Wireless Spinal Cord Stimulation Without a Separate Trial: Does the Evidence Support a Paradigm Shift?
Part of Trial or No Trial? The Future of SCS Selection
Details
- Date
- Saturday, January 23, 2027
- Time
- 11:05 AM – 11:20 AM
- Session type
- Concurrent Session
- Schedule
- See this day
About
This controversy-based panel will examine whether the conventional screening trial paradigm for spinal cord stimulation (SCS) still represents best practice in 2027. Speakers will review the evidence comparing trial-first versus direct-to-implant strategies, discuss how trial duration may influence both signal quality and infection risk, analyze how false positives and responder enrichment bias can distort both research and real-world decision-making, and evaluate the cost-effectiveness implications of maintaining or abandoning trial-based selection. The session is designed to move beyond dogma and provide attendees with a practical, evidence-informed framework for patient selection in modern SCS practice.
Presenters
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Richard B. North, M.D. is a retired Professor of Neurosurgery, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he directed the Neurosurgery Spine Service for 16 years and co-directed the Division of Functional Neurosurgery for 10 years. After two undergraduate years at Harvard, he received his medical degree and post-doctoral biomedical engineering and neurosurgery training at Johns Hopkins. From 1998 through 2003 he founded and served as CEO of Stimsoft, Inc., which developed patient-interactive implanted stimulator technology. He has served as president of the charitable nonprofit Neuromodulation Foundation since its founding in 2007, and is past president of the Institute of Neuromodulation and the North American Neuromodulation Society. He holds a number of patents in the field of implanted electrical stimulation devices.