7/31/24- Carrie Ford, CNCT, RNSCT, REPT (Emeritus) interviews Peter Grant, MD who is a fraud and abuse expert for the FBI, Office of Inspector General, US Attorney’s Office, private insurers, and state medical boards. In this podcast Dr. Grant discusses promoting quality electrodiagnostic medicine through legislation—HB2639 explaining the history and need for this legislation, as well as explaining EDX “fraudsters,” and roadblocks that have occurred with this legislation. Dr. Grant also discusses the AANEM’s state liaisons, lobbying in Washington, DC, and meetings with congressman Pete Sessions for support of HB2639. - 16 min.

7/15/2024- Carrie Ford, CNCT, RNSCT, REPT (Emeritus) interviews Peter Grant MD for a podcast on electrodiagnostic (EDX) fraud and abuse. Peter is a fraud and abuse expert for the FBI, Office of Inspector General, US Attorney's Office, private insurers, and state medical boards. In this podcast, Peter explains EDX fraud and how it adversely affects PM&R and Neurology, which includes hand-held devices, billing unnecessary repeat studies, billing unnecessary multiple nerves with EMG,  and mobile diagnostic labs. - 23 min.

Watch this episode to see if Dr. Grant thinks that Dr. Rubin appropriately evaluated a patient with suspected polyneuropathy – is one NCS too few, are 22 NCS too many? Tune in to find out the answer, and much more!

• EMG/NCS and Risk of Bleeding
• Needle EMG and the Risk of Pneumothorax
• NM Complications of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors
• Percutaneous Sharp Injuries: Primary Prevention
• Safety of Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACS) in Needle EMG
• Statins and Immune-Mediated Necrotizing Myopathy

12/18/2019- Dr. Elahi Behzad interviews Dr. Srikanth Muppidi on his article, Long-term Safety and Efficacy of Eculizumab in Generalized Myasthenia Gravis. Eculizumab is effective and well tolerated in patients with antiacetylcholine receptor antibody-positive refractory generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG; REGAIN; NCT01997229). We report an interim analysis of an open-label extension of REGAIN, evaluating eculizumab's long-term safety and efficacy. Eculizumab (1,200 mg every 2 weeks for 22.7 months [median]) was administered to 117 patients. The safety profile of eculizumab was consistent with REGAIN; no cases of meningococcal infection were reported during the interim analysis period. Myasthenia gravis exacerbation rate was reduced by 75% from the year before REGAIN (P < 0.0001). Improvements with eculizumab in activities of daily living, muscle strength, functional ability, and quality of life in REGAIN were maintained through 3 years; 56% of patients achieved minimal manifestations or pharmacological remission. Patients who had received placebo during REGAIN experienced rapid and sustained improvements during open-label eculizumab (P < 0.0001). These findings provide evidence for the long-term safety and sustained efficacy of eculizumab for refractory gMG. Muscle Nerve 2019.    27 minutes

11/28/2016-   Dr. Ted Burns interviews Dr. Michael Benatar about his article, Presymptomatic ALS genetic counseling and testing: Experience and recommendations. Remarkable advances in our understanding of the genetic contributions to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have sparked discussion and debate about whether clinical genetic testing should routinely be offered to patients with ALS. A related, but distinct, question is whether presymptomatic genetic testing should be offered to family members who may be at risk for developing ALS. Existing guidelines for presymptomatic counseling and testing are mostly based on small number of individuals, clinical judgment, and experience from other neurodegenerative disorders. Over the course of the last 8 years, we have provided testing and 317 genetic counseling sessions (including predecision, pretest, posttest, and ad hoc counseling) to 161 first-degree family members participating in the Pre-Symptomatic Familial ALS Study (Pre-fALS), as well as testing and 75 posttest counseling sessions to 63 individuals with familial ALS. Based on this experience, and the real-world challenges we have had to overcome in the process, we recommend an updated set of guidelines for providing presymptomatic genetic counseling and testing to people at high genetic risk for developing ALS. These recommendations are especially timely and relevant given the growing interest in studying presymptomatic ALS. Neurology. 2016 Jun 14;86(24):2295-302

10/18/2016-  Dr. Ted Burns interviews Dr. Timothy Dillingham about the Normative Data Taskforce (NDTF) report on establishing high quality reference values for nerve conduction studies (NCS). Because there are not uniform standards for NCS in the United States, the NDTF developed consensus-based methodological criteria for examining NCS and applied this quality criteria to a systematic review of the published literature. The NDTF has done the difficult work of scouring the literature and identifying high quality articles for our members. Nerve conduction testing techniques and normative reference values from these studies that met a high quality standard are now presented for our membership to use in an easy to follow tabular format. Two reports on the work of the NDTF were published in the September issue of Muscle and Nerve: Muscle Nerve. 2016 Sep;54(3):366-70. doi: 10.1002/mus.25204 and Muscle Nerve. 2016 Sep;54(3):371-7.