President's Message
New initiatives for a new year!
I wish to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a happy 2017. May your year be filled with success, health, and joy.
For SRS, we started the New Year with something new, something different!
For those of you who were in Time Square, New York, you might have seen a rolling advertisement for SRS being screened on one of the large overhead screens. We were given an opportunity to put up a ten-second promotional video to highlight the work of our Society.
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Inside this Issue
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Hot Topics Articles
Worldwide Courses - Current Concepts Course
Core Curriculum Task Force
Globus Medical Fellow Report
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In Memoriam
James E. Holmblad, MD
December 11, 1921 – February 5, 2017
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Pat on the Back
 David A. Spiegel, MD |
 Matthew Barrett Dobbs, MD |
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Historical Committee Update
George H. Thompson, MD
SRS Historian
Since the Annual Meeting & Course in Prague, the Historical Committee has had a conference call in which members of the committee were assigned items for the timeline to provide a brief synopsis on. These items will be added to the online timeline by early summer.
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Worldwide Courses – Current Concepts Course
Marinus de Kleuver, MD, PhD
Education Task Force Member
Develop spine deformity treatment in your region, register your young surgeons for the first and second “SRS Current Concepts in Spine Deformity”
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Core Curriculum Task Force
Laurel Blakemore, MD
Core Curriculum Task Force Chair
The Core Curriculum Task Force has been charged with defining a comprehensive core curriculum for use in spinal deformity training. The curriculum should include a guideline for study as well as competency based surgical training.
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Long Range Planning Committee Update
David W. Polly, Jr., MD
Long Range Planning Committee Chair
The Long Range Planning Committee is charged with identifying sites for future Annual Meetings & Course and the IMAST meeting. Committee members include: John P. Dormans, MD; Ferran Pellisé, MD, PhD; Benny T. Dahl, MD, PhD; Kenneth MC Cheung, MD; Henry F. H. Halm, MD, and Ronald A. Lehman, Jr., MD.
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Awards & Scholarships Committee Update
Jeffrey S. Kanel, MD
Awards and Scholarships Committee Chair
The Awards and Scholarships Committee is pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 SRS Traveling Fellowship. This year, three North American SRS members will join Richard E. McCarthy, MD, the Senior Traveling Fellow, on a tour across Europe, visiting fellow SRS member institutions.
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Globus Medical Fellowship Reports
Nelson Astur, MD
Santa Casa de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2016 Globual Medical Fellowship Award Recipient
Rajat Mahajan, MD
Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, New Delhi, India
2016 Globus Medical Fellowship Award Recipient
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Ethics Corner
B. Stevens Richards, III, MD
Ethics Committee Member
The committee publishes in each issue of the newsletter a case of possible ethical or professionalism dilemma and invites members to send their comments. Please send your comments to [email protected]. The committee will collect all responses, summarize and publish them in the subsequent newsletter.
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Coding Corner: The Utility of RVU Calculators
John Asghar, MD
Coding Committee Member
For some time, relative value units (RVUs) have been the key way to measure medical practice productivity. RVUs are a marker created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to measure the productivity of physicians.
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Research Grants
Patrick T. Cahill, MD
Research Grants Committee Chair
The Research Grants Committee continues the activities of reviewing grant applications and awarding grants. The committee also continues to strengthen its monitoring of past grant awards to ensure that the Society maximizes its return on investments in research grants.
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E-Text Committee Update
Amer F. Samdani, MD
E-Text Committee Chair
The E-Text Committee is continuing to review, revise, and update the existing E-Text chapters on the website. Currently, 14 chapters are undergoing revision in an effort to keep the information fresh and up to date.
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Global Outreach: Outreach is Calling, No Need for Stalling
Ferran Pellisé, MD, PhD
Global Outreach Committee Chair
The Global Outreach Committee has worked hard to accomplish the committee charges and develop its main priorities: outlining a GOP Road-Map, creating a new online GOP database and draft a GOP paper describing one year of activity at SRS GOP sites.
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Growing Spine Committee Update
Scott J. Luhmann, MD
Growing Spine Committee Update
The Growing Spine Committee continues to be very active. The inaugural educational webinar for SRS was on December 12 on “Casting for Early-Onset Scoliosis – Why, When and How”. Chaired by Robert P. Huang, MD (Past Chair) and James O. Sanders, MD (Chair Elect), they led a star-studded panel of spine casting experts which included Dr. Sanders, Charles E. Johnston, MD; Jacques D’Astous, MD, and Peter F. Sturm, MD.
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Website Committee Update
Todd Milbrandt, MD
Website Committee Chair
The Website Committee is excited for the work ahead in 2017. Under the previous leadership of Ron El-Hawary, MD, we have inherited a fantastic new website. While the continual improvement of this site is the core of our charges we have many other initiatives as well.
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Safety & Values Committee Update
Rajiv Sethi, MD
Safety and Value Committee Chair
The Safety and Value Committee has had a productive year thus far. The Committee was involved with the planning and execution of the Pre-Meeting Course in Prague focused on the topic of risk stratification. This course tied together international, pediatric, and adult themes in the field of risk stratification and was well received.
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Communications Committee Update
John P. Lubicky, MD
Communications Committee Chair
Past issues of the SRS Newsletter are archived on the website for members to access as they wish. The newsletter’s purpose is to disseminate information about SRS activities and to present opportunities for involvement in order to increase engagement in society activities through the committee and council reports.
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