Local Company's Medical Device Could Be Breakthrough In Addiction Treatment

By Mike Perleberg This device created by Innovative Health Solutions, of Versailles, could be a game changer in helping heroin addicts overcome the withdrawal symptoms after they stop using the drug. Photo provided by Innovative Health Solutions. (Versailles, Ind.) – A major breakthrough in the war against opioid addiction may have been made by a southeast Indiana company. “This is the biggest unmet need in addiction treatment globally,” says Brian Carrico, vice president of sales for Versailles-based Innovating Health Solutions. Carrico is speaking of a new piece of medical technology called the BRIDGE. It is a non-narcotic medical device that greatly reduces or eliminates withdrawal pain for drug-addicted individuals. The FDA cleared the device for use last December, but that was only for its safety, not its effectiveness which is still being assessed. The BRIDGE isn’t a magic bullet to cure addiction by any means. It is a tool that can be used with other means of drug rehabilitation in helping people overcome addiction and get to recovery, particularly people addicted to heroin or other opioid drugs who fear the days-long process of detoxing, also known as withdrawal. “The detoxification process has been described by people as complete hell. They feel like they have bones breaking in their body. They call it the flu times 10. The BRIDGE makes it much easier, about as comfortable as you and I are talking here right now,” Carrico says. The device is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. It is described by the company as an auricular peripheral nerve-field stimulator that is placed behind the ear by a doctor or qualified clinician in a procedure that takes only minutes. Three electrodes break the skin around the ear. Neuro-modulating signals are targeted at cranial nerves which access the brain. You can view a video of how the BRIDGE works to block pain here. IHS claims for up to 120 hours – or five days – the device virtually eliminates pain. The BRIDGE can reduce pain by up to 84 percent within 60 minutes of implantation, according to the company. Screen grab of Innovative Health Solutions video. The company provided videos from addicts who volunteered to have their experience with the BRIDGE documented. At the start of each video, the patient is visibly going through withdrawal and describing their symptoms. The device is placed behind their ear. Ten to 30 minutes later, they begin to relax and describe being pain free. “Right now I feel 100 percent better than I did,” said patient S.A. “When I was prescribed Suboxone, it took a good hour before I started feeling any better and that was to get on something. This has only taken 10 minutes and it’s to get off something.” Once a patient is through the withdrawal symptoms, they and their doctor can focus on transitioning to treatment and recovery, which can include counseling and being given a drug such as Vivitrol to treat opioid dependency long-term. Typical outpatient detox success rates - or getting through the withdrawal process completely – are around 10 to 20 percent. A company-sponsored study of less than 50 patients found that the BRIDGE has improved that chance to nearly 90 percent. Considering the monetary, health, and social costs of drug addiction, The BRIDGE is reasonably priced at $495. Carrico says Innovative Health Solutions is seeking funding to provide the device to more people, mainly through lobbying Indiana state lawmakers and encouraging insurance companies to cover it as a treatment option. “Indiana is gripped with the heroin epidemic right now,” says State Senator Jim Merritt (R-Indianapolis). “Six-point-six million Hoosiers are feeling regardless of if they are an addict or a friend of an addict or they have kin that’s an addict. Something is going on in Indiana that we have got to wrestle and tackle. I believe The Bridge device will be a tool in the toolbox that will help us with detox.” The BRIDGE is already being given to clients at drug addiction treatment centers in Marion and Union counties. Jeff Mathews with the Union County Opiate Treatment Center in Liberty relates the story of a woman who had been addicted to heroin for nine years and homeless for seven years. “Folks had given up hope. We brought her in. It was a pretty severe withdrawal. We put a BRIDGE on her… …Within about 20 to 25 minutes this young lady sat up and started saying she was hungry and she was tired. You go back in the room and everybody is crying,” Mathews says. He added the woman wasn’t fixed, but there was a glimmer of hope that she was starting on the road to recovery. The BRIDGE may soon be available in Dearborn County. IHS is in discussions with Dearborn County Hospital and Community Mental Health Center to make it available to their patients, according to Carrico. Thousands if not millions more addicts could benefit from the BRIDGE. Carrico says Innovative Health Solutions has been receiving global attention and interest for its new device lately. A report on the device was recently published in USA Today. Innovative Health Solutions is locally owned. The small company was founded in 2009 by area resident and CEO Gary Peterson, who received help developing The BRIDGE’s technology from Dr. Chris Brown, of Greensburg. Not only was the BRIDGE founded in southern Indiana. It is manufactured in this region at a facility in Jeffersonville, according to Carrico.