NEWS RELEASE
April 27, 2021
Contact: Michele Sewart, Scoliosis Research Society
Phone: 414-289-9107
Email: [email protected]
Scoliosis Research Society Announces
the Winner of the Thomas E. Whitecloud Award
“The Harms Study Group Retrospective Comparison Study on Anterior Vertebral Body Tethering (AVBT) versus Posterior Spinal Fusion (PSF) for Primary Thoracic Curves” Voted Winner by Attendees and Committee
Milwaukee, WI (April 27, 2021) – During the 28th International Meeting on Advanced Spine Techniques (IMAST), the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) announced the winner of the Thomas E. Whitecloud Award given to the best clinical paper.
This year’s winner “The Harms Study Group Retrospective Comparison Study on Anterior Vertebral Body Tethering (AVBT) versus Posterior Spinal Fusion (PSF) for Primary Thoracic Curves” was presented by Peter O. Newton, MD and co-authored by Stefan Parent, MD, PhD; Firoz Miyanji, MD; Ahmet Alanay, MD; Baron Lonner, MD; Kevin M. Neal, MD; Daniel Hoernschemeyer, MD; Burt Yaszay, MD; Laurel C. Blakemore, MD; Suken A. Shah, MD; and the Harms Study Group.
"This large-scale multi-center, multi-national study provides critical postoperative outcomes information for patients, parents and surgeons utilizing a matched comparison of AVBT and PSF. Decision making regarding the “best" surgical approach to progressive idiopathic scoliosis will vary based on patient specific goals and expectations, and we hope this data will inform such discussions regarding these two very different approaches to scoliosis." - Peter O. Newton, MD
You can review an abstract of the paper as part of the Podium Presentations on the IMAST website at www.srs.org/imast2021/program.
The winning paper will also be the subject of the next episode of our podcast Scoliosis Dialogues: An SRS Podcast for a deeper discussion with the presenting author. Scheduled for May 5, you can find that episode and previous episodes of our podcast on our website at www.srs.org/podcast.
Named after Dr. Thomas E. Whitecloud, co-founder of IMAST, the nominees are selected by the IMAST Committee from the submitted abstracts for the IMAST and the SRS Annual Meeting. The nominees are invited to submit their paper’s manuscript which is reviewed by the IMAST committee. During the meeting, attendees vote for their favorite presentation via the IMAST app and the popular votes and manuscript scores are taken into consideration by the IMAST committee, who select the final winners.
This is the second virtual IMAST since the 2020 meeting pivoted to online. Billed as one of the top meetings for innovative research and technological advances in spine surgery, the virtual platform hosted more than 450 attendees from all over the world.
The self-paced on-demand recordings of the sessions will be available to registered attendees through June 30, 2021, on our website at www.srs.org/imast2021.
About Scoliosis Research Society
The Scoliosis Research Society is a non-profit, professional organization, made up of physicians and allied health personnel. Our primary focus is on providing continuing medical education for health care professionals and on funding/supporting research in spinal deformities. Founded in 1966, SRS has gained recognition as the world's premier spine deformity society. Please visit www.srs.org for further information. Also follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
###