

It’s time again to explore the stem cell wild west. Today’s entry is a clinic in California, but what you’ll see here might as well be any integrative chiropractic clinic offering “stem cells”. I’ll cover two interesting models over the next two blogs on this topic that both miss the mark. Let’s dig in. Integrated…read more

Steroid vs. Platelet Lysate Epidurals: One Woman’s 10-Year+ Result

Epidural steroid injections for sciatica have been a mainstay of treatment for many years. However, while they generally work, they have some serious downsides. Hence, more than a decade ago we changed to using the patient’s own growth factors to treat irritated spinal nerves. A patient I just saw this week is a great demonstration…read more

Direct Biologics, Exosomes, IRB Approval, and Paisleys?

What do Paisleys and illegal exosome products have in common? How about spine surgeons and exosomes? Let’s dig in. Paisleys? I recently got a press release that looks like it was put out by former Spine Surgeon, Ken Pettine. I’ve known Ken for years, but these past few years he’s suffered from an addiction problem…read more

The One-Sided Nature of Media Reports on Regenerative Medicine: Kaiser and Regenexx

As you may know, we have been successful in getting self-funded health plans to add interventional orthopedic procedures that use orthobiologics. This has been met by many companies with open arms, as they are increasingly struggling to control exploding healthcare costs. For orthobiologic naysayers on the university bench scientist side, this development has been concerning…read more

Honesty Is Key: Not Every Patient Is a Good Candidate for Stem Cell Treatment

One of the things that was very clear at the Interventional Orthopedics Foundation meeting this past week was that there are two opposing forces offering “stem cell” therapies out there. On the one hand, you have the doctors like the ones lecturing at IOF, who are working hard on the science of who responds best…read more