From the announcement:

Designed to reduce anchoring time and enhance procedural efficiency, the Swift-Lock anchor eliminates the need for sutures or medical adhesive typically required to secure the anchor to the lead. Featuring an easy-to-use mechanical lock, physicians secure the anchor with a simple 90-degree twist. This design minimizes the complexity and variability associated with anchoring leads.

The Swift-Lock anchor features include:

Intuitive locking mechanism that provides tactile and visual confirmation that the lead is locked

Strong fixation to the lead to help mitigate the risk of migration

Highly radiopaque material to provide easy fluoroscopic visualization

Simple twist lock mechanism allows for easy repositioning of the lead if needed

Press release: St. Jude Medical Unveils Latest Product at American Academy of Pain Medicine Annual Meeting

From the product page:

When receiving Calmar Pain Relief Therapy (CPR-T), artificial neurons are created to non-invasively transmit to the central nervous system (CNS) information that is recognizable as ‘self’ and ‘non-pain’ through surface receptors on the skin.

Compared to conventional electro-analgesia, the CPR-T principle substitutes pain information with synthetic ‘non-pain’ information, rather than blocking pain transmission as with TENS or implanted devices utilizing the Gate Control theory. The device incorporates electromedical equipment for electronic nerve stimulation, and uses the nerve fiber as a passive means to convey a message of normality to the central nervous system by a procedure defined as “Scrambling” or tricking of information, which then enables the central nervous system to modify the reflex adaptive responses.

Since the device consists of a multiprocessor apparatus able to simulate five artificial neurons, it allows five pain areas to be treated simultaneously.

Press release: Competitive Technologies Commercially Launches Pain Management Medical Device in U.S....

Product page: CALMARE Therapy Treatment...

Calmar Pain Relief, LLC...

Flashback: Electrical Nerve Stimulator for Drug Resistant Pain Gets Green Light in U.S.

From the product, described as a "transcutaneous electrical modulation pain reprocessor":

Description:

The pain management therapy technology is a non-invasive method for rapid treatment of high-intensity oncologic, neuropathic, and drug-resistant pain through a biophysical rather than a biochemical manner. The method incorporates electromedical equipment for electronic nerve stimulation, and uses the nerve fiber as a passive means to convey a message of normality to the central nervous system (CNS) by a procedure defined as scrambling or tricking of information, which then enables the CNS to modify the reflex adaptive responses — referred to as TEMPR — Transcutaneous Electrical Modulation Pain Reprocessor. It has been successfully used to treat over 2,300 patients in hospitals in Italy.

Advantages:

The non-invasive MC-5A device, using Scrambler technology, is a multiprocessor apparatus able to simultaneously treat multiple pain areas in the individual. The patient experiences longer "no pain" periods after each successive treatment.

Applications:

The global pain management market is estimated to reach $40 billion by 2010. Potential market opportunities include hospitals, nursing homes and hospices, cancer treatment centers, and pain management centers.

Product page: Pain Management Therapy...

Press release: Competitive Technologies Receives FDA Authorization for Sales of Pain Therapy Medical Device ...

Link to interview with Competitive Technologies CEO about the approval...

TrisPharma, a New Jersey pharmaceutical company, has just announced the launch of its NoBuse™ technology which "...allows companies to provide pain relief responsibly." Also applicable to ADHD products and other drugs of abuse, TrisPharma claims their system is "nearly impervious to abuse."

The company offers sparse details about its technology, but here's what we know:

NoBuse™ is an innovative and patent pending technology utilized in the formulation of drugs with abuse potential. The abuse deterrence is attained by physical means and works at two levels: the technology forms a complex of a drug with very fine polymeric particles; then coating the drug-polymer complex with a highly flexible non-breakable coating. This makes the product resistant to prevalent drug extraction approaches used on conventional formulations without the need of additional ingredients. The products based on NoBuse technology can be formulated in any oral dosage forms, such as tablets, liquid suspensions, oral dissolving tablets (ODT), and films or strips in either immediate release or 12 to 24 controlled release profiles...

"Abuse of prescription drugs is a fast-growing problem-being able to limit this liability is a real benefit to society," says Thomas Newton, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at the Baylor College of Medicine. "Other methods can be breached-but the data for NoBuse(TM) shows that it is virtually impossible for abusers to get around. I also like the fact that the abuse deterrence is not contingent on the patient being forced to take added active ingredients such as the antagonist naloxone. The vast majority of patients aren't abusers and there is no reason for them to ingest an additional drug they don't need."

The technology works across a range of oral dosage forms including tablets, liquid suspensions, orally disintegrating tablets, and drug strips. It can also be used to formulate an immediate-release product with a built-in abuse deterrent. In doing so, Tris Pharma's NoBuse(TM) technology provides important value and a competitive advantage against competing delivery technologies.

Press release: Tris Pharma's New Tool Fights Against Prescription Drug Abuse...

Product page: NoBuse™...

Image credit: bayat @ Flickr: Rough days

Dr. Jack Tsao, a Navy neurologist with the Uniform Services University, was looking for ways to help soldiers like Paupore. He remembered reading in graduate school a paper by Dr. V.S. Ramachandran that talked about an unusual treatment for amputees suffering "phantom limb pain," using a simple $20 mirror.

The mirror tricks the brain into "seeing" the amputated leg, overriding mismatched nerve signals.

Here's how it works: The patient sits on a flat surface with his or her remaining leg straight out and then puts a 6-foot mirror lengthwise facing the limb. The patient moves the leg, flexing it, and watches the movement in the mirror. The reflection creates the illusion of two legs moving together.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. While improvements in armor technology have kept more soldiers alive than ever before, many of those saved are coming home as amputees. We've explicitly asked the question before, and the number of posts we've done on the subject serves as evidence: for better or worse, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are driving major advancements in medical research and technology.

