In the realm of medical diagnostics, advancements are often the result of technological breakthroughs that redefine how healthcare providers approach patient care. One such innovation is the Vertebral Motion Analysis (VMA®) technology brought to you by the Driving Force Company. This groundbreaking technology promises to transform how injuries are diagnosed, how medical practices operate, and how patient care is delivered.
Introduction to VMA® Technology
The VMA® technology stands at the forefront of diagnostic imaging, offering a dynamic perspective of spinal movements that conventional static imaging methods like MRIs or standard X-rays cannot. Traditional imaging methods fall short when capturing the nuances of motion-related injuries or impairments. The VMA® excels by visualizing the spine in real time. This capability allows healthcare providers to pinpoint spinal ligament and instability issues (not disc) with unprecedented accuracy down to the millimeter. This ability provides objective data crucial for precise diagnoses and effective treatment planning.
Published literature documents that the “VMA® demonstrated no less than a 41% increase in the sensitivity of detecting lumbar radiographic instability.”1
“In studies submitted to the FDA, VMA® measurements were demonstrated to be accurate to within 0.2-0.4° (angulation) and 0.5- 0.7 mm (translation).”2
Driving Force Company Co-Founder Walter Bergeron is a Navy Veteran who served as a nuclear engineer on an aircraft carrier during the Gulf War. The company is dedicated to giving back to the military community by donating education to Veterans.
Origins and Development
Sam Frentzas grew up in an entrepreneurial family rooted in his father’s belief that you must treat a customer well and offer a quality product. This goes back to when he worked at his father’s clothing stores during the summers and while attending Loyola University. There, Sam built a strong work ethic that carried over to his time as a commodity trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Sam co-founded the Driving Force Company with his business partner Walter Bergeron, a hub for problem-solving through their Mastermind Group and the birthplace of innovative solutions like the PI Connection System. The pivotal introduction of VMA® technology through acquiring a diagnostic company marked a turning point. This groundbreaking system has consistently propelled medical clinics to new heights by merging FDA-cleared, patented personal injury diagnostic equipment with effective new patient acquisition strategies and empire-building techniques.
The transformative potential of VMA® technology became truly apparent after partnering with Dr. Scott Tauber, whom he first encountered after his presentation on Personal Injury at a medical conference in Orlando. Dr. Tauber’s extensive experience and expertise as a provider, educator, and consultant in the Personal Injury field now play a crucial role in revolutionizing the VMA® for injury care.
With this unique partnership, all three individuals bring an unprecedented blend of skills and capabilities. This synergy allows for faster clinical integration, heightened technological capabilities, enhanced provider PI marketability, and optimized results.
Chief Clinical Advisor Dr. Scott Tauber
Addressing a Critical Need in Healthcare
The core innovation of VMA® technology addresses a critical gap in current diagnostic capabilities, particularly in the context of Personal Injury cases. Traditionally, diagnosing acute traumatically induced spinal injuries involved static imaging that often failed to capture the full extent of a patient’s injury. This led to a delay in appropriate treatments and a protracted patient healing period. However, the VMA® technology enhances diagnostic accuracy and expedites the reporting process for results. Comprehensive assessments can be delivered to providers and attorneys within three to five business days, significantly faster than traditional methods.
Impact on Clinical Practice
Integrating VMA® technology into their practices represents a paradigm shift for healthcare providers. Practices equipped with VMA® systems can now conduct in-house diagnostics without the need for outsourcing, thereby retaining diagnostic revenue and improving operational efficiency. This capability is particularly advantageous in Personal Injury cases, where timely and accurate diagnoses are crucial for patient care and legal outcomes alike.
Applications Beyond Personal Injury
While initially tailored for Personal Injury cases, VMA® technology holds promise across various environments. Beyond legal contexts, such as workers’ compensation or Personal Injury claims, the technology is valuable in assessing an athlete’s spinal health before contractual agreements and identifying potential health risks among employees in large corporations such as FedEx or UPS. By enabling early detection of spinal issues that could lead to injuries, VMA® technology supports proactive healthcare management in diverse settings.
