President's Message

Peter O. Newton, MD
SRS President 2018-2019

Dear SRS membership,

Your committees are in full swing working on the tasks that keep the organization flourishing. If you would like to be more involved with SRS, please volunteer to serve on committees, applications are now open and can be found on the Member’s Only portal. The full list of committees is listed on the website and provides an excellent summary of the opportunities to volunteer your time, ideas and passion for advancing the SRS mission.

Education

Our two showcase education events (IMAST July 17-20, 2019 in Amsterdam and the SRS Annual Meeting September 18-21, 2019 in Montréal) are shaping up nicely. I hope you will join us for both of these fabulous events. Henry Halm and Han Jo Kim are co-chairing IMAST with a refocused emphasis on “innovation in spine care.” Whether your interests are in pediatric, adult or both, this program has the latest in technology that you want to know. Firoz Miyanji and Burt Yaszay are well into the Annual Meeting planning. The pre-course will help you evaluate how to be better at what you do in and out of the operating room. The reviewers have worked hard to give all 1,745 abstract submissions a critical assessment so we have the best of the best on the podium.

The work of the Educational Task Force has led to the creation of a Core Curriculum with 10 domains, focusing our educational programing in spinal deformity. The Board of Directors recently approved the development of a combined live and online course in the Early Onset Scoliosis domain. This will serve as a pilot module for what we hope will be a comprehensive blended learning platform for spinal deformity education. Stay tuned.

Research

The grant committee continues to review your grant submissions twice a year. SRS has $300,000 in competitive investigator-initiated research funding allocated every year. This has been the foundation of many great research careers and discoveries. Please encourage your younger partners to take advantage of this opportunity. Apply here, applications close April 1.

The Adult Symptomatic Lumbar Scoliosis II multicenter study championed by Keith Bridwell continues to gather follow-up data on patients. Gracious support from 5 of our industry partners has made this possible. A special thanks to the patients, researchers, ISSG Foundation and our ASLSII corporate partners (Globus Medical, K2M, Medtronic, NuVasive, and Zimmer Biomet). The goal is to reach 8 years of follow-up for both operative and non-operative cohorts.

A Research Task Force, led by Marinus de Kleuver, has been working to review the SRS strategic plan in research and several working groups are creating a roadmap for advancing our future position in spinal deformity research. More to come as this group works through the opportunities and brings recommendations to the board.

Finance

Despite the financial markets’ poor performance at the end of 2018, SRS remains on solid financial ground. Tressa Goulding and the EDI team help us manage our expenses while growing our impact. There is no doubt more to do in advancing care of all patients with spinal deformities. I would like to personally thank our members who made contributions to the SRS REO (Research Education Outreach) fund in 2018. Together more than $200,000 was added to the capacity of SRS to achieve our mission. If you would like some of the joy that comes from giving, it is just a click away. I promise it will make a difference. If you would like to make a legacy gift, please reach out to Rick Sasso, our development committee chair, or anyone in the leadership team.

Most sincerely,

Peter Newton, MD
SRS President