More from CNN...

Photo Credit: michiyoemi

The company says that its PatchPump™ works using a "novel solid-state battery cell which gradually expands in a stable manner under electronic control."

A couple of nuggets about the technology and capabilities of device as provided by the company:

The ECell™ merges the two major components of disposable pumps -- the power source and the motor -- into one simple miniature part, enabling the fabrication of very flat and simple devices.

The key advantages of the technology are as follows:

Rock-steady drug-delivery using non-gassing mechanism

Self-powered as battery cell expands as it is depleted

Unaffected by changes in temperature or pressure

Very low cost

Lightweight

No MEMS or other exotic manufacturing technologies required

The expanding battery cell will be produced on a battery production line

SteadyMed's product range enables:

Delivery of basal and bolus combinations as required

A range of drug volumes: 5cc, 3cc, 2cc, 1cc, 0.5cc

Typical operation time 48 hours to 7 days

Penetration methods include SubQ, IV and microneedles

Integration of soft cannula insertion mechanism into the device

No MEMS or other exotic manufacturing technologies required

Varying levels of sophistication of electronic controller, from simple and disposable to re-usable and sophisticated

Videos: How the Patch Works; How the Battery Works

Product page: PatchPump ...

(hat tip: ISRAEL21c)

The press release is to follow later on today.

In the largest experiment on acupuncture for back pain to date, more than 1,100 patients were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture, sham acupuncture or conventional therapy. For the sham acupuncture, needles were inserted, but not as deeply as for the real thing. The sham acupuncture also did not insert needles in traditional acupuncture points on the body and the needles were not manually moved and rotated.

After six months, patients answered questions about pain and functional ability and their scores determined how well each of the therapies worked.

In the real acupuncture group, 47 percent of patients improved. In the sham acupuncture group, 44 percent did. In the usual care group, 27 percent got relief.

More from the AP article...

Here's how it works. A patient logs in to keep a record of his pain with all kinds of associative descriptions, factors and modifiers: standard pain score, pain distribution, terms describing his/her pain, modifiers like meds taken, physical activity performed, etc. The site is based on AJAX, the same technology that GMail is using, hence there is a two way communication with a server without many page reloads. The interface is intuitive on both patient and physician's ends. It should also be noted, that Fred Eberlein, founder and CEO of ReliefInsite.com, tells Medgadget that their service is in full compliance with HIPAA, and is extremely secure.

During the conference and at home, we checked out all of the ReliefInsite service modules:

The website also features reminders, as well as powerful standard and fully customizable reports that one can view, print or save on the computer.

In terms of expense, the site is free for MDs/DOs. Everything is included: case management, reports, etc. The basic patient diary is also free. Premium service for patients is a reasonable $6.95 for 1 month; $29.95 for 6 months; or $49.95 for 1 year.

Your correspondent, an anesthesiologist, felt that such a service can simplify your clinical life, whether by improving patient care through improved productivity, or by allowing patients to take charge and record a very subjective vital sign, pain. Also, what I liked was the ability to run reports and always to come back in time and to show a patient's previous pain levels, drugs taken, etc, and to adjust meds or therapies based on hard data from the past.

We highly recommended this sophisticated service for pain docs, surgeons, OB-Gyn specialists, spine care docs, oncologists, and everyone in between.

Take the tour: ReliefInsite ...

SnowWorld, developed at the University of Washington HITLab in collaboration with Harborview Burn Center, was the first immersive virtual world designed for reducing pain. SnowWorld was specifically designed to help burn patients. Patients often report re-living their original burn experience during wound care, SnowWorld was designed to help put out the fire. Our logic for why VR will reduce pain is as follows. Pain perception has a strong psychological component. The same incoming pain signal can be interpreted as painful or not, depending on what the patient is thinking. Pain requires conscious attention. The essence of VR is the illusion users have of going inside the computer-generated environment. Being drawn into another world drains a lot of attentional resources, leaving less attention available to process pain signals. Conscious attention is like a spotlight. Usually it is focussed on the pain and woundcare. We are luring that spotlight into the virtual world. Rather than having pain as the focus of their attention, for many patients in VR, the wound care becomes more of an annoyance, distracting them from their primary goal of exploring the virtual world.

In our preliminary case study (Hoffman, Doctor, Patterson, Carrougher and Furness, 2000), two patients with severe burns went into SpiderWorld. They saw a virtual kitchen complete with kitchen countertops, a window with a partly cloudy sky, as well as 3-D cabinets, and doors that could be opened and shut.
Patients could pick up a teapot, plate, toaster, plant, or frying pan by inserting their cyberhand into the virtual object, and clicking a grasp button on their 3-D mouse. Each patient also physically picked up a virtual wiggly-legged spider possessing solidity and weight, using a mixed-reality force feedback technique developed by one of our team members. Patient 1 had 5 staples removed from a burn skin graft while playing Nintendo, and six staples removed from the same skin graft while in VR. He reported dramatic reductions in pain during VR.

Patient 2 showed a similar large but less extreme pattern (reduction of pain during wound care while in VR compared to while playing a video game). The results of these two patients are described in a clinical note in the March 10th, 2000 issue of the medical journal PAIN. Clinical notes are inconclusive by nature, and larger studies are needed (and underway).

In a related preliminary clinical study that is now completed, (Hoffman, Patterson and Carrougher, 2000), have found additional support for the efficacy of VR for pain control. Twelve patients with severe burns at Harborview reported highly significant reductions in pain levels during physical therapy when in VR compared to no VR (conventional treatment). In addition to distracting the patients, VR can likely be used to motivate patients to perform desired stretching motions, using behavioral reinforcement techniques (e.g., they could get more gas for their jet by gripping and ungripping their healing hand 10 times).