The Business Model: Empowering Clinics
Driving Force Company not only provides VMA® technology but also supports practices with a comprehensive infrastructure to maximize its utility and success. This includes training, integration with existing practice workflows, and dedicated support for generating and interpreting diagnostic reports. By streamlining the entire diagnostic process, from patient intake to attorney communication, Driving Force Company empowers practices to enhance patient care and operational efficiency simultaneously.
Co-founder Sam Frentzas at the Annual Driving Force Company Napa Event with their members and clients.
Patient-Centered Benefits
At the heart of VMA® technology’s impact lies its ability to improve patient outcomes. By accurately diagnosing spinal ligament issues, providers using VMA® can improve the accuracy of diagnoses. Clear and concise diagnoses can facilitate tailored treatment plans, improve treatment options and increase treatment effectiveness. Patients benefit from utilizing this technology in-office by decreasing their time traveling and seeking a diagnosis, leading to faster access to appropriate treatments.
Future Prospects
Looking ahead, Driving Force Company aims to expand the adoption of VMA® technology nationally, leveraging its success in over forty clinics to date and growing monthly. With a clear focus on empowering clinics and improving patient care, Driving Force Company remains committed to advancing VMA® technology as the Gold Standard in Spinal Medical Diagnostics.
Transforming Healthcare with the Driving Force Company
VMA® technology signifies a profound advancement in medical diagnostics through the visionary leadership and expertise of Sam Frentzas, Walter Bergeron, and Dr. Scott Tauber. Addressing a gap in current diagnostic capabilities, particularly evident in Personal Injury cases, VMA® technology surpasses traditional static imaging by providing dynamic motion analysis. This innovative approach identifies previously overlooked and underdiagnosed injuries and accelerates comprehensive reporting to providers and attorneys within a remarkably expedited time frame.
Sam Frentzas has positioned Driving Force Company (DFC) as a beacon of innovation through strategic partnerships and tireless advocacy. DFC enhances operational efficiency for healthcare providers and improves patient outcomes globally. Beyond technological innovation, Frentzas’ commitment to community impact is evident through initiatives supporting veterans. This is apparent in initiatives like sponsored training programs at ATI (Accelerated Training Institute), aimed at creating 100K careers for servicemen and women. All of which exemplifies his dedication to societal well-being beyond business excellence.
Collaborative efforts with industry leaders also underscore Driving Force’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of medical diagnostics. Sam can also be found fostering community and collaboration among industry leaders, including presenting certificates of completion and facilitating speaking engagements. This includes events with prominent figures such as Attorney Paul Samakow and successful business entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis.
By championing VMA® technology, Frentzas and his partners have catalyzed a paradigm shift towards more personalized, efficient, and effective healthcare solutions.
Looking ahead, Sam Frentzas’ and his partners’ leadership ensures that Driving Force Company will continue to advance innovation in healthcare diagnostics, fostering a future where cutting-edge technology intersects seamlessly with compassionate patient care. As healthcare landscapes evolve, innovations like VMA® hold the promise of revolutionizing medical practice, setting new standards for diagnostic precision and patient-centric care worldwide.
Identifying Biomarkers for Success in Personal Injury Cases
Both clinically and legally, success in the Personal Injury arena relies heavily on identifying objective findings (biomarkers), often referred to as medical evidence. Post-traumatic biomarkers can include lacerations, contusions, airbag burns, broken teeth, and dog bite puncture marks, to name a few. In the spine, damage is mainly reflected in three ways: fracture or dislocation, ligament laxity (instability), and disc involvement.
As providers, it is incumbent upon us to accurately identify the source of a patient’s post-traumatic injury, pain, and biomarkers. In addition, the ability to capture them objectively and quantitatively is crucial. Now, there is a way to accomplish both consistently, accurately, efficiently, and reliably, not only in a manner that benefits patient care but also allows PI attorneys to demonstrate causation and client damages effectively.
Revolutionary Technology for Personal Injury Diagnosis
The Vertebral Motion Analysis (VMA®) technology revolutionizes how providers evaluate, document, diagnose, and manage Personal Injury cases. By enabling visualization of the spine in motion, VMA® identifies spinal ligament pathology (instability) or excessive motion injuries, which often go undiagnosed or underdiagnosed in Personal Injury cases.
