Congratulation Dr. Patel!

[NJPAIN]

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PAZ- AKA - Ampa is Peter Zimmerman at end of the list. He passed a few years ago and was an active contributor to the forum. The list is a mix of good docs and complete crooks.

Xiulu Ruan, MD (Physicians' Pain Specialists of Alabama). Dr. Ruan is the co-medical director and co-owner of Physicians' Pain Specialists of Alabama. He also serves as the director of the interventional pain management fellowship program at the practice and is the founder and executive director of the International Institute of Pain and Rehabilitation. In addition to his practice, Dr. Ruan serves as an adjunct assistant professor of neurology at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians and the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine. He is also a fellow of the Interventional Pain Practice and the World Institute of Pain. He earned his medical degree at Shandong Medical University in China and completed his residency in rehabilitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. His additional training includes an interventional pain management fellowship in the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor.


Google this guy and see how many cars were confiscated.

I don’t know how they came up with that list. A mix of excellent docs and complete turds.

 

[Doctodd]

I noticed a guy from Laser Spine too....must be an old list since I thought they shut down.

 

[lonelobo]

That list could use an update

 

[Ducttape]

and which federal penitentiary he is residing at now

 

[paingamechanger]

SDN meaningless - eh, I think we all get/share a lot of good info here
pubmed articles, best practices, continuing ed, innovation - do we not discuss all of this here? (not saying the societies aren't needed for this)

I think any good information that is shared here is now being overshadowed by the “hate” and odd desire to spread negativity about colleagues, the only reason I come here is for the entertainment value of the site. It’s easy to sit behind a computer, behind an anonymous user handle poking fun at people. Get out there in front of others and make an actual difference.

 

[lobelsteve]

I think any good information that is shared here is now being overshadowed by the “hate” and odd desire to spread negativity about colleagues, the only reason I come here is for the entertainment value of the site. It’s easy to sit behind a computer, behind an anonymous user handle poking fun at people. Get out there in front of others and make an actual difference.

The difference made is the money these jerks put in their pockets.

Volunteer for SIS. Do the work. Stay in the shadows. Care for your patients.
Who-res.

Most docs did not go into medicine for the money. These guys did. Worthless. Dirty, dirty, dirty.

 

[paingamechanger]

The difference made is the money these jerks put in their pockets.

Volunteer for SIS. Do the work. Stay in the shadows. Care for your patients.
Who-res.

Most docs did not go into medicine for the money. These guys did. Worthless. Dirty, dirty, dirty.

I guess our definition of “jerk” differ.

I consider the doctors mentioned above like Dr. Ruan and laser spine to be “jerks”

I consider doctors who take time to educate others and innovate to be “role models”

 

[NJPAIN]

I think any good information that is shared here is now being overshadowed by the “hate” and odd desire to spread negativity about colleagues, the only reason I come here is for the entertainment value of the site. It’s easy to sit behind a computer, behind an anonymous user handle poking fun at people. Get out there in front of others and make an actual difference.

There is great info that is exchanged here. Sometimes the focus goes off course for a while but that is a function of our political situation and the absolutely sad state of affairs in medicine.

If you think that the majority of the rising stars in pain are “in front of others to actually make a difference” I think you are mistaken. I think it’s mostly about ego, money and hair grease. Nothing wrong with wanting or having those things but just be honest about it so I know that I may not be able to trust anything you say because you will say ANYTHING for the right price.

 

[paingamechanger]

There is great info that is exchanged here. Sometimes the focus goes off course for a while but that is a function of our political situation and the absolutely sad state of affairs in medicine.

If you think that the majority of the rising stars in pain are “in front of others to actually make a difference” I think you are mistaken. I think it’s mostly about ego, money and hair grease. Nothing wrong with wanting or having those things but just be honest about it so I know that I may not be able to trust anything you say because you will say ANYTHING for the right price.

I am pretty sure the sunshine act and disclosures prior to talks are there for that exact reason.

