By Melanie Starr

Dr. Stephen Bartol creates technologies for safer surgery, cannabis prescribing, and COVID diagnosis

As a long-time spine surgeon, Stephen Bartol (MD’83) knew there had to be a better way to release and repair nerves than open-spine surgery—but how to perform minimally invasive surgery in the vicinity of so many nerves? His solution? Partner with an engineer to develop a “smart sensor” that can be quickly and easily applied to the skin—not unlike a high-tech Band-Aid—to pick up signals from nerves in the path of surgical instruments and alert the surgeon to reposition the angle of insertion.

Along the way to developing this nerve-locating smart sensor, Dr. Bartol earned an MBA and started a company, Sentio, to commercialize the device. The sensor became so popular for its effectiveness and ease of use that, in 2017, global surgery-device giant, DePuy Senthes, and its parent corporation, Johnson & Johnson, bought Sentio out.

“Before the Sentio smart sensor, I was able to perform only three to five per cent of spine surgeries using minimally invasive techniques. With the sensor, I was able to raise this to 75 to 80 per cent,” notes Dr. Bartol with satisfaction. “Overall, in the U.S., rates of minimally invasive spine surgeries have already risen from nearly none to 20 per cent so far. For patients, this is the difference between day surgery and two weeks off work, and a major operation with six months of recovery.”

Since selling Sentio, Dr. Bartol has turned his attention to an emerging challenge for physicians—how to advise patients about the medicinal use of cannabis.

“As a spine surgeon, I noticed that my patients who reported using cannabis for post-operative pain had very mixed results. It was perplexing,” says Dr. Bartol, who signed up for McMaster University’s Science of Cannabis course to learn more. “It’s a very confusing space for physicians. Patients are asking for guidance and most doctors have no idea how to prescribe.”

His solution? Develop an artificial intelligence platform to sift through more than 600,000 peer-reviewed publications for the most robust data, and then take it to physicians with an interactive portal they can use to look up information and ask specific questions of the fast-growing body of literature.

“Right now, medical marijuana prescriptions are more like permission slips than prescriptions… they don’t come with instructions,” he says. “Physicians need to know what strains are indicated for what problems, at what dose, frequency and delivery method—along with the risks and side effects.”

Because the portal is built on artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms, the more people use it, the “smarter” it will get, providing physicians with push-button access to the answers they need, when they need them.

“New papers are coming out about cannabis every day,” remarks Dr. Bartol. “No one could possibly keep up with the latest information, least of all the busy family physicians who need it the most.”