Dr. Hager: VA Pain Specialist Recommends the RS-4i® Plus for At-Home Pain Management
Meet Dr. Hager
Dr. Gil Hager has decades of experience helping Veterans with chronic pain. Now retired from the VA, he agreed to sit down with RS Medical to talk about his success treating patients with the RS-4i Plus and why he’s depended on it as a viable pain management option.
What is the RS-4i Plus with Intersperse?
The RS-4i Plus is an advanced home-use electrotherapy device that provides high-frequency (5000 Hz) Interferential Therapy (IFT) for long-lasting pain relief and Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) for muscle rehabilitation. Available only on the RS-4i Plus, the patented Intersperse program uniquely combines these treatments into a single, uninterrupted therapy session that stimulates the body’s natural beta-endorphin production to relieve pain for up to 8 hours, while providing rehabilitative muscle therapy that reduces muscle spasms, increases circulation and prevents disuse atrophy.
What is Interferential Therapy (IFT)?: Interferential Therapy (IFT) is used for pain relief and works by overlapping two slightly different high-frequency signals, for instance 5000 Hz and 5150 Hz. These signals intersect within the body to create an area of interference – a “sweet spot” where the therapeutic benefit is strongest. This intersection of signals results in a new frequency – the beat frequency – which is able to recruit the maximum number of A-beta nerve fibers for treatment. These high-frequency signals also trigger the body’s production of enkephalins, short-chain peptides that provide pain relief lasting less than an hour.
What is Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES)?: Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) is used for muscle stimulation and causes lower motor neurons to fire. RS Medical uses an adjustable, custom square/asymmetrical spiked waveform with a frequency of 71 Hz that is able to activate both fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibers. Being able to stimulate a broader range of muscle fibers, especially large stabilizing muscles in the legs and the back, allows the RS-4i Plus to elicit a maximal muscle contraction – which expels metabolic waste and supplies a flow of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the muscles.
What is Intersperse?: Intersperse is a patented treatment session on the RS-4i Plus that intermixes premodulated IFT and NMES. During this session, pain relief signals are delivered during the relax period of muscle stimulation – giving the patient a repeating pattern of intermittent contraction, then pain relief, then contraction. This unique intermixing of IFT pain treatment and NMES muscle therapy sends a sequence of signals up the neo and paleo spinothalamic tracts into the brain and provokes a beta-endorphin release. These are long-chain peptides (endogenous opiates) that provide pain relief lasting up to 8 hours.
Helping Patients in Extreme Pain
For Dr. Hager’s patients, his office isn’t the first stop on the pain treatment journey.
“By the time they get to me, I would say the majority of them have tried physical therapy modalities, medications, and even TENS without much success,” he said. “They're still coming in with pain levels on the 1 to 10 scale of greater than 5. That has a negative effect on their ability to get out and do things in their life.”
While Dr. Hager acknowledged that there are many options for pain relief, he noted that the RS-4i Plus has, in his experience, proven to be an effective at-home pain management solution.
“For general back muscle spasm pain, they all tend to be very responsive to the RS-4i Plus,” he said. “I've found the RS-4i Plus to be a modality that helps people increase their function, their capability to get up and get out and do something.”
Patient Reactions to Finally Finding Relief
Dr. Hager noticed that the RS-4i Plus helped many of his patients be more active – but some of them let him know just how much they loved it.
“Most of the time, patients say, ‘This is great, this is tremendous.’ Then a phrase one of my patients used, which I thought was great, he said, ‘This is 10 times better than TENS.’”
According to Dr. Hager, many of his patients have had positive reactions to treatment with the RS-4i Plus.
“I believe I've only had, in 12 years, one patient say he didn't notice a difference. Everyone else, I mean out of hundreds of patients, has had an extremely noticeable benefit from it.”
Why Prescribe the RS-4i Plus?
We asked Dr. Hager how he would describe the benefits of the RS-4i Plus to a patient.
“I tell them it's non-toxic, number one,” he said. “It's not addictive, number two. That I have found it to be effective in other patients with similar problems to the ones that they have. That it's simple to use, especially with the low back garment and the full back garment.”
And while the RS-4i Plus isn’t the only effective treatment for chronic pain, Dr. Hager noted that it has certainly been beneficial to the Veterans he’s treated over the years.
“They've had tremendous response to it and have been very appreciative of the help they're getting to control their pain complaints from the injuries they suffered in combat and otherwise.”
Designed for Independent At-Home Use
The RS-4i Plus designed to be a self-managed, at-home pain management treatment. Once the unit has been prescribed by a VA provider, it’s shipped to the patient at home. The patient then receives a personalized fitting and training on the device from an RS Medical representative, enabling them to follow the prescribed treatment plan independently. Because it’s self-administered and simple to use, it greatly improves patient compliance.
By having treatments that Veterans can self-manage – whether during the day or especially in the middle of the night – they can get the necessary pain relief in their actual moments of need.
“Dozens, even hundreds of patients, have had an extremely noticeable benefit from the RS-4i Plus.”
Take the Next Step
Healthcare Practitioners
If you are interested in a more detailed review of the RS-4i Plus mechanisms of action and clinical evidence, we invite you to request a demonstration.
Patients
The RS-4i Plus requires a prescription. If you are interested in discussing this drug-free pain relief solution with your healthcare practitioner, download our patient discussion guide to help start a conversation.