Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Dr. Georgiy Brusovanik, Founder of Spine Doctor Miami

Transcript

Dr. Georgiy Brusovanik, Founder of Spine Doctor Miami · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
• 0:02
  My name is Chanel Banger. Today, I have
• 0:04
  the pleasure of speaking with doctor Georgi Prusevaneck,
• 0:07
  the founder of Spine Doctor Miami,
• 0:09
  who joins us today to share insights into
• 0:11
  his background, health care trends, just keeping an
• 0:13
  eye on him, and a bit more.
• 0:15
  Doctor Prusevonic, thank you so much for joining
• 0:17
  me. Thank you so much for having me,
• 0:19
  Chanel. I'm honored.
• 0:20
  Perfect. Well, to get us started, can you
• 0:22
  introduce yourself and tell us a bit about,
• 0:24
  Spine Doctor Miami?
• 0:25
  Absolutely. So I'm a minimally invasive spine surgeon.
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  My little group is called the Spine Doctor
• 0:31
  Miami,
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  and,
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  we're a group of, spine specialists who
• 0:37
  are really, focused on,
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  back pain and neck pain, both from surgical
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  and nonsurgical,
• 0:42
  standpoint.
• 0:44
  Got it. Got it. And
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  in your field today, so either in spine
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  or in health care overall, can you talk
• 0:50
  about what trends you're currently watching?
• 0:53
  So I think that, the most relevant,
• 0:56
  are two.
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  One is,
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  endoscopy.
• 1:00
  So we're seeing,
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  a significant innovation in the field of using
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  tiny little skinny cameras and,
• 1:08
  arthroscopes.
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  The other thing that,
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  is really,
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  sort of a well proven path
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  with amazing potential
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  is the,
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  motion preservation.
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  And what I'm seeing is,
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  that I can officially
• 1:27
  cure neck and back pain
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  by restoring normal anatomy
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  and,
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  without having the patients lose their motion.
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  And what I'm talking about specifically is disc
• 1:38
  replacement.
• 1:39
  Now it's tempting to also talk about AI,
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  and,
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  I think that that definitely has a lot
• 1:46
  of potential.
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  But there really isn't
• 1:49
  a market
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  where this has,
• 1:52
  made a difference beyond just research.
• 1:55
  Got it. Got it. So a lot of
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  innovative things happening in your field with endoscopy,
• 2:00
  motion preservation,
• 2:01
  and the potential of AI.
• 2:03
  But looking forward into the 2025
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  and moving into 2026, what what are you
• 2:08
  most focused on and excited about?
• 2:10
  So the two things that I'm most excited
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  about are minimally invasive ways to help people
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  fix failed back surgeries.
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  Specifically,
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  nonunions
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  and adjacent level problems can be addressed
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  through, an exposure
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  that avoids going through old scarred fibrosed tissue.
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  So for example, someone who has a laminectomy
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  or a discectomy
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  or a degenerative disc, they may continue to
• 2:35
  suffer from back pain.
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  So we can sneak in through the front
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  or through the side and replace that disc,
• 2:42
  avoiding the old scarred path.
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  So even though it's a revision operation,
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  the patients really do as well as someone
• 2:49
  who's having their first operation.
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  And that's definitely something I'm very excited about.
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  I say to patients all the time that
• 2:55
  it's kind of a really good time to
• 2:56
  be a spine surgeon
• 2:57
  because it with a couple of these,
• 3:01
  methods of ensuring where the pain is coming
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  from, which I'm sort of well known for,
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  Once you know exactly where the pain is
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  coming from, you can reliably correct the problem.
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  That is definitely exciting. And now that we've
• 3:14
  looked in the future of it, looking back
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  at the past six to eighteen months, can
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  you talk about either an initiative or a
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  project or just something that you're proud of?
• 3:23
  Oh, absolutely. Gladly.
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  The,
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  vast majority of patients who come to see
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  me have nerve pain. And when nerve pain
• 3:31
  emanates from the neck, it may present a
• 3:33
  shoulder pain,
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  arm pain, forearm pain, or even just finger
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  pain.
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  So as a spine surgeon, my job is
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  to ensure the diagnosis
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  first.
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  Meaning, I first have to be certain that
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  I know where the pain is coming from.
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  And to take nerve pain in the upper
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  extremity specifically,
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  I often have to ask a question. Is
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  it coming from the elbow or from the
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  neck?
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  Now elbow pain is super common,
• 3:59
  and patients will often say that they wake
• 4:02
  up having to shake their hands, or they'll
• 4:04
  have significant tingling in their forearm
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  consistent with the carpal tunnel or cubital tunnel
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  respectively.
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  So
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  I created a device
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  that simply wraps the elbow in a comfy
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  pillow that stays on snugly, but doesn't make
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  one feel hot or limited in motion.
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  And I thought that this would be a
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  good way to differentiate patients who have elbow
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  pain from neck pain.
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  I keep a patient from hyperflexing
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  their elbow at night. And if the pain
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  disappears, then we know that it it was
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  elbow pain all along.
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  And if they wear this thing and they
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  still wake up with the same sensations,
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  then we know it's coming from the neck.
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  What blew me away was the public response
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  because
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  I gave it to a few patients and
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  they all reported the resolution of symptoms
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  after just the first night. But they didn't
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  talk about
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  resolution of symptoms on and off. They talked
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  about a cure. They talked about that they
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  don't travel anywhere without the pillow,
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  and they were shocked that it worked from
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  day one. And, you know, others stopped working,
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  stopped using it, and the pain didn't come
• 5:07
  back. They gave their elbows sufficient rest, and
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  the pain didn't come back. Jokingly, we call
• 5:14
  this pillow
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  pillow for pain.
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  And now it's something that,
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  I honestly can't practice
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  without.
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  That's truly incredible to hear. And now as
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  a founder, innovator, doctor,
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  you're the perfect person to ask those. Can
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  you, share some advice that you would give
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  to evolving leaders maybe looking to have the
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  same success and drive in their careers as
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  you have?
• 5:39
  Yeah. I would definitely advise them to not
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  listen to anyone.
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  I would advise them to really think for
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  themselves and analyze data.
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  Nowadays, you can find supporting evidence for any
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  point of view, and it takes me
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  about a minute to write a meta analysis
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  with citations,
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  with perfect article requirements,
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  as opposed to taking three to six months
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  to write an article even ten years ago.
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  So data will be coming in,
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  significant volume.
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  But, you really have to look at data,
• 6:11
  look at the sources,
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  and make sure that the information that you
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  are using is truly a reliable,
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  as reliable as we think.
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  So sources like PubMed
• 6:21
  are still a necessity
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  even if it was CHI GPT or another
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  AI
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  source that created the article.
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  We still can't step away completely
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  from at least looking at abstracts of good
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  publications,
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  and we can't step away too far from
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  remembering that we must continue to critically analyze
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  the authors.
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  If the authors were paid for the publication,
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  the publication
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  is negligible.
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  And when it comes to things like
• 6:50
  stem cells that have become incredibly en vogue,
• 6:53
  incredibly common and popular in in in medicine
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  without any significant,
• 6:59
  evidence based support quality evidence based support,
• 7:04
  there's definitely a reason to worry about
• 7:07
  false information
• 7:09
  driving traffic
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  in medicine.
• 7:12
  Well, doctor Prusevaneck, that is excellent advice and
• 7:15
  a great place to end. I wanna thank
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  you once again for your time today and
• 7:19
  for sharing your insights on the Becker's HealthCare
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  podcast. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank
• 7:22
  you. I appreciate the opportunity.