I attended a meeting recently ““ The Future of Intrathecal Drug Delivery: Targeted Drug Delivery for Pain and Neurologic Disease — in S.F. at the Mark Hopkins. Originally there in support of a client, I reviewed the list of faculty notables and discussion topics and I became more energized in anticipation of what the presenters would bring to the microphone.

 The name that hooked me? Dr. Richard Penn.

 Dr. Richard Penn is certainly considered one of the thought leaders in interventional pain management.   I have read volumes of his work. In fact, I’d been waiting fourteen years to meet this neurosurgeon”¦face to face”¦so that I could tell him what a profound difference he’s made in my professional life and practice.  And that was just the beginning.

 I’ve attended a lot of meetings over the course of my life. Many of them, particularly in the early days, were CE gatherings ““ obligatory attendance affairs where you didn’t have to get excited about the subject matter, you simply needed to attend  for the purpose of professional licensure.  These days, I tend to look more closely at the meetings that spark and feed my curiosity ““ not always providing CE credits, but always providing valuable information.

 This was such a meeting. A fascinating examination of conventional drug therapies as well as those new or current or imagined. Topics ranging from the History of Intrathecal Drug Therapy to Administering Pharmaceuticals for the Conditions of Alzheimers, Parkinsons, Gliomas, and Huntingtin Disease.  Discussions of infusions and treatments, the adoption of which may indeed be as distant as ten years away, yet some so unique that you applauded the researcher for their intellectual convictions and courage.  A look at convection enhanced studies”¦and convection delivery”¦and much more ““so much more that I couldn’t possibly do it justice in a single blog entry.

 So expect more following this introduction ““ more on the meeting itself and definitely more on the specific topics covered.