There is a medical expression: “from bench-to-bedside”, which in layman’s terms basically means when there is a medical discovery that passes the investigation phase and starts benefiting the actual patients. One of the biggest scientific / medical discoveries that comes to mind, was the amazing discovery of penicillin by British scientist Sir Alexander Fleming, in the summer of 1924 and then its mass production from 1940 to 1945.
With stem cells, something similar is happening at this very moment. Recently, the NIH (National Institute of Health) reported spending 1.5 billion in 2016 (compared to 1.3 billion back in 2015) researching everything surrounding these miraculous cells in different forms, including: autologous, placenta derived, embryonic or IPS (induced). However, there is a tremendous disconnect between those 1.5 billion (not including private institution related research) and what truly reaches the actual / common citizen in relation to that astounding monetary figure. The unfortunate reality is that in the large majority of cases, these immense government funds dedicated for these particular stem cell related research studies have made little or no true direct impact on actual patients and/or in our US communities as a whole.
Currently, there are only a handful of medical institutions that apply stem cell therapies to their patients in the United States, like in the case of our highly acclaimed StemCell Miami Institute, where we specialize in treating orthopedic related conditions with the latest stem cell technology. In a world-renowned city like Miami, with over 5.5 billion habitants, our institute only treats (on average) between 800 to 1200 patients per year. In other words, barely 0.00016% of the population have had the privilege (and viable alternative) to have access to this state-of-the-art new medical technology.
So of course, the logical question would be: Why?
We could speculate interminably the many reasons why this happens. Some of the blame could fall under the (fact versus fiction) type of alleged “conspiracy” surrounding large pharmaceutical companies that are very powerful and are simply looking out to protect their own financial interests in pain medication sales & procedures etc. However, this a very complicated topic and I don’t want to get involved in this rather complex argument at this time.
The reality is that if we could treat more than the mere 0.00016% of the population, this would highly increment the number of patients that can successfully control their knee, hip, back & shoulder pain with stem cell therapies that offer remarkable results and with no adverse effects. These beneficial treatments would highly contrast with the common (and often dangerous & invasive) traditional pain management treatments, currently being used in clinics and hospitals throughout the US, that are often rather ineffective and can produce innumerable (often very serious) side effect type complications.
It is everyone’s responsibility to demand a justification from our government officials, medical researchers & institutions to validate how they plan to use these billions of dollars allotted to stem cell research and how the public at large will in turn benefit from such research advancements in the near future. It is time for all involved to become accountable for their actions and thus, expedite the process in order for every patient to have the option to benefit from these ground-breaking stem cell treatments!
So if you, a family member or friend are interested in receiving treatment with Stem Cells or PRP, call us at 305 598-7777. For more information visit: www.stemcellmia.com or on YouTube @Stemcellmiami or also follow us on FB and Twitter. Stem Cell Miami would appreciate any comments on this article or if you want to write directly to the doctors please do so at: info@stemcellmia.com