Dr. Wojo. Healthy Living. Simplified.

As a society, we continue to focus on the quality of medical services and measuring patient outcomes — how effective is a treatment for an individual? With that in mind, it is important patients choose a medical provider who uses evidence-based research to guide his or her treatment of you. That means your physician’s practices should be guided by scientific research that attests to the safety and efficacy of treatment.

Recently, I was asked to evaluate the efficacy and success of a new treatment for back pain — the DRX 9000 traction machine. According to ads in newspapers around the country, the DRX 9000 treats herniated disks in your back without the need for surgery. Each patient — regardless of the variety of their symptoms or conditions –  are treated with the DRX 9000 five days per week for six weeks. It is worth noting that each treatment costs several hundred dollars and most insurance companies do not pay for this therapy.

As I researched the use of the DRX 9000, I discovered that the Food and Drug Administration does not approve of this mode of treatment. Thus far, there has been only one published study in which only 75 patients were assessed after they had been treated with the DRX 9000. Further, nothing currently exists in medical literature that supports the use of the DRX 9000, because no controlled medical studies have proven the success and safety of this machine.

The manufacturing company spends a great deal of time training practitioners on how to market this device, despite the lack of supporting medical evidence. Instead, current evidence-based medical literature has shown that 80-90 percent of all patients with acute back pain will improve within six weeks — thus, the rationale for six weeks of DRX 9000 treatment. While patient testimonials abound in the marketing literature, but there are also several lawsuits pending.

As a physician, I feel it is my responsibility to deliver health care based upon findings current medical literature. As a patient, it is your right to question your health care practitioner about the safety and efficacy of proposed treatment. Be sure their treatment recommendations are guided by sound scientific principles.