Session Description: : High profile publications that imply neuromodulation implants and commonly performed pain procedures are ineffective and should not be performed have become a regular occurrence in the last five years. There are significant implications for patient care and ongoing research if regulatory bodies and funders accept the findings of these publications verbatim and chose to withdraw support. The burden of proof for demonstrating the benefit of these interventions falls on us as healthcare providers and researchers. This session will involve a sequential and logical approach to understanding the impetus behind these publications, motivations of the authors, and identifying strong and weak aspects of these papers. This will be followed by a proposed roadmap for patient care and research that will yield reliable answers on efficacy and adverse effects of these interventions, both from experimental trials and from real world data. The speakers in this session have extensive experience in clinical practice and research on neuromodulation and pain interventions and they have also published and presented balanced critical analysis of many of these and other similar adverse publications in the recent past.