I just hope that members of this forum realize that name calling other doctors only devalues and shadows any of the great things you guys may do.

 

[TIVAndy]

PAZ- AKA - Ampa is Peter Zimmerman at end of the list. He passed a few years ago and was an active contributor to the forum. The list is a mix of good docs and complete crooks.

Xiulu Ruan, MD (Physicians' Pain Specialists of Alabama). Dr. Ruan is the co-medical director and co-owner of Physicians' Pain Specialists of Alabama. He also serves as the director of the interventional pain management fellowship program at the practice and is the founder and executive director of the International Institute of Pain and Rehabilitation. In addition to his practice, Dr. Ruan serves as an adjunct assistant professor of neurology at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians and the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine. He is also a fellow of the Interventional Pain Practice and the World Institute of Pain. He earned his medical degree at Shandong Medical University in China and completed his residency in rehabilitation at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. His additional training includes an interventional pain management fellowship in the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor.


Google this guy and see how many cars were confiscated.

Case study: Drs. John P. Couch and Xiulu Ruan

Drs. John P. Couch and Xiulu Ruan

www.times-news.com

 

[drusso]

Case study: Drs. John P. Couch and Xiulu Ruan

Drs. John P. Couch and Xiulu Ruan

www.times-news.com

Dr. John Patrick Couch Sentenced to 240 Months

www.justice.gov

What if there were a SEA? Stim Enforcement Agency...

 

[NJPAIN]

Dr. John Patrick Couch Sentenced to 240 Months

www.justice.gov

What if there were a SEA? Stim Enforcement Agency...

In the mid 1990s I was a thirtysomething year old academic pain doc, a few years out of fellowship and among the first few board certified in the field. Medtronic wanted to “help” me develop a pump and stim program so they sent me to Alabama to meet a “brilliant and innovative” young physician who was willing to take the time to “teach” others. His name was Pat Couch. I watched him implant two pumps and then he drove me to his office in a new Mercedes Benz. In the office he refilled pumps with meds he personally compounded from powder (like a chemistry set) at several thousand percent profit and he talked about how to choose candidates for implants and maximize profits. I walked away thinking I had just experienced greatness in its highest form. I was young and impressionable. Now, he would not have passed the sniff test.

 

[lobelsteve]

From link above:

With regard to Abstral, evidence showed that Dr. Ruan and Dr. Couch purchased approximately $1.6 million worth of stock in Galena Biopharma, the manufacturer of Abstral, and sought to manipulate the stock price by driving up Abstral sales. From the third quarter of 2013 through the 2014, Dr. Ruan and Dr. Couch were the number one and two prescribers of Abstral in the entire United States. During this same time period, nearly one out of every three Abstral prescriptions written in the U.S. were written by either Dr. Ruan or Dr. Couch.
As part of their criminal enterprise, Dr. Ruan and Dr. Couch owned C&R Pharmacy, which was co-located with one of the PPSA clinic locations. C&R Pharmacy would only fill prescriptions written by the doctors at PPSA, and Dr. Ruan and Dr. Couch split 75% of the profits that came in from the prescription drug reimbursements. Approximately 91% of the Subsys and Abstral prescriptions written by the defendants — which cost patients’ insurance anywhere between $1,000.00 to $24,000.00 per month — were filled at C&R Pharmacy.
In addition to C&R Pharmacy, the defendants also had a worker’s compensation dispensary, from which they directly dispensed Controlled Substances. The jury heard evidence that Dr. Ruan and Dr. Couch received guaranteed monthly kickbacks from a dispensary management company — Industrial Pharmaceuticals Management (“IPM”) and later Comprehensive Rx (“CRX”)—in exchange for the defendants dispensing certain drugs with high reimbursement rates. These monthly guaranteed amounts reached $80,000.00 per month for Dr. Ruan and $20,000.00 per month for Dr. Couch. The millions paid in kickbacks to the defendants associated with the worker’s compensation dispensary went into private bank accounts set up by the defendants.

