2021 Medical Advisory Board Updates

BioTras is proud to announce recent changes to our Medical Advisory Board and creation of Chief Medical Advisor role.

Chad Stephens, DO has joined BioTras as Chief Medical Advisor. In this position Dr. Stephens will guide the Medical Advisory Board as BioTras expands our simulated cadaver models to offer more models and company specific customizations. Dr. Stephens joined BioTras in September 2020 and hit the ground running by presenting for BioTras at the 2020 ASPN virtual conference. Dr. Stephens has dedicated time and energy into helping us develop new models for several interventional pain procedures and companies.

Anthony Giuffrida, MD and Youssef Josephson, DO have also joined BioTras to complete our Medical Advisory Board. Both Dr. Giuffrida and Dr. Josephson have a strong passion for improving physician education and work closely with both established and start-up medical device companies to put their passion to work.

Our Medical Advisory Board will oversee relationships between BioTras and medical device companies to help further the product development and services BioTras offers for educational training of physicians.

Dr. Giuffrida and Dr. Stephens with Christy Owenby, Moxy Marketing, have founded the Medical Education Combine that uses BioTras models, VR technology and virtual meeting services to reach hundreds of physicians while showcasing companies and procedures to improve patient outcomes. BioTras is proud and honored to be able to elevate physician training opportunities with the MedEd Combine team, Dr. Stephens, Dr. Giuffrida and Christy Owenby.

We want to thank the previous members of our Advisory Board for their time and dedication to BioTras. It was with their help and advisement that BioTras was able to successfully launch in the interventional pain management space.

Dr. Chad Stephens and Dr. Anthony Giuffrida

Dr. Chad Stephens, Director of Operations, Aaron Ramey, Creative Director, Jennifer Smith, Co-Owner, Krissy Ramey, and Dr. Anthony Giuffrida

BioTras is proud to announce the addition of Creative Director

BioTras is proud to announce the addition of Jennifer Smith to the team. Jennifer will be serving as Creative Director for our product development team. She brings her combination of business and creative experiences to the medical field. From stage design and special effects, to interior decor, to custom carved cake decorating, and more, Jennifer and her family of artists are always looking for a new creative challenges. Jennifer knows there is no greater challenge than the human body.  Jennifer can be reached at info@biotras.com.

BioTras attends American Society of Pain & Neuroscience PAIN 2019 meeting.

Our owners, Director and Founding Medical Advisory Board attended the American Society of Pain & Neuroscience meeting in Miami, FL. We held a live demonstration with Dr. Ehren Nelson, Harvard IPM Fellowship Director, using our patented spinal injection simulator to showcase its abilities to the interventional pain management industry, educational society representatives and physicians.

It was an honor to have our board members attend as faculty and participate in panel discussions for one of the most renowned meetings in Interventional Pain Management.

Please visit our Gallery for more photos from ASPN.

Left to right: Shravani Durbhakula, MD, Ehren Nelson, MD, John East, DO, Krissy Ramey, Director, Eric Lee, MD, Sean Li, MD, Brandon Knutson, Co-Founder, Neel Mehta, MD.

Not pictured Dan Verrill, MD.

BioTras Simulated Cadaver Demonstration at ASPN, PAIN 2019

BioTras is excited to hold a product demonstration with our medical advisory board at the upcoming American Society of Pain and Neuroscience, PAIN 2019 meeting. Thursday, July 25 from 4-9 pm in the Neptune Ballroom. We have have fluoroscopy and ultrasound on hand for full visualization of our product’s abilities.

M.A.R.C. Cadaver Workshop

BioTras had the pleasure of participating in M.A.R.C. Institute's World In Pain cadaver workshop on Feb 16th - 17th, 2018.  The Miami Anatomical Research Center is a world-class private cadaver lab and training facility dedicated to the education of new medical technology and practices for healthcare professionals.  We were excited to place AsTris 2.0 into the hands of physicians from all over the world, providing them with an innovative alternative to traditional cadaver training.  Special thanks to the physician educators who helped demo AsTris and provided excellent feedback for us, including Dr. Andrea Trescot, Dr. Ricardo Plancarte Sanchez, Dr. Fabricio Dias Assis, and Dr. Agnes Stogicza.

Winner of 2016 D CEO Excellence in Healthcare Award in Medical Devices/Technology

BioTras was honored to be a part of the third annual Excellence in Healthcare Awards event on December 1, 2016 hosted by D CEO and D Healthcare Daily.  This ceremony recognized the area’s outstanding healthcare CEOs, practitioners, and other innovative industry leaders.  BioTras gives a very special thank you to Sr. Editor Matt Goodman, and the folks at D CEO for presenting us with this award. 

