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President's Message

Peter O. Newton, MD
SRS President 2018-2019

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.

Inside this Issue

In Memoriam
Ethics Corner
Coding Corner
Education Committee Update
Global Outreach Committee Update
Patient Education Committee Update
Website Committee Update
Safety & Value Committee Update
Research Grant Committee Update
Treasurer's Report
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Hot Topic Articles

Global Outreach Committee Update
Research Grant Committee Update
Treasurer's Report
Website Committee Update

In Memoriam

Marc A. Asher, MD August 15, 1936 - February 1, 2019	Yves Cotrel, MD April 27, 1925 - January 29, 2019	Donald A. Deinlein, Sr., MD September 9, 1937 - January 6, 2019
Michael F. Schafer, MD August 17, 1942 - October 17, 2018	Luther M. Strayer, III, MD December 21, 1934 - December 27, 2018	Keith D. VandenBrink, MD July 8, 1935 - February 26, 2019

Ethics Corner

Jonathan N. Sembrano, MD
Ethics & Professionalism Committee Member

How does a physician avoid unethical self-referral practice when simultaneous practicing within and outside a government health system?

Many spine surgeons have dual employment, wherein they are part-time employees at a government facility, such as the Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System, and a non-government facility (private/academic institution). It is not unusual for patients seen at the government facility to be deemed by the surgeon, for one reason or another, to be more appropriately managed at another facility. Oftentimes, the surgeon also feels that his/her other practice site is the best facility to handle this problem. This then brings up the question of whether this type of practice represents abuse of government employment for self-gain.

Coding Corner

Barton L. Sachs, MD, MBA, CPE
2017-18 Coding Committee Chair

Accurate Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI) Helps Advance Reportable Clinical Quality and Financial Reimbursement

Why CDI?
Clinical documentation integrity (CDI) and coding are not taught in medical school; therefore many physicians have no idea what CDI means and why it is important to them. But it is! Due to changes in reimbursement, increased scrutiny by third party payers, and most importantly the emphasis on all providers and hospitals to provide measureable quality patient care, CDI programs were developed. Physicians are not taught how to complete inpatient documentation in order to correctly assign codes and physician billing in the past has not required a great deal of specificity.

Education Committee Update

Burt Yaszay, MD
Education Committee Chair

The Education Committee is charged with providing the education program for the 54^th Annual Meeting in Montréal including the Pre-Meeting Course, Half-Day Courses and Lunchtime Symposia. We are excited by the program as it has topics that are both innovative and fundamental and should appeal to all members. We look forward to seeing you there!

Global Outreach Committee Update

J. Michael Wattenbarger, MD
Global Outreach Committee Chair

Global Outreach serves as a networking community to exchange ideas and strategies related to independent outreach efforts as well as to develop and disseminate educational aids on effective outreach. To that end, the Global Outreach Committee will be hosting a webinar, "Spinal Global Outreach: 101 to Advanced Degree" on effective strategies for global outreach on March 21 at 19:00 ET/18:00 CT.

Patient Education Committee Update

Mark C. Lee, MD
Patient Education Committee Chair

The Patient Education Committee continues to explore the avenues by which effective information regarding scoliosis and spine deformity may be communicated to the parent and child. In the 2018-2019 term, the committee has placed renewed focus on the use of social media and interactive webinars to distribute information that is contained in our printable pamphlets.

Website Committee Update

Joshua M. Pahys, MD
Website Committee Chair

The Website Committee has been working through previous initiatives. We continue to monitor the presentation and flow of the website and its impact on our readership through regular analysis using Google Analytics. The committee has drafted a manuscript that will be submitted to Spine Deformity documenting the effect of recent changes to the website. We have worked closely with the Patient Education Committee to publish new videos that will be posted online focusing on adult spinal deformity. Several Website Committee members produced a successful webinar on “Using Social Media in Your Practice.”

Safety & Value Committee Update

Matthew F. Halsey, MD
Safety & Value Committee Chair

The Safety and Value Committee continues to work toward promoting and disseminating those elements of care in spinal deformity that maximize patient wellness. To that end, the committee is focused on creating a centralized SRS-hosted repository of various elements that promote safety including standardized preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative checklists, standardized care pathways, risk severity score calculators, and papers describing best practices (e.g. interdisciplinary indications conferences).

Research Grant Committee Update

Ivan Cheng, MD
Research Grant Committee Chair

It is my pleasure to announce that for the Fall cycle, the Research Grant Committee reviewed 11 total submissions and awarded four grants a total of $70,000 in funding. Congratulations to the winners.

Treasurer's Report

J. Abbott Byrd, III, MD
Treasurer

The Scoliosis Research Society continues on solid financial footing as of December 31, 2018. All in all, from a financial standpoint, 2018 was a good year for the SRS. The SRS Leadership Team is committed to continuing this positive financial trend for the Society as this will ensure our viability well into the future.

March 2019

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Research Grant Committee Update

Ivan Cheng, MD
Research Grant Committee Chair

It is my pleasure to announce that for the Fall cycle, the Research Grant Committee reviewed 11 total submissions and awarded four grants a total of $70,000 in funding. Congratulations to the winners listed below:

Title	PI	Amount Funded	Grant Type
Are Outcomes Affected when Sagittal and Coronal Last Touched Vertebra are Discordant and the More Proximal Level is Selected as LIV?	Benjamin D. Rove, MD	$25,000.00	Standard Research Grant
Exploiting the use of patient-specific urine-derived stem cells in prediction of hypoxia inducible factor abnormalities in deformity progression of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis	Kenneth MC Cheung, MD	$10,000.00	Small Exploratory
Schroth Method for Conservative Treatment of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis: How Deep the Correction Goes	Saba Pasha, PhD, MS	$10,000.00	Small Exploratory
The Effects of the Axial Vertebral Rotation on Curve Progression After Bracing in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis	Michael G. Vitale, MD, MPH	$25,000.00	SRS-K2M Standard Research Grant

We had four team leaders who performed an admirable job in reviewing each submission in a timely manner while providing quality feedback. Thank you to Shay Bess, James Harrop, Saba Pasha, and Lukas Zebala.

Chair: Ivan Cheng Committee: Leah Y. Carreon, Past Chair; Marcel F. Dvorak; Frank LaMarca; Luis E. Munhoz da Rocha; Maxwell Boakye (C); Mohsen Karami (C); J. Naresh-Babu (C); Saba Pasha (C); Anuj Singla (C); Jennifer Strahle (C); Vidyadhar V. Upasani (C); Michelle C. Welborn (C); Qianyu Zhuang (C); Virginie Lafage, Chair Elect; Jwalant S. Mehta; Robert A. Morgan; Jianxiong Shen; Shay Bess; Theodore J. Choma; James S. Harrop; Lukas P. Zebala; Donita I. Bylski-Austrow; René Castelein; Jean-Christophe A. Leveque; P. Justin Tortolani; J. Abbott Byrd, Treasurer, Ex Oficio