AUSTRALIANS are being cautioned about the risks of spinal cord stimulators after Pain Australia recently published a study promoting the benefits of the devices.
Private Healthcare Australia CEO Dr Rachel David said the Pain Australia Spinal Cord Stimulator Implants Consumer Experience Report, which was commissioned and fully funded by the Neuromodulation Society of Australia - a group representing the providers of spinal cord stimulators - is "not medical research" and should be interpreted with caution.
"It is a small carefully selected sample of patient stories designed to spruik the continual use of expensive spinal cord stimulators which are known to cause more pain and suffering for a large proportion of the people who receive them," she said.
"This is a billion-dollar industry that some doctors and medical technology companies profit from, so any consumer research funded by that industry must be heavily scrutinised," she emphasised.
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