The 2019 NYC Neuromodulation Conference and Neuromodulation: The Science bring together leaders across neuromodulation, pain management, healthcare, and wearables. This unparalleled collection of thought leaders supports an engaging program spanning three days (October 4-6, 2019) with an additional one day of Preconference Workshops (October 3, 2019). See all speakers >>
Dr. Yun Guan is an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His multidisciplinary research focuses on mechanisms of chronic pain and developing better strategies and novel targets for treatment of pathological pain conditions.
What are you most excited about (or looking forward to) at NTS/NYN Napa? YG: I am looking forward to seeing the new technological developments and conceptual innovations in recent years, and importantly, how they have been or may be applied to disease control (e.g., pain). I am also interested to learn about any successful cases of translational studies based on findings in pre-clinical work in neuromodulation. The success of neurotechnology is often throttled by understanding of the underlying science. Where do you see the most important area of research or recent breakthroughs in the science underling brain interfacing technology? YG: Recent progress in brain-machine interface is exciting. Breakthroughs such as using brain-spinal stimulation to allow spinal cord injury patients to regain motor function control, brain stimulation to improve neurological function (e.g., speech, cognition) etc. are changing the world. Describe the more formative experiences in your education or training that informed your current research? Were there specific technologies, ideas, or applications that inspired you? YG: My previous training in both clinical medicine and basic science research helped me to develop research programs closely related to improvement of clinical treatment. Although technology has been tremendously improved in the past decade, clinical efficacies of many neurostimulation therapies in pain remain sub-optimal, such as conventional Spinal cord stimulation (SCS). We are motivated to understand the biological reasons that limit further clinical improvement, so that we can develop new strategies to improve the efficacy. As chair of session 2, what are your goals? YG: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is an important non-pharmacological therapy for pain, but its mechanism of action is only partially known. I will begin this session with a review about SCS: What Do We Know Regarding the Science? I will introduce the history of SCS for pain control, recent progress in mechanistic and translational research, and discuss new approaches and future directions. Dr. John Parker from Saluda Medical will give a presentation about “Continuous Monitoring of Spinal Cord Electrophysiology,” which will demonstrate optimizing the SCS pain therapy in real-time. Dr. Scott Lempka of the University of Michigan Biomedical Engineering Department will introduce the usefulness of “Computational Modeling” in probing the mechanisms of SCS and developing new stimulation paradigms.