Doctors learn about spinal fusion with mobile medicine bus

A new mobile medicine bus in Idaho Falls is helping doctors better understand the latest orthopedic medicine technologies.

The bus travels around the country and educates physicians about the newest tools in spinal fusion.

During the day, hot off the grill, hamburgers and hotdogs for these doctors are being served with a side of mobile medicine

“We’ve been able to bring this bus into mountain view hospital to help educate the public on what therapies are being done currently at mountain view hospital with the surgeons in this town,” said Trent Beattie with Summit Solutions.

Inside the bus, physicians and patients get to explore stations showing new spinal fusion techniques.

“This is for people with disc herniations in their neck or severe degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis in their back and have chronic pain related to that,” said neurosurgeon Robert Cach.

Beattie shows doctors these spinal models and the screws that go inside it. but talking fusion comes from a personal place. He has an interior plate in his neck that was fused in 2003.

“I had numbness in my arm i had tingling in my fingers, but when I was loosing feeling in my arm is when I knew I had to see a doctor.”

Six months after his surgery Beattie was pain free. ten years later, he’s educating doctors about the latest fusion methods.

“This is called is trabecular metal and this is a metal that’s used to help promote bone fusion. this metal is 80 percent porus, which is 80 percent air. This model showing how liquid is being passed through it.”

Faster fusion means faster recovery for patients. and for doctors models like this help them better understand what their patients go through.

“It’s a pretty educational a good opportunity to get a hands on here locally instead of having to travel for the educational hands on workshops,” said Danny Yandel who works at Mountain View Hospital.

The bus will be parked at Mountain View Hospital through Friday.