Worldwide Course Committee Update

Benny T. Dahl, MD, PhD, DMSci
Worldwide Course Committee Chair

The three main activities for the Worldwide Course Committee are the traditional Worldwide Courses (WWC), the Current Concept in Spine Deformity Courses (CCSD) and the Spine Deformity Solutions: A Hands-On Course (SDS). This year a combined CCSD and SDS has been tried for the first time.

The first WWC in 2019 was held in conjunction with the ASSICON meeting in Ahmedabad, India and was organized as two half-day courses on January 24-25. The meeting was very well attended with approximately 200 participating surgeons and the conference theme was Controversies & Complications in Spine Surgery. This meeting underscored the close relationship between the Indian spine community and the Scoliosis Research Society.

The second meeting was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Mexican National Orthopedic Society in Querétaro, April 27-28. The meeting consisted of two half-day programs and was very well arranged with high attendance both days.

The third meeting was held in conjunction with SILACO in Barcelona, May 29.

The first combined CCSD and SDS was held in Istanbul May 8-11. In accordance with the experience from the SDS in Istanbul in 2015 the facilities were excellent. Generally, the combined format was well received, but there were challenges and when the evaluation has been completed, the committee will decide if the format should be changed.

The remaining WWC activities in 2019 are SDS in Bangkok, November 1-3 and CCSD in Tokyo, December 13-14.

A conference call with the committee members was held March 31, 2019. Considering the fact that members of the committee are located all over the world, a high number of colleagues attended the call. The primary purpose of the meeting was to review the remaining course activities in 2019, as well as initiate a dialogue about activities in 2020.

For 2020 the plan is:

• Cartagena, Columbia, February 21 (WWC)
• Dubai, UAE, February 27 - March 1 (CCSD)
• Shenzhen, China, May 29-30 (WWC)
• Nijmegen, the Netherlands, June 18-20 (SDS)
• Warsaw, Poland, fall of 2020 (CCSD)
• Singapore, November 12-14 (SDS)

The committee will meet during the Annual Meeting in Montréal, Tuesday, September 17. That will be my last committee meeting as chair of the WWC and Saumyajit Basu will take over. I want to thank the members of the committee for their support for the last three years. It has been an honor to serve as chair and I will continue as past chair looking forward to supporting Dr. Basu.

 

Chair: Benny T. Dahl Committee: Burt Yaszay, Education; Morio Matsumoto; Firoz Miyanji; Yat Wa Wong; J. Michael Wattenbarger, Global Outreach; Dean Chou (C); Alexandre F. Cristante (C); Mohammadresza Etemadifar (C); D. Kojo Hamilton (C); Manish K. Kasliwal (C); Deniz Konya (C); Robert S. Lee (C); Jonathan N. Sembrano (C); Kwadwo Poku Yankey (C); Feng Zhu (C); Saumyajit Basu, Chair Elect; Steven M. Mardjetko; Martin Repko; John A.I. Ferguson; Hossein Mehdian; Timothy S. Oswald