Bio

Dr. Odonkor is double board certified in Pain Medicine and Physiatry. He is a Yale (medical school), Johns Hopkins (residency) and Harvard (fellowship)-trained physician in Physiatry, Pain Medicine, Advanced Interventional Spine & Regenerative Medicine.  He serves on the faculty at Yale in the department  of orthopedics & rehabilitation, vice chair of research in the division of physiatry, and Director of Digital Health & Neuromodulation Lab. His research focuses on the application of prediction analytics,  neuromodulation, and digital health technology in chronic pain disorders .Dr. Odonkor is well-published in top tier peer reviewed journals with over 90 publications and served as PI for several national multi-institutional clinical trials. He is an active member of International Pain and Spine Intervention Society, American Academy of Pain Medicine, North American Neuromodulation Society, American Society of Pain & Neuroscience, and the North American Spine Society, among others. He serves on the research committee for IPSIS and previously on committees for NANS, AAPMR and AAPM. He also serves on the editorial boards for Pain Medicine Journal and Interventional Pain Medicine Journal. Dr. Odonkor has been recognized with numerous awards including the president’s citation award by American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, the young investigator award by the American Pain Society, best paper awards by the Association of Academic Physiatry, American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, and the regenerative medicine scholarship awards from the Interventional Orthopedics Foundation.

Session Title & Description

Neuromodulation: The Next Frontier for Lower Limb and Foot Pain

Chronic foot and lower-extremity pain can remain difficult to treat despite appropriate podiatric care, particularly when symptoms are neuropathic, postsurgical, post-traumatic, or arise from discrete peripheral nerve pathology. Advances in neuromodulation are creating new minimally invasive treatment options for patients who have exhausted conventional therapies but may not require, or be appropriate for, more invasive surgery. This presentation will provide a practical, anatomy-based overview of contemporary neuromodulation strategies for lower-limb and foot pain, with particular emphasis on peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS). We will review patient selection, identification of peripheral nerve pain generators, and potential targets including the sciatic, tibial, common and superficial peroneal, sural, saphenous, and other distal sensory nerves. Clinical applications will include refractory neuropathic foot and ankle pain, postsurgical and post-traumatic pain, nerve entrapment syndromes, painful neuropathies, complex regional pain syndrome, and residual or phantom limb pain. The presentation will distinguish temporary percutaneous PNS, permanent PNS, dorsal root ganglion stimulation, and conventional spinal cord stimulation, emphasizing how pain distribution, anatomy, mechanism, and treatment goals influence selection of the appropriate neuromodulation strategy. Ultrasound-guided targeting and emerging approaches that allow stimulation of peripheral nerves without destructive nerve treatment will also be discussed. Using clinical cases and procedural examples, the session will highlight where neuromodulation may fit within the treatment continuum and when collaboration between podiatry, pain medicine, rehabilitation, and peripheral nerve specialists may benefit patients with otherwise refractory lower-extremity pain. Attendees should leave with a practical framework for recognizing potential neuromodulation candidates, identifying relevant neural targets, understanding available technologies, and knowing when to consider referral for advanced neuromodulation evaluation.