.You’ve most likely experienced pain at least once in your life. When you visit a medical doctor for pain relief, they might prescribe you painkillers. Similar to other traditional medical programs, you would find that this is passive. This is because your clinician is trained to treat the pain as a symptom rather than target the underlying cause of it. But fret not. There is a novel neuromodulatory approach that is now being developed by researchers to mitigate chronic pain. This week, Exsurgo CEO Richard Little joins us on Pushing the Limits to explain how neurofeedback t...
.You’ve most likely experienced pain at least once in your life. When you visit a medical doctor for pain relief, they might prescribe you painkillers. Similar to other traditional medical programs, you would find that this is passive. This is because your clinician is trained to treat the pain as a symptom rather than target the underlying cause of it. But fret not. There is a novel neuromodulatory approach that is now being developed by researchers to mitigate chronic pain.
This week, Exsurgo CEO Richard Little joins us on Pushing the Limits to explain how neurofeedback technology can revolutionise how we handle chronic pain. Their device is relatively inexpensive and can drastically improve the quality of life of millions of people worldwide.
If you want to know more about how medical innovations are changing the landscape of healthcare, then this episode is for you!
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Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode: - Understand the nature of pain and how it affects the lives of those who experience it.
- Learn the process behind neurofeedback technology which could change how we deal with chronic pain.
- Discover why medical technology is the cheaper and better alternative to opioid pills when it comes to chronic pain relief.
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- Exsurgo
- Dr Peter Diamandis' books:
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- The Future is Faster Than You Think
- Abundance
Episode Highlights [05:18] How Richard’s Story Started - He is an engineer and not a clinician by profession but got inspired by his personal history to help people in the medical field.
- Their core mission is to make life easier for patients and clinicians while getting a better result and saving money.
- Currently, they are in the field of neuroscience. Their products can relieve chronic pain as effectively as prescription drugs but without side effects.
[07:27] How the Neurofeedback Device Works - Exsurgo specialises in a neurofeedback device that trains the brain not to respond to pain impulses.
- It was made through the concept of neuroplasticity––the trainability of the brain and its signalling patterns.
- This device measures electrical activity in the brain related to pain.
- When connected to a wireless device, these signals are transmitted to a game that rewards you whenever your pain signals go down.
- This technology can hopefully be able to counteract the opioid crisis and the drawbacks of pain pills.
[14:46] Chronic Pain is a Negative Feedback Loop - Pain can cause difficulties in getting quality sleep, which in turn causes anxiety and negative moods.
- The torture of chronic pain extends to other aspects of patients’ lives.
- Richard's company has found that a biochemical and electrical change in the brain also results in positive physical changes.
- Listen to the full episode to learn the story of a school headmistress who reduced her chronic pain and finger inflammation with Exsurgo’s help!
- They are in the process of pushing the boundaries of what current technology can do, as research on chronic pain and inflammation are still lacking.
[19:53] Behind Richard’s Innovations - Richard's mother had a shocking and sudden stroke. Exurgo initially aimed to handle stroke rehabilitation.
- Eventually, they pivoted to chronic pain as it was the most significant issue the industry faced at the time.
- His friend had multiple sclerosis, which affected his ability to walk. So, they set out to build a robotic leg and exoskeleton to help patients' mobility.
- Over time, many doctors have asked for Richard’s help to build medical devices for their patients.
- Due to advancements in medical technology, patients’ expectations of health care have increased. However, these innovations typically cost thousands of dollars.
[26:49] Exsurgo’s Mission - Richard aims to build devices to help both patients and clinicians while remaining relatively inexpensive.
- They also use gamification to make their treatment options more appealing to the public.
- They offer a subscription model for their products so that patients can do their rehab at home.
[34:48] Learning About Pain - Pain diagnosis is still largely unscientific and arbitrary.
- However, technology is developing at such a rapid rate. We will soon be able to predict who will experience pain after surgery.
- We will be able to relieve pain before it happens using neurofeedback.
- Richard’s company is looking into anxiety, depression, and concussions. Tune in to the full episode to know more about how they plan to apply their research on concussions!
[38:59] The Disconnect Between Tech Projects and Medicine - The medical technology field is heavily regulated.
- It costs millions to get products out to the market, making people hesitant to invest in them.
- Most technologies still fail, so having a burning passion for helping patients is necessary if you want to survive in the field.
- Shareholder alignment is crucial when it comes to funding medical innovations.
[45:50] The Opiate Crisis - Due to the opiate crisis, pharmaceutical companies are now recognising that they need to do something different.
- This issue needs the joint efforts of the private sector and the government to be resolved.
[47:18] Getting their Device to Market - They are currently in clinical trials, which are the value of a company.
- Exsurgo hopes to launch the product sometime early next year and make it as affordable as possible.
- They were surprised by the number of people with chronic pain hoping to get a hold of their product. So, they are aiming to keep up on the production side.
- Richard shares that he made many mistakes and rode the ups and downs before getting to this point.
- A crucial piece of his current success is choosing and working with the right investors and clinicians.
[1:00:14] The Technology Behind their Work - Brain-computer interfaces are all about understanding the patterns and applying them to solve various medical issues.
- Every time someone uses their device, they get millions of lines of data. The more data they gather, the more they can improve their technology.
- Listen to the full episode to learn exactly how the product works and what the whole team does to develop it!
7 Powerful Quotes from This Episode ‘Our kind of basic mission is to make life easier for clinicians and patients while getting a better result and saving money. If we can do those things, then we've done something fantastic.’
‘If I can make the clinicians' life easier, and the patient's life easier to fit into both of their workflows, their daily life, while getting a good result and saving money, then we have something that would be worth doing.’
'We all know what it's like when you have exercises to do by the doctor or the physio, we don't want to do them, you know, so gamification actually really helps with that.'
‘It'd be easier to give up than it would be to keep going, I'm sure in a lot of the things that you do. It's that passion, and it's a drive, and it's that connection to the patients, once you see it, you can't unsee it.’
‘Make lots of mistakes. Keep trying. You don't start off on that journey. I wasn't sitting on an oil rig one day, and I knew I'm going to build some medical device companies.’
'The patients are too important. I couldn't live with myself if I gave up on this journey because patients are going to suffer.’
‘There's a brilliant team behind all of this, you know, there's so many specialties and so many different things. They're all driven by that same passion to actually help people at the end of the day, and it will affect millions, 10s of millions of people's lives over the next coming years.’
About Richard Richard Little is an innovator, entrepreneur, engineer, and roboticist. He is the CEO of Exsurgo, a neurofeedback company. They are developing a cutting-edge device that could revolutionise the way we deal with chronic pain and improve the lives of millions of people worldwide.
He has held different directorships and C-level positions in engineering, military, and medical businesses. One of these is Rex Bionics, where they developed an exoskeleton that could provide mobility to wheelchair-bound patients.
If you want to learn more about Richard and his work in the medical technology space, visit his company website.
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To pushing the limits,
Lisa
