Global Outreach Committee Update

Ferran Pellisé, MD, PhD
Global Outreach Committee Chair

During 2016, the Global Outreach Committee has worked hard to accomplish the committee charges and develop its main priorities: a GOP Road Map, a new online GOP database and a GOP paper describing one year’s activity at various SRS GOP sites.

The GOP Road Map has been discussed and agreed upon with committee members and GOP site leaders. Three site categories will be considered: Endorsed, Recognized, and Self-Sufficient/Self-Sustainable. Categories within the road map have been defined based on site infrastructure, surgical activity, and commitment (reporting and membership). Increasing SRS endorsement and paralleling road map progress are being considered by the Board of Directors. 

GOP Site Category (Definition)	Infrastructure	Surgical Activity	Reporting	SRS (Educational) Endorsement
RECOGNIZED Initial level	Stable ortho or neurosurgical infrastructure Acceptable infrastructure for perioperative surgical deformity care	No spinal deformity surgery outside SRS-GOP missions At least 10 deformity cases done in mission trips during the last 2 years.	Synthesized site general information to display on SRS webpage Mission Trip yearly plan and reports GOP individual patient dataset reports 1 “e-news” article with photos / year yearly conference call with GOP Com Chair	Representation on the SRS GOP webpage
ENDORSED	Above criteria Eventually: Stable spine surgery infrastructure +/- IONM	Minimal or No spinal deformity surgery outside SRS-GOP missions	Above mentioned reporting duties performed regularly at least 2 years in a row Submit at least one patient story / year	Preferred status to award meeting scholarships SRS endorsement to attract comercial support/sponsorship Invited to “recruit” at GOP table
SELF-SUSTAINABLE Self-Sufficient	Stable spinal deformity infrastructure IONM SRS candidate or active member	Basic spinal deformity surgery performed regularly SRS-GOP mission trips for complex cases	Above mentioned reporting duties Submit an abstract to IMAST or Annual meeting	Above mentioned endorsement “1 year GOP fellowship award” Considered for educational activities (WWC / Curriculum) SRS membership fees for locals adjusted to local cost of living

Definitions:

• Stable Ortho or Neurosurgical infrastructure: Site has the minimal infrastructure (OR and immediate postoperative care equipment) required to perform general orthopedic or neurosurgical activity safely. >50 ortho or neurosurgical cases/year done safely.
• Stable Spine Surgery infrastructure: Site performs >24 spine surgeries / year safely (with or without IONM)
• Stable Spinal Deformity infrastructure: Site performs >24 deformity surgeries / year safely (IONM)
• GOP Patient Report Dataset: Core dataset individual patient parameters to be uploaded in the SRS GOP website database
• Yearly Mission Trip plan and Report: Online report describing performed and planned outreach mission trips, mission attendees, medical and educational activities, general non-medical issues of interest.
• SRS Scholarships / awards
• SRS courses (WWC / Curriculum)

A simple, practical, M&M-compatible, online GOP database is being developed. This “basic” database will replace trip reports and become the prospective registry of SRS GOP activity. It should be ready to be piloted by the SRS Annual Meeting & Course in Prague and ready to use by January 2017. The GOP paper will be based on the prospective 2017 data gathered online by the new database.

At the Annual Meeting & Course in Prague, the GOP Lunchtime Symposium will be a combined session on safety issues with the Safety Committee and involve past GOP committee members and current site leaders. This symposium will also be offered as a webcast on Friday, September 23, 2016, from 12:00-1:00pm CET (10:00-11:00am GMT/UTC, 6:00-7:00 am EDT) for those who are unable to attend. For more information on the webcast, visit http://www.srs.org/meetings/am16/webcast/.

We actively seek the participation of all SRS members in our outreach program. Margaret Mead said, “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committee citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Please take a look at the new updated interactive world map including all our sites and come to the combined Lunchtime Symposium on Safety to interact with site leaders and network. Members who want to propose new sites are invited to join the committee meeting Tuesday, September 20 at 11:30am at the Prague Congress Centre.

The GOP Committee wants to publically thank SRS staff liaison, Lily Atonio, for the superb job done all over the year providing advice, input and contributing to the development of the above-mentioned committee projects.

With deep regret do we announce the passing of Tarik Fikry, professor of orthopaedic surgery at Hôpital Ibn Tofaïl in Marrakech, Morocco. Dr. Fikry had been actively involved with the SRS programs in Morocco. He was the local director of the Global Outreach site in Marrakech since its acceptance into the program, and recently co-chaired the SRS-WWC in December 2015. He will be sorely missed.

Chair: Ferran Pellisé Urquiza, MD, PhD  Committee: Anthony S. Rinella, MD; Federico P. Girardi, MD; Yongjung J. Kim, MD; Marinus de Kleuver, MD, PhD; Dheera Ananthakrishnan, MD, MSE; Daniel P. Borschneck, MD, BSc, MSc, FRCSC; Charla R. Fischer, MD; Nanjundappa S. Harshavardhana, MD, MS, DO; Mauricio Montalvo, MD; J. Naresh-Babu, MS, FNB(Spine); Denis Sakai, MD; Ricardo A. Santos, MD; Saumyajit Basu, MD; Gregory M. Mundis, MD; J. Michael Wattenbarger, MD; Phyllis d’Ambra, RN, MPA; Andrew G. King, MB,ChB, FRACS,FACS; Elias C. Papadopoulos, MD; Edward P. Southern, MD; Vidyadhara Srinivasa, MS, DNB, FNB (Spine)