NAM's exclusive IDD Therapy® treatment is more effective and less costly than surgery to correct many spinal disorders without the side effects that plague spinal surgeries. In this era of healthcare reform, it should be embraced with enthusiasm by the medical and chiropractic professions as well as by private and public insurers. But it has not been accepted and reimbursed with the consistency this amazing technology deserves. Why? 

The reason is that NAM has been tainted by the outrageous false advertising, unauthorized meta tagging, study fraud, and other audacious marketing misconduct engaged in on a grand scale by non-surgical decompression ("NSD") manufacturers other than NAM.

The publicity about this misconduct tends to be attributed (inaccurately) to the entire industry rather than only to the manufacturers and marketers who are actually engaging in such gross misconduct as a matter of course.  

As a consequence, physicians, patients, reimbursement sources, and financing entities have become skittish about all forms of NSD.  

NAM has spent millions in its campaign against the industry's largest manufacturer, who also happened to be the industry's most prolific marketing-fraud offender: Axiom Worldwide (DRX 9000).

NAM exposed Axiom's far-flung intentional lies about patents it never had
(and still does not have), false claims of connections to NASA, false claims of FDA approval, theft of NAM trademarks and other intellectual property, and other misconduct.

Perhaps most remarkable was the revelation in NAM's suit that Axiom's foundational "86%" study bears the names of Drs. Gionis (a convicted felon) and Groteke, despite the undisclosed fact that every treatment in the "study," if done at all, was performed by Dr. Tim Exarhos—the brother of Axiom co-owner Nicholas Exarhos.  

NAM's claims were so well documented that lawsuits sprung up around the country literally quoting from NAM's case. Especially noteworthy is the $100-million lawsuit filed by the State of Florida against Axiom and its owners Gibson and Exarhos, which is based almost exclusively on NAM's claims and which quotes from NAM's lawsuit for two-and-a-half pages. 

NAM's costly battle with the unrepentant Axiom has been essentially won.
Axiom recently irrevocably filed for liquidation under Florida law.  

But the job of cleaning up the industry is not done. NAM has made a formal demand upon CERT Health (maker of the SpineMED® device) and its founder, Tim Emsky, to stop its false marketing and meta tagging of NAM trademarks.

NAM has received no response at all, so NAM will be filing suit to remedy that marketing misconduct whether or not the rumors are true that Mr. Emsky has left Maryland and returned to Canada.  

There also remains the continuing problem of certain manufacturers and marketers falsely claiming that their device is a decompression device when it is not.

Some manufacturers (such as the late Axiom) attempt to define decompression in a way that applies only to their device. Regardless of such marketing propaganda, there is one unequivocal threshold one must meet before using the term "decompression" in marketing.

The FDA marketing clearance for the device (its "510(k)") must include the term "decompression" in the specified "indications for use." NAM intends to stop all use of the term "decompression" regarding all devices not specifically cleared for decompression—whether by manufacturers, marketers, or device users.  

NAM also intends to stop the improper practice of manufacturers, marketers, and users citing studies not done on their particular device in support of the unstudied device's efficacy. NAM has spent considerable resources designing its unique technology and having studies performed and printed in legitimate publications to better inform those considering IDD Therapy®.

Our studies do not apply to other devices because IDD Therapy® devices are unique to NAM and, we believe, have been shown to be the best decompression devices ever made.  

In light of the recent reports of study fraud in the decompression industry, increasingly transparent studies with more credible results should be performed. NAM intends to work with physician associations to design study guidelines that will allow decompression studies to be done that reflect widely accepted and credible science. 

NAM hopes that all its efforts will result in honest marketing that will allow legitimate decompression technology such as IDD Therapy® treatment to be judged on its own merits and on its science, rather than be received with the understandable skepticism caused by the wild, unsubstantiated claims of unscrupulous marketers. There is a reason NAM has, for years, used its slogan “We Sell Science” and why others have tried to steal it.  

We believe in IDD Therapy® treatment.

We believe in the many thousands of back-pain sufferers whose lives have already been changed for the better because of it. We believe in the millions upon millions of back-pain sufferers who can be helped in the future, especially if physicians and reimbursement sources more uniformly embrace IDD Therapy® and make it the standard of care that it should be. NAM is committed to that kind of future.