Episode 117

What's the Holdup? - Part 1 (Episode 117)

Guest: Kent New

Today’s conversation is the first in a three part series with Dr. Kent New on the barriers to progress for SCI treatments. Kent is a neurosurgeon and researcher who was educated at Georgetown and Duke Universities. His career led him to brain tumor research and clinical practice at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and then to overseeing clinical research at Ascension St. Vincent’s Hospital. In 2014 Kent suffered a C6 level spinal cord injury from a motor vehicle accident. He is uniquely qualified through his education, work experience and lived experience with an SCI to guide us through this subject matter. The first two conversations in this series are a somewhat bitter pill to swallow.

Here in part one, we discuss the larger points of friction along the path from discovery to clinical research as well as the inefficiencies of certain regulatory agencies, the lack of incentives toward deliverables in academia and the complex nature of this injury. For the student of SCI research advocacy, this series presents an important perspective. We cannot make progress towards the answers unless we understand the problems. So bear with us through the problems and we’ll get to some potential solutions in episode three.

Don't forget to email us your thoughts and inquiries about this episode at curecast@u2fp.org. Thanks for listening!

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Bumper music: Dig a Hole by Freaque

Guest Bio

Dr. Kent New, from Alexandria, Virginia, obtained a BA in Chemistry at the University of Virginia in 1989. He entered an MD/PhD program at Georgetown University, earning his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology. In 1998, Dr. New began residency training in Neurosurgery at Duke University where he also completed a funded research fellowship in tumor immunology. From 2005-08, Dr. New worked at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville specializing in brain tumor research and clinical work. In 2008, Dr. New moved to Ascension St Vincent’s Southside hospital where he pursued private practice until suffering a C6 spinal cord injury in a MVA in late 2014.

Dr. New currently oversees clinical research at St Vincent’s neurosurgery, serves on the board of directors for the Brain Tumor Network and a retirement community, and recently joined SCOPE and the expert committee for scitrialfinder.net to broaden his involvement in the SCI community.