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Diagnosing whiplash

JACKSONVILLE -- Chiropractor Steven Rhodes knew the young auto accident victim was suffering from severe whiplash that would likely change her life. What he didn't know was how dramatically his life would change after he proved that injury.

That was four years ago, when Rhodes developed a better method for diagnosing whiplash and unwittingly became an entrepreneur.

"I really want to get back to being a doctor," said Rhodes, 53. "This has become a full-time job, on top of my full-time job."

The image of a neck-brace clad plaintiff in a courtroom with the ubiquitous whiplash neck injury after an auto accident often conjures up thoughts of scam artists. A more accurate way to diagnose whiplash could affect personal injury lawsuits involving neck injuries by disproving some claims while bolstering others.

When the University of Florida used a new device developed by Rhodes to re-evaluate 100 whiplash cases, about 35 percent of the patients who had been diagnosed as having normal magnetic resonance imaging results were found to have an injury.

He developed the device after an MRI scan of the young woman's neck showed no damage. Rhodes asked the radiologist to redo the scans with his patient's neck in flexed and extended positions.

"She looked at me like I was nuts," Rhodes said of the radiologist. "She said it couldn't be done and I looked at that machine and thought, 'Sure it can.' "

He began to research MRI technology to determine what kind of materials could be used without hurting the imaging results. He created a padded wedge for the flex position and a longer pad with a curve for the extension position. The devices position the neck's cervical spine in common stress positions.

"Anyone could see she had two disk herniations," he said of the second MRI on his patient. "It was very obvious."

In January 2004, he testified at the young woman's trial and the jury ultimately awarded her about $150,000, said W. Alan Winter, the Neptune Beach attorney who represented the woman.

"I won't want to accept a simple MRI anymore," Winter said. "It's like a cardiologist only checking half the heart."

Most doctors who see the device are struck that it hadn't been done sooner, Rhodes said.

"They say I invented it but I would say I did not have a choice," Rhodes said. "The MRI was making me look like a fool. It wasn't supporting my diagnosis and I knew I was right."

He didn't know how to start a business, though he did realize that he better get a U.S. patent on the device, which was approved in October 2004. Later, an attorney suggested he get one on the method. That one's pending. He also registered the device with the Food and Drug Administration, which is required before it can be bought and used by medical centers.

The rest of Rhodes' business savvy, by his account, involves a series of lucky events. Like the day he was showing one of his new MRI images to doctors in the lobby of a Jacksonville imaging center and the head of the University of Florida's radiology department happened by.

From there, he was introduced to Dr. Harry Griffiths, a professor of Radiology and Orthopedics at the University of Florida College of Medicine at Shands Jacksonville, who used Rhodes' device to re-evaluate 100 neck injury cases.

"Finally we will be able to better diagnose whiplash injuries and physicians will be able to treat these injuries that, up until now, were difficult to diagnose," Griffiths said.

Griffiths is doing an expanded version of the study that will look at 1,000 people who have been in an auto accident within the last six months.

Rhodes found a manufacturer in Detroit who could produce his design, but only in limited quantities. About 30 of the devices are being used across the country.

Carol Stokes, business director of Southbank Imaging Services in Jacksonville, said she has used the device for two years and has made it a standard practice when doing MRIs on patients with neck injuries. "We saw the value of it so clearly."

Stokes said it has increased her business but she could not say by how much, though Southbank does use the device daily.

Stokes said it has increased her business but she could not say by how much, though Southbank does use the device daily.

Rhodes' next stroke of luck involved JoAnn Valenti's misfortune of falling while remodeling her home. Rhodes used the new device when diagnosing her neck injury and Valenti told her husband, Jim Valenti, CEO of World Trade Group LLP in Ponte Vedra Beach, which specializes in getting products manufactured in China.

"He's going to take care of the business side," Rhodes said. "I love being a doctor."

For the past six months, Jim Valenti has been busy lining up manufacturers and deciding on a business plan and marketing strategy. "This is not a typical situation," he said. "You have a product that's dragging a company into the market place."

Valenti expects strong demand for the product among lawyers because it could help them argue their cases in court.

Valenti and Rhodes have met with several medical supply companies but both say no decisions have been made yet. "The thought of building a free standing company devoted to this product becomes more and more intriguing," Valenti said.

Some North Florida MRI centers have paid for exclusive rights, said Valenti, declining to disclose names or payments.

Rhodes' new business venture may not have happened without the brutal honesty of a guitar teacher some 20 years ago, who, in another stroke of luck, helped him focus on a career in medicine.

"I was so bad he gave me all my money back," Rhodes recalled. "I was crushed but I had to face that being a rock star was out of the question."

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