NFL broadcaster Solomon Wilcots interviews doctors at EUROSPINE and NASS

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Solomon Wilcots watches segment taping of Harry Reveles at NASS
Solomon Wilcots watches segment taping of Harry Reveles at NASS. Image courtesy Russo Partners

The former professional football player is a leader of Russo Partners’ Sports–Health Alliance, a service connecting sports, health and medicine. In addition to interviews at EUROSPINE2017 (Dublin, Ireland, 11–13 October) and the North American Spine Society (NASS) annual meeting (Orlando, USA, 25–28 October), Wilcots also taped a demonstration of Medovex’s Denervex pain relief system during a surgical cadaver lab at NASS.

The partnership between public relations firm Russo Partners and medical device company Medovex aims to call attention to the need for new treatments for chronic back pain that address the current opioid crisis facing the USA and the world.

The Denervex system (not yet approved for use in the USA), which Russo Partners says is designed by medical professionals, is a non-addictive opioid drug alternative capable of restoring a patient to a more normal and active lifestyle, and enhancing a patient’s quality of life.

“Chronic back pain, including that caused by facet joint syndrome, is common among former professional athletes,” says Wilcots. “The opportunity presented by the Denervex system is one of giving people back quality of life without reliance on prescriptive pain relief medicines. This is exciting technology about which physicians were eager to speak with me and share their perspectives on how it will change their practices and patients’ lives.”

Facet joint syndrome affects millions of people each year, and “current treatment options are generally temporary with no proven long-lasting option[s],” says Russo Partners.

Solomon Wilcots interviewing Adam Hedaya at EUROSPINE2017
Solomon Wilcots interviewing Adam Hedaya at EUROSPINE2017. Image courtesy Russo Partners

“Solomon has the natural ability to bring professionals together and craft medical stories in a natural and impactful manner,” says Patrick Kullmann, president and chief operating officer of Medovex. “We look forward to using the output of his work to increase the visibility and awareness of what we are doing at Medovex to transform how surgeons and pain management physicians treat a common source of chronic back pain.”

Russo Partners and Medovex intend to use the interviews and videos by Wilcots in print, online and in social media to promote the Denervex system. Among those interviewed by Wilcots were Adam Hedaya (Cleveland, USA), Harry Reveles, and Vikas Kapoor (Stockport, UK).

Solomon Wilcots interviews Vikas Kapoor at NASS 2017
Solomon Wilcots interviews Vikas Kapoor at NASS 2017. Image courtesy Russo Partners

Denervex “denervates and removes capsular tissue from the facet joint in one single procedure,” Russo Partners writes. The treatment simultaneously uses radio frequency ablation on the affected joint while a “slowly rotating burr” removes synovial membrane from the joint. The ablation process destroys tissue and removes remaining synovial membrane, eliminating the sensory tissue of the joint to inhibit pain signals.

Earlier this year Kullmann said, “The Denervex treatment uses ‘rotacapsulation,’ a combination of high heat and rotational capsular tissue shaving, in a minimally invasive posterior procedure for the treatment of facet joint syndrome.”

Denervex received a European CE mark in June 2017 and was first used in surgery in July.

Russo Partners’ Sports–Health Alliance “leverages the agency’s inside access to athletes, broadcasters and sports business leaders,” the company says.


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