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President's Message
Pat on the Back
In Memoriam
- Nicholson
- Hurley
Historians Corner
Finance Council Update
Research Council Update
Governance Council Update
Education Council Update
Fellowship Committee Update
Worldwide Courses: Call for 2017 Events
Education Committee Update
Awards & Scholarships Committee Update
Ethics Corner
Non-Operative Management Committee Update
Save the Date for 2016 Meetings

President's Message

Wow, what a phenomenal 50^th anniversary meeting in Minneapolis. Kudos to John Dormans, MD, the 50^th Anniversary Task Force led by Behrooz Akbarnia, MD, the Education Committee led by Sigurd Berven, MD, the Program Committee led by Ronald Lehman, Jr., MD, the local hosts Joseph and Sherry Perra, Tressa and the SRS staff and all who participated.

Pat on the Back

Virginie Lafage, PhD

Virginie Lafage, PhD recently joined Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) as Director of Spine Research under Dr. Frank Schwab, has been appointed Spine Service Chief.

Dr. Lafage received her PhD in biomechanics from ENSAM in Paris, France. Before her appointment at HSS, she was Director of Spine Research at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases.

In Memoriam

O. Ross Nicholson, MD

John H. Hurley, MD

Historians Corner

Behrooz A. Akbarnia, MD
Past SRS Historian

George H. Thompson, MD
SRS Historian

Finance Council Update

J. Abbott Byrd, III, MD
Finance Council Chair

The Finance Council is composed of four committees:

The Corporate Relations Committee is chaired by John Dormans, MD. The committee remains quite active communicating and meeting regularly with our corporate sponsors. The goal is to expand the list of SRS corporate sponsors and to maintain and increase their level of support. Dr. Dormans' team has been quite successful with this effort and the 2014 aggregate of SRS corporate sponsorship was $1,847,250 or 42 percent of our annual income.

Research Council Update

Frank Schwab, MD
Research Council Chair

The Research Council comprises the following committees: Adult Deformity, Growing Spine, Morbidity & Mortality (M&M), Non-Operative Management and Research Grant. Additionally, the following task forces are included: Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) and 3D Scoliosis Task Force. Key highlights to note are:

Governance Council Update

Mark Weidenbaum, MD
Governance Council Chair

The Governance Council brings together eight committees, which share common aspects of SRS structural organization. As SRS Secretary, I am the Governance Committee Council Chair. As with the other Councils, the main function of the Council Chair is to assist the committee chairs and to facilitate communication between the eight committees, the Presidential Line and the Board of Directors.

Education Council Update

John R. Dimar, MD
Education Council Chair

The Scoliosis Research Society Board of Directors and committee chairs recently met in Chicago on November 6, 2015. As the incoming Education Council Chair, I had the great privilege of meeting with the current committee chairs who will be leading their committees in planning the various educational activities for the upcoming year.

Fellowship Committee Update

Munish Gupta, MD
Fellowship Committee Chair

Membership Selection update:

The SRS Fellowship Committee had a busy and successful year so far. We have recommended 24 new Candidate Fellows to the Board of Directors; 14 of them outside of the United States (OUS). Six of the 15 candidate members who were approved as Active Fellows of SRS are from OUS.

Worldwide Courses Call for 2017 Events Deadline: February 1, 2016

Marinus de Kleuver, MD, PhD
Worldwide Course Committee Chair

2016:
The Worldwide Course Committee (WWC) is proud to co-organize six conferences in 2016, each time in conjunction with a national or regional spine society. These conferences, from an integral part of the SRS educational efforts across the globe, are a sign of our commitment to foster optimal care for spinal deformity patients globally.

Education Committee Update

Theodore Choma, MD
Education Committee Chair

The Education Committee is responsible for the educational programs (Pre-Meeting Course, Half-Day Courses, and Lunchtime Symposia) at the Annual Meeting. Their efforts at the recent 50^th Annual Meeting in Minneapolis are worthy of our thanks and congratulations. Under the direction of the previous Education Committee Chair, Sigurd Berven, MD, we were treated to an array of rich educational programs infused with a strong historical prospective over the arc of our Society’s first 50 years.

Awards & Scholarships Committee Update

Ian J. Harding, BA, FRCS (Orth)
Awards and Scholarships Committee Chair

The Awards and Scholarships Committee is pleased to announce the winners of the 2016 Traveling Fellows. This year the committee received 18 applicants from 13 countries wishing to join Professor Keith K.D. Luk, MD, the Senior Traveling Fellow, on a tour across North America visiting active SRS member institutions.

Ethics Corner

Kamal Ibrahim, MD, FRCS(C), MA
Ethics and Professionalism
Committee Chair

James W. Roach, MD
Ethics and Professionalism
Committee Past Chair

Non-Operative Management Committee Update

Matthew Halsey, MD
Non-Operative Management Committee Chair

Over the past year, the Non-Operative Management Committee in coordination with the Presidential Line, the SRS Health Policy Committee, AAOS, POSNA and the AAP, developed and delivered a consensus statement to the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) urging them to reconsider the current “D” recommendation for school screening for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Save the Dates for 2016 SRS Meetings!

Mark your calendars for the following future meetings...

December 2015

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President's Message

Wow, what a phenomenal 50^th anniversary meeting in Minneapolis. Kudos to John Dormans, MD, the 50^th Anniversary Task Force led by Behrooz Akbarnia, MD, the Education Committee led by Sigurd Berven, MD, the Program Committee led by Ronald Lehman, Jr., MD, the local hosts Joseph and Sherry Perra, Tressa and the SRS staff and all who participated. We had over 1800 registrants, the historical museum was spectacular and the annual program continues to be the best spine deformity program in the world.

So what is next? We just completed the Cabinet Meeting in Chicago with Board members, committee chairs and some invited guests from Hong Kong, Europe and throughout North America. The energy and enthusiasm of the members of this Society continues to set us apart. This year Steve Glassman, MD and Frank Schwab, MD are leading the Directed Research Task Force effort on risk stratification. Many great ideas are coming from members around the globe. This will be a multi-faceted, multi-year effort that we hope will help us better inform our patients and help us as surgeons make better patient specific decisions.

We are financially sound. Thank you to all of our members who pay dues, to those of you who have made philanthropic gifts and to our industry partners.

I am personally honored to serve you as your president. I promise you, I will do my best to serve the best interests of our Society.

I am looking forward to the first U.S. based IMAST meeting in Washington, D.C. Dr. Lehman and Henry Halm, MD will make it a great meeting. Flight connections around the world should be reasonable. Tressa and I have done a site visit to Prague, Czech Republic for our upcoming Annual Meeting & Course, and it is spectacularly beautiful. As always, I expect that the content will continue to be the best in the world and is truly the highlight of our Society’s activities. In the meantime, SRS continues to support research and safety through our grants, leadership, directed research and M&M data collection and education through Worldwide Courses, Hands-On Courses, scholarships and fellowships for young surgeons and patient education materials. Committees are active with numerous projects related to the SRS mission. Please be involved.

I will see you soon somewhere in the world!

David W. Polly, Jr., MD
SRS President 2015-2016