Where are advanced interventional pain procedures happening?

An unprecedented volume of interventional procedures has entered the pain medicine market, including many "advanced" interventional pain procedures. Given the rapid influx, there is concern that there is discordance between what is taught in pain medicine fellowship programs and done in post-graduate practice.

The goal of the study was to compare sales volumes of advanced procedure devices in academic versus non-academic practice settings to better understand the status quo of procedural practice patterns. This information will be critical to establish a baseline understanding of where advanced pain procedures are happening for future comparison.

This cross-sectional observational study examines relative percentages of industry-reported device sales to academic versus non-academic practices from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023 in predefined regions of the United States. The data were tabulated and reported as means with corresponding ranges.

Six companies, representing nine distinct interventional pain procedures, certified the requested data. The region with the lowest relative mean device sales at academic institutions was the West (10 %) and the highest was the Northeast (22 %). The procedure with the lowest relative mean sales at academic institutions was dorsal root ganglion stimulation (4 %) and the highest was vertebral body cooled radiofrequency for bone tumors (30 %).

This study highlights the difference between the relative percentage sales of advanced procedure devices in non-academic versus academic institutions, favoring non-academic sites of service. Yet, for each reported pain procedure, there were device sales in academic settings for almost all regions. It will be essential to continue to monitor how academic procedural training compares to post-graduate practice realities to tailor future educational offerings.