048 Mark Hopkins
On today's episode, I am delighted to introduce Mark Hopkins to the podcast. Mark is an experienced community pharmacist and the current owner of Hopwoods Pharmacy group in Wales. Since the beginning of his career he has been passionate about sports medicine and rehabilitation and has spent many years supporting athletes with rehabilitation pitchside and in the training room for various sporting events. This experience sparked his interest in setting up pain clinics within his pharmacy. This service aimed to provide care in the community for people living with chronic and acute pain, using bioelectrical technologies to provide pain relief and support wound healing. Mark also leads on retail and ambassador partnerships for NuroKor Bioelectronics as a Pharmacy and Healthcare Liaison.
Since Hopwoods Pharmacy launched the service, the pain clinic has provided approximately 250 consultations using NuroKor’s technology. The appointments involve a free 20 minute consultation about current medication and an opportunity to use cutting-edge bioelectric nerve stimulation technology. The electroceutical application helps to alleviate symptoms of arthritis and inflammatory diseases like fibromyalgia, joint pain, stroke recovery, improving circulation in people with diabetes, promoting wound healing and helping with pain management. The programme has expanded to 12 pain clinics across Wales and Scotland. Many of his patients report a significant reduction or stopping opioids altogether after using the therapy. Helping patients who are struggling to cope with both their pain and the side-effects of opioids has been an extremely rewarding experience for Mark and he shares some amazing stories on today's podcast.
About Nurokor
The NuroKor devices feature pioneering wearable technology that uses bioelectric nerve, muscle and microcurrent stimulation to help manage pain and optimise recovery, by targeting nerve endings and influencing pain signals reaching the brain. This provides safe and effective long-term alternative to opiods, for management of chronic pain, without side-effects and problems with addiction. NuroKor believes in putting patients at the centre of their own care and supporting them to take a blended approach to managing their own pain, without the need to exclusively rely strong medication for long periods of time.
A recent survey asked 115 people to review their pain, and how it affected their daily activities, before and after using Nurokor devices:
91% of those using bioelectronics experienced significant reduction in pain or total elimination of pain
73% of users reported significantly reducing or eliminating their pain medication
86% reported pain relief for at least 6hrs, with some reporting sustained relief one week and even one month later
83% rated pain 5/10 or under (vs 35% before using Nurokor
During lockdown, sales of its portable devices using low-dose bioelectrical currents surged by 156% as more people demanded a drug-free alternative they could use at home, work and on the go.
If you are interested in understanding more about the NuroKor devices or you are a pharmacist looking to start a pain clinic in your community, please feel free to contact Mark for further information at markh@nurokor.co.uk
Social media:
Instagram - mark_hopswoods and NuroKor
Linkedin - Mark Hopkins
Don't forget to check out the Evelina London Children's Hospital Foundation in Paediatric Pharmaceutical Care: 9th International Masterclass that will be held as a virtual event over four afternoons on October 7th, 8th, 14th, and 15th
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