Greenville Neuromodulation Services will offer Neuromodulation Support, its first course offering for training medical professionals on deep brain stimulation (DBS) techniques, in Thiel College’s Glen Johnson Community Center on July 8–10.

This three-day course features in-depth lectures and comprehensive hands-on laboratory sessions on the targeting of the appropriate brain structures and the electrophysiological instrumentation used for interoperative recording as well as stimulation involved in deep brain stimulation.  Registrants for this course will be surgical technicians, physician assistants, surgical nurses and industry technology representatives who will be involved in assisting with neurosurgical procedures treating movement disorder patients. 

The curriculum for the Neuromodulation Support course was developed by Donald Crammond, Ph.D., attending clinical neurophysiologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; Jay Shils, Ph.D., director of intra-operative monitoring at the Lahey Clinic in Boston; and Mark Stecker, Ph.D., M.D., director of the Epilepsy Center, the EEG laboratory, and of intra-operative neurophysiologic monitoring at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa.  The curriculum also will be used as the core source for future planned courses directed at training neurosurgeons, neuro-coordinators and other medical personnel wishing to provide this emerging therapy.

Michael Y. Oh, M.D., of Allegheny General Hospital’s Neuroscience Center in Pittsburgh will serve as guest lecturer at a special first-evening banquet. Registrants will also be treated to an excursion to Pittsburgh on the second evening; during the trip a discussion of relevant medical ethics is scheduled.

“This is a small but significant first step towards the goal of establishing Greenville as a world-class source for both training and technical support of neuromodulation professionals as well as a center for treatment,” says Frederick Haer, president of FHC, Inc.  Greenville Neuromodulation Services is a subsidiary of FHC.

In August 2006, Thiel College entered into a partnership with UPMC Horizon and FHC Inc. that established an academic program in neuroscience at the college and is working to develop the downtown-based Greenville Neuromodulation Clinic, a nonprofit service provider, in the historic Packard Building.

FHC Inc. is a world leader in the field of manufacturing medical devices for locating dysfunctional brain structures causing movement disorder symptoms which can be treated by Deep Brain Stimulation.  DBS products were developed and are manufactured by Medtronic; they are similar to the heart pacemaker products for which they are known. Thiel College, located in Greenville, Pa., is a liberal arts, sciences and professional studies college related to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

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Photo Opportunities

Opportunities will be available for members of the press to photograph attendees learning deep brain stimulation techniques and using the state-of-the-art equipment involved. Please contact Jennifer Groleau at jgroleau@fh-co.com or 724-589-7210 for more information.

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