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27th Australian and New Zealand Spinal Cord Society

27th Australian and New Zealand Spinal Cord SocietyAnnual Scientific Meeting | Paddling our waka together27 - 29 October 2021 | Virtual Meeting

Sponsored Sessions

Thursday 28 October 08:30am - 09:30am AEDT
AusCann Sponsored Session Coloplast Sponsored Session
Friday 29 October 08:20am - 09:20am AEDT
Medlab Clinical Sponsored Session Permobil Sponsored Session 


Thursday 28 October 08:30am - 09:30am AEDT 

AusCann Sponsored Session

Evidence Base of Cannabinoids for Spinal Cord Injury Symptoms

This breakfast symposium will review the latest evidence for medicinal cannabis for symptom control (pain, spasticity, insomnia, anxiety reduction, quality of life improvement) in spinal cord injury patients. A review of options for CBD and THC/CBD will be presented and the formulations and routes of administration will be discussed. Case Studies will be presented outlining what can be achieved in refractory patients for symptom control and the potential role of medicinal cannabis as a pluripotent medicine will be reviewed.

Dr Marc Russo is a well-regarded specialist in pain medicine and is the Medical Director of Hunter Pain Specialists established in 1999 (Australia’s first multidisciplinary private pain clinic).

He is the President Elect International Neuromodulation Society, Examiner for Faculty of Pain Medicine Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) and serves on five other committees within the Faculty.

He is an Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, University of Hong Kong and Conjoint Lecturer, Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle NSW. He has 51 national and international publications and is Principal Investigator on 66 clinical trials.

Dr Russo also brings experience in treating patients with cannabinoid-based medicines and related clinical trials.

 

Dr Peter Georgius is a well regarded expert in complex pain conditions (e.g. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)).

Participates and leads national and international CRPS research and has several publications in the area.

An adopter of emerging therapies for chronic pain including medical cannabis and Scrambler Therapy.

Founder, Director and Principle Investigator of Sunshine Coast Clinical Research (SCCR), involved in national and international clinical research trials.

Appointed Director, Rehabilitation Unit at Nambour Selangor Private Hospital and Noosa Private Hospital in 2014.

Consults at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

Dr. Sachin Shetty is a Rehabilitation & Pain Physician working at Prince of Wales Public & Private Hospital in Sydney. He is a staff specialist in the Pain Management department, heading the Multi-Disciplinary Pain Management programme and the Director of the Prince of Wales Spinal Injuries Unit.
He is currently involved as a primary investigator in an NSW Health-funded study looking at the mechanisms of pain in Spinal Cord Injury and a Randomised Control trial looking at the effect of CBD in SCI pain.

 Coloplast Sponsored Session

Clinical considerations when initiating and supporting patients with Clean Intermittent Self Catheterisation (CISC) 

Dr Ashani Couchman will share her expert opinion and deliver some of the latest evidence supporting the use Clean Intermittent Self Catheterisation (CISC) in the spinal cord injured. She will then present four separate patient cases highlighting key areas of clinical considerations when initiating and supporting a patient performing. 

Attendees will have the opportunity to listen and interact with Dr Couchman, on best bladder management practices of the spinal cord injured Attendees will walk away with with practicable advice that they can implement in their practice.

Dr Ashani Couchman is a Urological surgeon who is a sub-specialist in Transitional (adolescent) urology and Neuro-urology. 

A graduate of Auckland Medical School in 2003 and she completed her surgical training in New Zealand. This was followed by fellowships at the Institute of Urology (London), Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (London) and National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (London) and Western General Hospital (Edinburgh) culminating in a consultant position at Kingston Hospital, Kingston-upon-Thames. 

She is the Neuro-urologist at the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre, The Royal Adelaide Hospital and is a visiting specialist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia.

 

Friday 29 October 08:20am - 09:20am AEDT

Medlab Clinical Sponsored Session

Preliminary analgesic evidence of cannabinoids delivered via NanoCelle® (submicron particle technology) and its further research addressing gaps in cannabis dosing efficacy

  • Results published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology. 
  • Preparations to run phase III trial, and
  • Information on Cannabis for Pain Observational Study awareness
The pilot clinical and pharmacokinectic study of water-soluble nanoparticle cannabis-based medicine NanaBis™ in advance cancer with intractable pain has shown:
  • Pain reduction from baseline of 40% (33% adjusted for opioid changes) (p
  • NanaBis™ compared to Nabiximols (Sativex® the only cannabis registered drug) achieved:
    • Same THC plasma levels with half-dose
    • Higher CBD plasma levels with half-dose
    • Higher plasma CBD:THC levels
    • Roll out – sites for phase III trial
For all patients the most commonly reported adverse events were mild or moderate drowsiness, nausea and vomiting demonstrating NanaBis™ provides adequate bioavailability, safe and tolerability profile and preliminary evidence of analgesic efficacy.

Dr Jeremy Henson is Medical Affairs Director at Medlab Clinical, Botany; Chief Career Medical Officer at Lakeview Private Hospital, Bella Vista; Senior Research Fellow at UNSW Sydney. Dr Henson has 18 years’ experience in cancer research, including the discovery of a novel type of cancer biomarker, development of a patented an assay to detect it and is exploiting these to create new precision cancer medicines. Dr Henson is a Clinical Tutor at the Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney and is an active member of Cancer Australia Grant Review Committee and the Prince of Wales Clinical School PhD Student Review Committee.

 

Permobil Sponsored Session

“What is the evidence behind standing power wheelchairs?”

Standing as a therapy intervention has been broadly recognized as an effective method providing clinical outcomes and improvement of functions. Power standing wheelchairs offer great means for extending these outcomes to the domestic and community situation, adding additional functional and also psycho-social outcomes.

Permobil conducted a systematic review of the current state of literature on the outcomes of standing and the impact of standing with power wheelchairs. During this presentation, we will look at the Permobil White Paper resulting from this systematic review, including specific insights of the usage of Permobil F5VS chairs, data extracted from a survey among 120 experts and anecdotal data from users.

Register for the session before Monday, 18 October and receive your Permobil Rise & Shine Box in time for the conference. 

Note: Available for the first 50 session registrations only. 

Rachel Fabiniak began her studies at The Georgia Institute of Technology, where she graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2009. Rachel then went on to receive her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Emory University in 2013.

After receiving her doctorate, Rachel went into clinical practice as a physiotherapist in the Spinal Cord Injury Day Program at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Ga. There she developed a passion for seating and mobility which ultimately lead to her career with Permobil.