Building a Musculoskeletal Interventional Oncology Service

In this episode, our host Dr. Jacob Fleming interviews Dr. Alan Sag about building a musculoskeletal (MSK) interventions practice at Duke University Medical Center, collaborating with other specialists, and future predictions for MSK IR.

Dr. Sag starts the episode by sharing his unique experience abroad. His first job was centered around helping to build an IR practice at a teaching hospital in Istanbul. This process helped him discover that the key to practice building was forming foundational cross-specialty relationships. These eventually led to more patient referrals and a higher level of care coordination.

When he transitioned to an academic position, Dr. Sag first saw an unmet need in bone cryoablation. He recognized that IR procedures could be powerful alternatives to opioid escalation. A key turning point for his department came when a local TV station covered one of his patient’s stories, and he saw a large increase in referrals. Dr. Sag emphasizes that it was important to ensure that the practice was set up with enough resources to accomodate a large volume of patients. Additionally, it was crucial to recognize when to say “no” to patients when a procedure was contraindicated for them. This patient-first approach also showed referring doctors that he was independently and objectively assessing patients, which helps with trust-building.

As we move onto discussing multidisciplinary care, Dr. Sag says that learning another specialty’s vocabulary can greatly enhance your communication and show your desire to collaborate. He encourages IRs to be flexible and learn which conditions are important to the referring doctors. When working with anesthesiology and PM&R, IRs can offer their services to enhance their pain palliation efforts. When working with oncologists, this pain palliation can allow cancer patients to continue participating in clinical trials.

Finally, we discuss the next frontiers of MSK interventions. Dr Sag is excited by the prospect of standardization of MSK training, internally cemented screws, and vertebral body stents.