Insightra Medical Joins AHSQC as Foundation Partner

Insightra Medical Inc. has joined as a founding partner with the Americas Hernia Society Quality Collaborative (AHSQC), an initiative that aims to provide healthcare professionals with real-time patient information on ventral hernia repair.

“Quality initiatives like this one under the guidance of Hernia Societies provide real, unbiased data and will make industry sponsored clinical studies obsolete in the near future,” said Steve Bell, president of Insightra Medical.

The collaborative is free to surgeons and offers them the possibility to follow their own data as well as compare their outcomes to those of their peers on a regional and national level. Since its start in 2013 the collaborative has collected surgical outcome data from more than 100 surgeons of academic and private practice centers. This data and future data will aid in identifying best practice and serves as basis for hernia guidelines. “We at the AHSQC are extremely excited to partner with Insightra to improve the value in hernia care. The collaboration through industry partners such as Insightra and the Americas Hernia Society Quality Collaborative will set the stage for measurable quality improvements in the field of hernia surgery,” noted Michael Rosen, M.D., AHSQC medical director.

Chronic pain, or persistent pain more than 30 days after surgery, as well as discomfort or mesh sensation, continues to be one of the most common adverse events of hernia surgery. Insightra’s hernia implants are designed to solve these existing problems in hernia repair. Following the introduction of ProFlor, a unique inguinal (groin) hernia product, there have been numerous clinical studies performed world wide that have confirmed the product can help reduce hernia pain.

The result of the latest study, a randomized controlled trial comparing ProFlor to the Lichtenstein technique, showed a significant reduction in pain and consumption of pain medication. “Pain, or lack of it, is a large contributor to the patient’s quality of life,” explained John Murphy, M.D., former president of the Americas Hernia Society (AHS) and principal investigator of the study. “Pain scores at day seven post-op can significantly impact the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) scores and reputation of a hospital.”

“Industry participation and partnership with the Americas Hernia Society Quality Collaborative will help surgeons find the right type of product for the right patient based on actual information,” said Benjamin Poulose, M.D., AHSQC director for Quality and Outcomes.

Insightra Medical designs, develops, and markets medical devices serving the hernia and surgical retraction segments of the general surgery market and recently has expanded its hernia portfolio to include a biologic mesh. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., with offices in Goa, India; and Rome, Italy; the company is U.S. Food and Drug Administration registered, ISO certified and distributes its products in more than 50 countries.