Last Updated: Sep 2, 2021
SunPointe Health in State College, PA was among several recipients of the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s (PAMED) Community Care Grant. PAMED teamed up with its Care Centered Collaborative and Highmark to provide nearly $4 million in grant monies to support physicians in providing services that improve health care and make it more accessible across Pennsylvania.
SunPointe Health plans to use the $40,000 it received to support Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), an innovative treatment that has been FDA approved for the treatment of refractory depression since 2008.
PAMED member Dennis Dombrowski, MD, who works at SunPointe Health says, “Hocus-pocus you wonder? How can pulsing a magnet treat depression? Well, the treatment utilizes an MRI strength magnetic impulse from a specialized coil in a focused manner to stimulate underlying nerve activity in the brain, essentially coaxing the brain back into a more normal network of activity and out of its depressive lumbering and in so, helping to reactivate the electrochemical messaging necessary for normal and healthy thinking and moods.”
Dr. Dombrowski says the treatment is well proven and statistically much more effective for cases of refractory depression as compared to continuing standard care. He has been providing TMS to patients at Sunpointe Health as a Neuronetics-certified TMS provider since 2014.
“My experience with this modality of treatment has left me with a feeling of gratitude in having an effective treatment to offer the individuals who have continued to emotionally suffer despite their efforts with pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy,” he says. “Individuals who undergo TMS have better than even odds of obtaining a very meaningful benefit from the treatment and many individuals go on to experience a complete remission of depression as a result. With great efficacy and low risk, I hope to one day be able to offer TMS as a first line treatment option for depression.”
His colleague at SunPointe Health, PAMED member Michael Turk, MD, says he first learned about TMS when he was a psychiatric resident listening to the research focused psychiatrist share about his new study interest. However, he says it took him another twelve years before he started using it in his psychiatric practice.
Dr. Turk shares that, in 2015, he began using TMS for an occasional patient with Major Depressive Disorder who was finding limits in their improvement with medication and psychotherapy treatment.
“As a treatment option that is different from the more well-known conventional options, I tend to see patients shift from wariness about TMS to finding the treatment usually quite effective and easy for them to go through,” said Dr. Turk. “I myself have gradually shifted in viewing it as an interesting option that felt like the frontiers of medicine to a reasonable option alongside, or at times in place of, the medication and psychotherapy treatment pathways. Thankfully, insurance companies have gradually been evolving in their view of it being a viable treatment option with now most of them covering it in a reasonable manner.”
Dr. Dombrowski says that TMS treatment is generally painless and well tolerated with minimal associated risks, however, says that there are medical issues to consider and anyone who is interested in TMS will need to consult with a TMS provider to ascertain candidacy for the treatment.
PAMED Executive Vice President Martin Raniowski recently visited SunPointe Health to present the grant check and applauds them for their innovative work in patient care.
You can learn more about PAMED’s Community Care Grant recipients at www.pamedsoc.org/communitygrant.