 

[drusso]

From link above:

With regard to Abstral, evidence showed that Dr. Ruan and Dr. Couch purchased approximately $1.6 million worth of stock in Galena Biopharma, the manufacturer of Abstral, and sought to manipulate the stock price by driving up Abstral sales. From the third quarter of 2013 through the 2014, Dr. Ruan and Dr. Couch were the number one and two prescribers of Abstral in the entire United States. During this same time period, nearly one out of every three Abstral prescriptions written in the U.S. were written by either Dr. Ruan or Dr. Couch.
As part of their criminal enterprise, Dr. Ruan and Dr. Couch owned C&R Pharmacy, which was co-located with one of the PPSA clinic locations. C&R Pharmacy would only fill prescriptions written by the doctors at PPSA, and Dr. Ruan and Dr. Couch split 75% of the profits that came in from the prescription drug reimbursements. Approximately 91% of the Subsys and Abstral prescriptions written by the defendants — which cost patients’ insurance anywhere between $1,000.00 to $24,000.00 per month — were filled at C&R Pharmacy.
In addition to C&R Pharmacy, the defendants also had a worker’s compensation dispensary, from which they directly dispensed Controlled Substances. The jury heard evidence that Dr. Ruan and Dr. Couch received guaranteed monthly kickbacks from a dispensary management company — Industrial Pharmaceuticals Management (“IPM”) and later Comprehensive Rx (“CRX”)—in exchange for the defendants dispensing certain drugs with high reimbursement rates. These monthly guaranteed amounts reached $80,000.00 per month for Dr. Ruan and $20,000.00 per month for Dr. Couch. The millions paid in kickbacks to the defendants associated with the worker’s compensation dispensary went into private bank accounts set up by the defendants.

Do you think that the same thing is going on with stim?

 

[BobBarker]

No. Deer, Falowski, Pope, etc are speaking or doing a course nearly every weekend. They are being fairly compensated for their time away from their homes and practices.

 

[lobelsteve]

Do you think that the same thing is going on with stim?

Has been for years. Know a guy who set up a distributorship and would buy leads to sell to his ASC at marked up prices. He owned all of it.

 

[drusso]

No. Deer, Falowski, Pope, etc are speaking or doing a course nearly every weekend. They are being fairly compensated for their time away from their homes and practices.

And, running Ironmans! How many of the obese, sedentary, middle-aged who post here could teach a DRG course, do a swim/bike/run workout, followed by a 1-hour conference call?

 

[Green Grass]

I guess I don't understand why everyone is so worried about these docs. You're a big girl or boy, can read your own literature, and form your own beliefs. Why throw shade their way?

 

[drusso]

I guess I don't understand why everyone is so worried about these docs. You're a big girl or boy, can read your own literature, and form your own beliefs. Why throw shade their way?

See this link below. Many people are worried that the field is going to implode from douche-bag KOL's who get greedy and shady. For those of us who lived through IDET, pumps, the opioid wars, etc we've seen it happen before. No one pays you for nothing. And, when you start flashing your wealth, driving Bentleys and being ferried around the country by private jet, the regulators are going to come after you...

Puck77

 

[lonelobo]

No. Deer, Falowski, Pope, etc are speaking or doing a course nearly every weekend. They are being fairly compensated for their time away from their homes and practices.

$2 Million in a couple year period......hmmmm

 

[drusso]

$2 Million in a couple year period......hmmmm

This field has a bad history of greedy KOL's "drinking the Kool-Aid" and hyping a company's product. We just went through a period of history where Big Names like Portnoy, Fishman, and Webster were blinded by corporate $$$ and let practitioners down a rabbit hole. No company is going to pay a KOL and not expect something in return. Those guys were speaking at all the conferences, doing dinner presentations and courses 2-3 per week raking in the big $$$ from companies. Who can be certain that the same thing won't happen in the neuromodulation, SIJ fusion, and interspinous distraction spaces???