Spinal ligaments can become injured after a traumatic event such as a motor vehicle crash (“whiplash,” etc.). The ligaments become elongated and subsequently exhibit laxity, creating excessive vertebral movement.
Spinal intervertebral ligament instability has been documented as a prevalent finding in the symptomatic patient population after a traumatic event. It has also been described as a rare finding without trauma. In addition, it has been well documented for years in what is customarily described in the law as a learned treatise. The combination creates an opportunity to identify a frequent injury, yet one commonly overlooked.
Clinically, ligament injury symptoms may include but are not limited to, headaches, neck or lower back pain, restriction of motion, muscle spasms, and radicular complaints. For many years, utilizing the only available technology, these symptoms were diagnosed as strains, sprains, subluxations, disc conditions, or not diagnosed at all. Previous technology has been contingent upon radiographic film quality, patient positioning, proper patient movements, or a combination. VMA® technology prohibits movement from ancillary spinal regions or even the hips during lumbar flexion and extension testing. These are prevailing issues with current spinal ligament evaluations, and they can decrease injury identification opportunities.
During the VMA® testing procedure, the patient’s cervical and lumbar spine can be isolated with bolsters, which is unique to this diagnostic. This allows the VMA® to capture spinal ligamentous injury with a level of frequency and accuracy unmatched by current technologies. This capability is a game-changer for patients and their representing attorneys in the med-legal arena and beyond.
Enhancing Provider and Attorney Reports
Providers using VMA® can significantly improve patient outcomes with more accurate diagnoses and appropriate and effective treatments. In addition, they can enhance their Personal Injury marketability by consistently delivering accurate, reliable, and objective biomarkers supporting a patient’s subjective complaints and injuries. The VMA® is unlike any other past or current technology; “it’s like watching a movie of the patient’s spine move in real-time instead of only looking at 2-3 still photographs.”
For attorneys, VMA® provides critical medical evidence while establishing a vital injury causation link for their clients. After each evaluation, providers and attorneys can utilize the VMA® and Injury Summary reports package to quantitatively demonstrate a patient’s spinal instability. Even more importantly, the injury impacts daily activities and potential future health concerns.
The PI Connection VMA® system also offers a comprehensive administrative process and infrastructure from start to finish, streamlining a provider’s case management. This allows for a continued focus on their practice. This process includes an unbiased, independent VMA® read by a board-certified medical neuroradiologist, which is essential to ensure findings are reliable, valid, and professional, reducing the likelihood of future carrier disputes.
Going Beyond Personal Injury
Beyond the Personal Injury environment, the VMA® is an incredible resource for identifying the source of spinal pain. Literature studies have shown that a significant percentage of the population suffers from ongoing spinal pain, which is often the result of a previous traumatic accident or injury.3 Now, providers can quickly rule in or out underlying joint instability from ligament laxity as a factor within their own office.
“As a treating provider of PI patients for over 20 years and now as an educator, consultant and coach, it is fascinating and gratifying to be part of developing a system that helps to identify the underlying pain source and improve case outcomes at a high level.”
Chief Clinical Advisor Dr. Scott Tauber
Dr. Scott Tauber is the Chief Clinical Advisor (CCA) of the PI Connection. He is also the COO and Director of Education of the American Institute of Personal Injury Physicians. Both companies have changed how healthcare providers work with med-legal professionals and automobile insurance carriers in the Personal Injury space.
He is a national speaker on Personal Injury, sharing his knowledge and expertise with various provider specialties, attorneys and students. He has presented to audiences at medical-legal conferences, state association events, annual conventions, academic symposiums, and professional schools.
Dr. Tauber has also served as an expert witness in both plaintiff and defense medical-legal cases and as an independent consultant for several major automobile insurance carriers, health insurance companies, and state regulatory agencies.
In addition to his extensive clinical and consulting experience, he is a Diplomate of the American Board of Chiropractic Orthopedists and a Certified Professional Coder.
With a unique blend of clinical expertise and industry knowledge, Dr. Tauber can help providers and med-legal professionals optimize their case outcomes and grow their practices within the complex landscape of Personal Injury.
For more information on what Driving Force Company can offer your practice, visit their website at drivingforcecompany.com.
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