Medtronic has received CE mark for the Intellis platform for both spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) as an aid in the management of certain types of chronic pain.
According to Medtronic, Intellis, the world’s smallest fully implantable SCS neurostimulator, simplifies and improves the patient experience with improved battery performance that can power the Evolve workflow, which standardises guidance and balances high-dose (HD) and low-dose (LD) SCS therapy settings. The Intellis platform is managed on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 tablet interface and can record and track patient activity 24/7.
Intellis is now available in Europe and the USA.
One in five adults in Western Europe suffers from chronic pain, a devastating condition with a costly personal and societal impact. Chronic pain can negatively impact all aspects of a person’s life – relationships, work productivity and activities of daily living, yet it remains under-recognized and undertreated.
Published studies have shown that when used by carefully selected patients with chronic pain, SCS may provide effective long-term pain relief, improved quality of life and pain-related disability, and may reduce the need for pain medications. Similarly, PNS may also provide back pain relief, improvement in back pain-related disability, and reduce the need for pain medications. The potential benefits of neurostimulation are critical given the public health issue of prescription pain medication abuse.
Earlier intervention with SCS has been shown to improve treatment outcomes and SCS is widely reimbursed and recommended by European governments. Current European guidelines support the use of SCS; failed back surgery syndrome is the primary indication recommended by European governments.
The first European patient received the Intellis system at the Pain Clinic of AZ Nikolaas Hospital in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium where Prof Jean-Pierre Van Buyten is chairman and the procedure was performed by Iris Smet.
“Chronic pain is a complex disease that is challenging to manage. The innovations behind the Intellis platform translate into meaningful patient benefits and ease of use for physicians, which represent important advantages over other neurostimulators,” says Iris Smet from AZ Nikolaas. “I want to restore my patient’s health and improve their quality of life; the innovation behind the Intellis platform allows me to achieve that and help a broad range of patients.”
A press release states that the Intellis platform can help optimise treatment and improve patient-physician communication by tracking and sharing daily activities, body positions and therapy usage and giving physicians an objective look at mobility and progress.
“Rather than rely on patient-reported data, the enhanced activity tracker of the Intellis platform provides real-time data that offers more visibility into quality of life changes,” says Prof Jean-Pierre Van Buyten of AZ Nikolaas. “Better understanding a patient’s experience can lead to a more informed conversation that can help me maximise their pain relief and this information is easy to see and act on with the improved Samsung Galaxy tablet physician programmer.”