 

[lonelobo]

This field has a bad history of greedy KOL's "drinking the Kool-Aid" and hyping a company's product. We just went through a period of history where Big Names like Portnoy, Fishman, and Webster were blinded by corporate $$$ and let practitioners down a rabbit hole. No company is going to pay a KOL and not expect something in return. Those guys were speaking at all the conferences, doing dinner presentations and courses 2-3 per week raking in the big $$$ from companies. Who can be certain that the same thing won't happen in the neuromodulation, SIJ fusion, and interspinous distraction spaces???

Well are we not already there?

 

[NJPAIN]

Well are we not already there?

Yes we are. Docs are more willing than ever to distort the truth, promote the product and take the cash. It’s not only about the money. It’s also about fast tracking to a position of prominence in the field.

 

[drusso]

Yes we are. Docs are more willing than ever to distort the truth, promote the product and take the cash. It’s not only about the money. It’s also about fast tracking to a position of prominence in the field.

In fact, I think one blatantly overlooked/minimized COI is getting paid **NOT** to do something. They advance in academic rank, receive speaking engagement Honoria, "pay down" their clinical duties with appointments to prominent committees and write GIGO meta-analysis all with the aim of advocating for less (less treatment, fewer procedures, less medical service, etc). In essence, they are paid not to plant crops. In general, they advance more collectivist/population-based initiatives. Few of them have moderate political views and even fewer are libertarian by nature.

 

[Orin]

You can't blame a scorpion for stinging. We've all got a lot of ego. We're all flattered by the attention. We're not paid to do the right thing, as much as we are paid to do a thing.

It's hard sitting in meetings and listening to the collective drivel/echo chamber. The younger KOLs seem more authentic but still I suspect with the same human flaws we all have for ego, profit, etc beyond altruistic patient benefits.

There are definitely few evangelical people out there trying to advocate for therapies without industry funding to their name. I'm not sure if I could name one?

 

[Paingas]

Yes we are. Docs are more willing than ever to distort the truth, promote the product and take the cash. It’s not only about the money. It’s also about fast tracking to a position of prominence in the field.

Yea its called CornerLoc and Linq

 

[DOctorJay]

You can't blame a scorpion for stinging. We've all got a lot of ego. We're all flattered by the attention. We're not paid to do the right thing, as much as we are paid to do a thing.

It's hard sitting in meetings and listening to the collective drivel/echo chamber. The younger KOLs seem more authentic but still I suspect with the same human flaws we all have for ego, profit, etc beyond altruistic patient benefits.

There are definitely few evangelical people out there trying to advocate for therapies without industry funding to their name. I'm not sure if I could name one?

Tim Lamer

 

[NJPAIN]

You can't blame a scorpion for stinging. We've all got a lot of ego. We're all flattered by the attention. We're not paid to do the right thing, as much as we are paid to do a thing.

It's hard sitting in meetings and listening to the collective drivel/echo chamber. The younger KOLs seem more authentic but still I suspect with the same human flaws we all have for ego, profit, etc beyond altruistic patient benefits.

There are definitely few evangelical people out there trying to advocate for therapies without industry funding to their name. I'm not sure if I could name one?

Good points but I must disagree that the younger KOLs are more authentic. My personal observation is just the opposite. In the past KOLs had years of clinical experience and research behind them. Now if you get in with the right group of people you fast track to become a “made man” by age 40.

 

[Orin]

Good points but I must disagree that the younger KOLs are more authentic. My personal observation is just the opposite. In the past KOLs had years of clinical experience and research behind them. Now if you get in with the right group of people you fast track to become a “made man” by age 40.

Agreed. The point was that they seem more authentic

I think it is this phenomena:

Want to seem more authentic? Use politically incorrect language.

Politically incorrect speakers seem less calculated and more "real," according to the authors of a new Berkeley study.

bigthink.com

They're just better marketers/packaged