Global Outreach Committee Update

J. Michael Wattenbarger, MD
Global Outreach Committee Chair

Members of the Global Outreach committee met at the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. A large amount of the discussion centered around the role of the SRS in acting as a clearing house for spinal implants for developing world countries. After much discussion, it was concluded by the committee that procuring spinal implants for mission trips was up to the individual site sponsors and was outside the scope of the Global Outreach Committee and SRS. Committee member Dheera Ananthakrishnan has established a non-profit organization, Orthopaedic Link, to mobilize idle implant inventory from companies to qualified surgeons in the developing world. Their website (www.orthopaediclink.org) has more information on their mission and process.

At this year's Annual Meeting in Italy, members of the Global Outreach committee will be supporting Chairs Rajiv Sethi and Ahmet Alanay in a half day course entitled “New Paradigms in Global Complex Spine Care: What Can We Learn for Each Other?”

Any SRS member interested in volunteering for a global outreach mission is encouraged to visit the global outreach website and contact the site sponsor.

 

Chair: J. Michael Wattenbarger Committee: Ferran Pellisé, Past Chair; Andrew G. King; Elias C. Papadopoulos; Edward P. Southern; Vidyadhara Srinivasa; Theodore A. Belanger (C); Paul C. Celestre (C); Wing-Yee M. Chin-Ng (A); Michael J. Faloon (C); Najma Farooq (C); Pawel Grabala (C); D. Kojo Hamilton (C); Michael J. Hartman (C); Deniz Konya (C); Scott C. Nelson (C); Ripul R. Panchal (C); Ricardo A. Santos (C); Benny T. Dahl, WWC; Christopher J. Bergin; Hani H Mhadidli; Kan Min; Brian Hsu; Martin Repko; Gregory R. White; Dheera Ananthakrishnan, Orthopaedic Link Liason; Bettye A. Wright (E), Ex Oficio