Health care column: Biofeedback not just a 1970s fad
| Monday, Nov 09 2009 02:34 PM
Last Updated Monday, Nov 09 2009 02:34 PM
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John Cox
Felix Adamo / The Californian Kimberly Smith in her office, Neurofeedback, in northwest Bakersfield.
Nothing evokes the wheat-germ 1970s quite like biofeedback.
You remember biofeedback. After a jog and a protein shake, you could drop by a clinic, take off your headband and get wired up to a machine that played back your own muscle tension signals and other biological data over big headphones.
The idea was you could learn what it feels like to be in a relaxed physical and mental state, then return to it later in the comfort of your own pad.
Alas, the ’70s and our burnt-orange shag carpeting are now just fond memories. But take note: Jogging’s still around, as are protein shakes. As for biofeedback, it more or less evolved into an alternative-medicine therapy called neurofeedback.
With hundreds of dedicated clinics around the country, neurofeedback is a decidedly modern discipline. Want proof? Kimberly Smith’s neurofeedback clinic on Calloway Drive consists of computer equipment, a flat-screen TV, an adjustable chair and what looks like a video game featuring a flying saucer. No lava lamps, no string art.
After an initial, 90-minute evaluation and training get-together, Smith brings in customers for 45-minute sessions that begin with the placement of brain wave sensors and some quick relaxation techniques. Then she takes customers through exercises intended to train them to produce certain kinds of brain waves. When they’re successful, the saucer flies through a labyrinth; when their concentration slips, it disappears.
“You can start to think, ‘What am I cooking for dinner tonight?’ and it’ll stop,” said Smith, a former teacher now working on earning a neurofeedback certification.
She learned about the therapy as a chronic pain sufferer who searched for relief and finally foundit in neurofeedback. She said it’s also well-suited to enhancing athletic performance, addressing attention problems and rehabilitating folks who struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Here’s the catch: It’s not free. Sessions tend to cost $100. And getting health plans to pay for the therapy doesn’t always work. Like acupuncture and other forms of alternative medicine, some medical professionals just don’t take neurofeedback seriously.
But some do, and therein may lie the future of Smith’s business and her clients’ success.
Health Net of California, the Woodland Hills-based health plan with subscribers in Kern, covers neurofeedback for a number of conditions, including stress, chronic pain and muscle rehabilitation. That’s because it has been shown to work.
“We make these coverage determinations based on a review of medical science, that check for proven effectiveness and proven efficacy,” Health Net spokesman Brad Kieffer said.
Balancing act
Here’s something we’d never seen or heard of before: A receptionist with a clipboard walking through the crowded lobby of a health-care facility, calling out, “Has anyone been waiting 15 minutes past their appointment time or need any help?”
And nobody — nobody — spoke up.
This we witnessed not long ago inside Bakersfield’s Comprehensive Blood & Cancer Center. It made us curious. What makes this place different?
CBCC founder and managing partner Ravi Patel said the answer is simple: CBCC’s business model revolves around patient care.
That’s not as free-spending as it may sound. The underlying philosophy, as Patel explained it, is that the physician-owned enterprise is a full-service cancer center where decisions on what technologies to purchase are based on careful monitoring of patient needs and usage.
Here’s how it works: Every three to six months, the center evaluates what services it offers versus what services patients need. The preference is to bring all necessary imaging and treatments under one roof. But if that’s not economical, new purchases are put on hold.
Not always, though. For instance, participating in clinical trials doesn’t pay for itself, but it gives patients access to cutting-edge technologies. So CBCC participates, knowing it’s losing money.
To underline his point, Patel told the story of a patient who had pain on his spine that within three days turned into numbness on his legs.
Within two hours of notifying CBCC of the numbness, he came in for diagnostic imaging. Within three hours he was seen by a radiation therapist. Less than four hours later he was treated for a tumor along his spine that, if left untreated, could have quickly left the patient with irreversible paralysis.
Few other centers around the country can deliver all those services in-house.
“It’s thrilling to practice that kind of medicine,” Patel said.
Last year, CBCC’s approach earned special industry recognition from Hematology & Oncology News & Issues magazine, which awarded the center a practice excellence award. According to a news release from the magazine, CBCC has successfully balanced good business practices with quality treatment strategies.
“Dr. Patel, and the entire team of professional care providers and administrative staff are to be commended for their commitment and dedication to balancing economics and quality care,” the release stated.
And that’s not even taking into account the receptionist with the clipboard.