Astris 1.0 Debuted at ASIPP 18

This past weekend, our team had the pleasure of unveiling Astris 1.0 for the very first time to the physicians, educators, and industry professionals of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians' 18th Annual Meeting.  We would like to thank all the attendees and exhibitors who stopped by our booth to meet (and poke!) our revolutionary spinal injection training simulator.  It was a great experience to see so much interest and excitement for our brand new product.  If you are interested in getting to know Astris 1.0 and staying up-to-date on our team's upcoming developments and future exhibits, please get in touch:

New Pain Management Training Device Rolled Out

(ORTHOPEDICS THIS WEEK) A new medical device called AsTris 1.0 is now available help doctors get the pain management experience they need without having to practice on a real person. Developed by BioTras, LLC, AsTris 1.0 made its debut in Dallas at the 2016 American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) conference April 14-16 at the Hyatt Regency.

Johnny East, DO and Brandon Knutson, DC are co-owners of BioTras.

“As an emerging med-tech company based in Dallas, this is the perfect venue to launch our first medical device,” said Dr. East, who is board certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Pain Medicine and has performed over 20,000 spinal injections over the course of his 14-year career. “We will get the chance to showcase AsTris 1.0 in front of thousands of the best minds in interventional pain management, including physicians, nurses and other health care providers.”

According to the April 11, 2016 news release, “The AsTris 1.0 body is clear, which allows the practitioner to observe needle movement as the needle is advanced towards the spine. It can also be customized to include a variety of skeletal structures to meet a wider scope of training needs. The simulator is different than anything currently on the market and is made of a fusable thermo plastic material. It is also made of re-constructed human vertebrae, and other real bone elements that can be viewed under X-ray.”

“BioTras expects the second and third generation models of AsTris 1.0 to be used in training for specialties outside of pain management such as neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery.”

Dr. East, , told OTW, “AsTris 1.0 arose from an organic need in the field of musculoskeletal medicine for a new kind of training; one where the eye and hand can meet more effectively. The most interesting practical aspect of AsTris 1.0 is that the simulated thermoplastic material is reusable an indefinite number of times. AsTris 1.0 is authentic. It looks real under X-ray and to the naked eye because it is real.”

AsTris 1.0 Spinal Simulator for Learning How to Place Needles

(MEDGADGET.COM) BioTras, a company out of McKinney, Texas, is unveiling its AsTris 1.0 spinal simulator for training clinicians how to perform needle placements for pain management applications. The device is essentially a representation of a human with transparent tissues so that the bones of the back and spine are clearly visible.

Needles can be inserted into the fusable thermo plastic and the bones of the simulator are visible under X-ray so procedures can be performed realistically much how they would be with a real patient.

The AsTris 1.0 can be ordered customized for specific training applications to include different skeletal structures.

Astris 1.0 Sets New Gold Standard for Spinal Injection Training

(BUSINESS WIRE) DALLAS -- BioTras, LLC, a biomedical company owned by Dallas-based pain management doctors John East and Brandon Knutson, announced today it has received a U.S. Patent for AsTris 1.0 (U.S. Patent No. 9,275,556) a unique medical training simulator that is setting a new gold standard for training in interventional pain management. The patent was approved on March 1, 2016.

“The AsTris 1.0 is clear, which allows the practitioner to observe needle movement as the needle is advanced towards the spine. It can also be customized to include a variety of skeletal structures to meet a wider scope of training needs.”

East, who is board certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Pain Medicine, has performed over 20,000 spinal injections over the course of his 14-year career.

“It takes extreme precision and experience to perform spinal injections correctly. Until now, the only way you could practice was on a live human, a cadaver or on crude, non-realistic models,” said East. “The AsTris 1.0 is clear, which allows the practitioner to observe needle movement as the needle is advanced towards the spine. It can also be customized to include a variety of skeletal structures to meet a wider scope of training needs.”

East and Knutson set out three years ago to develop the patented spine simulator and take the patient out of the training equation. The AsTris 1.0 allows resident physicians, fellows, post-grad physicians and other health care professionals to practice performing hundreds, even thousands of injections before ever injecting a real person.

The AsTris 1.0 is different than anything currently on the market and is made of a fusable thermo plastic material that has the feel of human tissue. It is also made of re-constructed human vertebrae, and other real bone elements that look real under X-ray.

“The AsTris 1.0 simulator will be available this April,” said Knutson. “It is our goal to partner with medical technology companies, for-profit training facilities, medical schools, residency and fellowship training programs. We expect the second and third generation models of AsTris 1.0 to be used in training for specialties outside of pain management such as neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery."