58th SRS Annual Meeting Preview

Join host Grant D. Hogue, MD as they interview SRS Annual Meeting Education Committee Co-Chairs Mark A. Erickson, MD and Charla R. Fischer, MD. They'll preview what to expect during this year's Annual Meeting as well as what's new and not-to-miss. 

Transcript

Welcome to the Scoliosis Dialogues, the official podcast of the Scoliosis Research Society. Today we're going to be discussing the 58th Annual Meeting of the Scoliosis Research Society, which takes place September 6th through 9th in Seattle, Washington. As many or most of our listeners and viewers know, the Preliminary Program was released just this last week, and the deadline for advanced registration is August 10th.

So everyone get online, go ahead and register. There is a discount for advanced z registration. This is also our very first 100% in-person meeting since 2019. So that means there's no zoom or hybrid component. So get online in register, and we can't wait to see all of you in Seattle. We are fortunate today to have our meeting co-chairs with us, Dr. Mark Erickson from Children's Hospital Colorado, and Dr. Charla Fischer from the NYU Langone Spine Center. And so before we get into the meat of the program, maybe each of you could tell us a little bit about yourself and how you originally became involved with the Scoliosis Research Society, maybe Dr. Fischer first. Sure. Sure. So, thank you for, for having us today. We're really excited to talk about the upcoming Annual Meeting. So I do, I'm adult focused and I've been in practice for about a little over 10 years, almost 11 years. And, I originally got, involved in SRS when I first started practice.

I thought it was a very good scientific meeting. With all, you know, the goal of just improving scoliosis care, which I thought was very, very sort of true and pure but now as I'm more involved, I just see there's a lot of great people that really enjoy taking care of patients with spinal deformity from all walks of life.

All around the world and it's just a really fun group and everyone just really wants to help each other and, and share ideas and try to improve scoliosis care and have a good time. So it's, it's been a great experience working with the SRS. Absolutely. Fantastic. And how about you, Dr. Erickson?

Thanks Grant. I would say, just so that I don't feel any older than I need to, it's been 20 plus years that I've been fortunate to have become a member of the Scoliosis Research Society. It was really a natural fit for me during my residency and fellowship was focused on a lot of largely pediatric spine, and it's gone from early onset all the way up to young adults throughout the time, and so, so many friends, colleagues, etc.

I love it when conversations feel like they just ended five minutes ago and it's, but it might have been a year ago, and now they restart, whether it's at the IMAST or the SRS or other places that branch off. And I love meeting lots of people, Charla and I just met you know, over the last couple years doing this Educational Committee.

I never would've had the opportunity to meet her if it wasn't for this. Cause I don't go to New York City very often. If I am, it's gonna be somewhere that's spine related. So one example you Grant, running into you through the, our networks and Boston and Children's and the things, those networking opportunities for me are, I would say the lifeblood of my career has been very invigorating and a true pleasure.

And the SRS is perfect for that. That, that's so true. The SRS is one of the few places where we have cross pollination, not just of cities, but of countries and the adult and pediatric world. Right. And at the meetings, some of you know, as a pediatric spine surgeon, one of my favorite things to do is go to the adult sessions to see what kind of new tricks they have to see if I can apply any of it.

So it's really fantastic. So great points. In looking at the preliminary program, which I've got right here in front of me and I encourage everyone to take a look at, on Wednesday there's a pre-meeting course that offers global perspectives on spine deformity care. And so, what was the genesis of this idea?

Because it's not something that we've seen often. Um, yeah, we basically wanted to try to expand the pie. You know, the s r s is a great meeting, but it tends to be a little, um, US or Europe focused, but mostly US focused and sort of like, this is how we do it here. Now you can take it back to around the world and employ it that way.

And I think that's very useful and very functional. But there's also a lot of opportunity to learn from our colleagues around the world for multiple reasons. One, they have, uh, they can often see more severe cases because of access to care issues. And so they're dealing with very challenging cases and it's excellent.

It's really nice to hear, uh, how they are handling this. , and two, they don't around the world, they may not have the technology that we have in North America. So if you come to an s r S meeting in the past, you know, you may hear someone say, well, I navigated my cuts for A P S L or something like that, and that presupposes the intraoperative CT navigation robotics.

Um, or even less technologically based, the access to cell saver, access to, um, you know, being able to transfuse patients whenever it's appropriate. Um, so I think it's gonna be really, really eye-opening to hear what's going on on around the world. Additionally, I think we're, I think a lot of the US.

Surgeons are gonna take little tips and tricks from our international colleagues because we can actually employ those right away. Whereas you don't have to go out and buy, you know, a navigation system in order to do that. So I, I think that this is gonna be very, very user friendly and, and very helpful for a lot of people.

Um, and just kind of expand our knowledge base, um, and continue the conversation. That, that's such a good point you make, um, because if you are in a, a less resource, the only thing you can rely on is creativity and surgical ingenuity. And so hopefully there's something for all of us to be learned from that.

Um, and so in, in that vein, Dr. Erickson. What particular opportunities do you see for this presentation of worldwide collective knowledge to change practice for us here in the us Uh, uh, I mean, as we've put it together. So one thing I would say that goes along with that too is, you know, I think this is the first time, um, in the history of the s r s in talking to Serena, that we've had co-chairs, uh, for this, uh, this endeavor.

And so working with Charla is another example of how we're. I've really enjoyed it because it gives, we bounce ideas off each other. What does this make sense? How? How will this be received? When you're trying to do that in your own little world, sometimes that can be challenging. So we put a lot of effort into that.

And the education committee's amazing. I mean, literally you send a message. An email to people and they will, the, this society will bounce back if it's a really good idea and even if it's not to help you out with it. So I think the key things I'm looking for to, to learn from it is this kind of goes along with the global aspects, but also the diversity aspects, all of which are super important issues right now.

Um, and should have been for a long time. But I think now we can only change the future, right? And so I think as we do this and look at it, hopefully, Will change the way we view that. For example, we, we put a lot of time and energy into making sure that we don't have the, the, the speakers that we've had, we do have historically, that spend a lot of time on the podium deserve.

They, they're incredible. Um, and we learn a lot from them, the sort of superstars, if you will. But we wanted to also have some people that maybe haven't had as much of a chance to do that, but really have good information to bring to the table. So I couldn't be more excited, uh, to hear from all of that package, if you will, um, in a tightly composed half day that we'll try to keep on time.

Oh, that's excellent. Um, and so in flipping through this preliminary program, Um, there are the things that you would expect from an s r s meeting, you know, great scientific abstracts that are gonna be presented every single day in adult and pediatric deformity. Um, but one of the education sessions really stood out to me, um, and is the thing I'm most excited for, which is the, the neuromuscular session on Thursday.

Um, I, I think the topics which could lead to a lot of differences of opinion in the lineup of speakers are really perfect for a disease process. With a lot of opportunities for EPO a and so my question is, one, how do you set up an educational opportunity where people are going to have differences of opinion, and how do you navigate that?

And then what portions of the program are you looking forward to the most? Yeah, I mean, I think that when you have people putting together these, um, educational sessions, they, they really have an idea in mind. And so for the neuromuscular, um, scoliosis, you know, sort of soup to nuts, let's get it. Let's talk about all the different specialties involved.

Um, Uh, I do think that there's such an opportunity, but the, the moderators for that session are kind of want that discussion. They want that sort of, um, not controversy, but they want people to speak their minds and they want to hear that. So I think that when you put something like that together, you're kind of expecting it and looking forward to the conversation around that.

No, that's absolutely perfect because. When I go to s r s, I don't want to go to have like my own practice or my own beliefs reaffirmed. I want to go to be challenged. Yeah. Um, and that's absolutely what you're setting up here. Yeah. I mean, Selena, Michelle and Steven are. The idea is let's, let's hear all these perspectives and then people can sort of take what they want from that.

Um, and, and I think what's really exciting, at least as far as uh, educational opportunities to me is the other half day course for, or the half day course for the, um, adult deformity side really brings in the light, the heavy headers, the, the known speakers, the people doing the publishing, and it's such a succinct idea.

Um, You've got this alignment now, how do you get it? And so because. That half day course is so robust and packed and filled with everything we need. Then it gives us the opportunity for lunchtime symposiums that are a little, a little bit more diverse or a little bit, uh, different like the bone health optimization or a pain program.

And so it's a little less technical because we already covered that in the half day course. Yeah. And we covered it well. And so I'm really excited about some of these other talks. Because it just lets us talk about a lot more than just doing the specific surgery, but all aspects around our episode of care when we do these final deformity surgeries.

Absolutely. And so, Dr. Erickson, if, if I were spying on you, if I were following you around the halls at s r s, uh, what sessions am I gonna see you standing in the back of the room? What sessions am I gonna see you taking notes on your computer? So I do, uh, well, when taking notes on the computer is not, you probably won't see me doing that cuz my typing skills are.

Uh, let's say less than optimal. And so, um, I, I love to go, I like to see a whole vast different area. So as a guy that does a lot of my practice historically, has been in the pediatric world, I like to see how what I do sometimes impacts, uh, Charla and her group, uh, the adult population. And how does it, how do I do that better?

Or interact better or do those things. So I will intentionally, cuz I have plenty of opportunities to talk to and see the, my likenesses that do work in children's hospitals. So the s r s for me is an opportunity to go see, um, a more diverse group of people. That are talking in topics. Um, I don't do as much in the elderly sections, but I do lots on adult spine deformity, for example, or junctional issues which we have and share together, um, our neuromuscular population and the adult populations.

And I think this, um, opportunity as doing the educational, uh, chair work with the Charla has done is for me as well, is we have so many amazing projects that get submitted. One of the things that we've tried to do, pick and choose is. We sort of combined a couple. For example, the neuromuscular was maybe more than one, one submission that we then made into this product.

We didn't, but we encouraged it. And I would give huge credit to Selena and Steve and Michelle for doing that. Uh, that's an example of yes. So I'm gonna go, want to see how that is. The biggest problem that I, I think if you, I think that we've done our job well is if, if people have trouble finding out what they're gonna do at noon, Because there's too many good choices.

So that's, that's kind of the genesis. I don't know if Charlotte agrees with that, but that's how I love it. Yeah. So you will see me floating. Oh, excellent. Uh, and so my understanding is that when, when a host city is chosen, that there's quite a bit of behind the scenes work, uh, in, in doing this, uh, one to make sure, you know, the hotels and things are appropriate, but there, there are.

Wellness outside of the meeting. So to go outside, enjoy the city, what it has to offer, whether that's restaurants, parks, sporting events. Um, and so for both of you, what, what do you plan on doing? Um, mark, we've already discussed. I know you are an avid golfer. Are you gonna be swinging the sticks?

Oh yeah, I'm sure. Um, uh, I'll ha, I'll, I'll find a way, my way to a golf course. Um, or two, depending on how early, uh, I, I arrive in Seattle. Um, and then the food scene is, uh, a big deal to me, uh, especially like the Seattle food scene cuz. Um, I really like, uh, salmon and, you know, if you haven't been to Seattle before, you don't just order salmon, you order a species, um, of salmon.

And so you get to sample the, how the northwest, uh, serves that and the, the differences in those types of things. As you're into that pikes, uh, fish market is a blast. Um, if you're a food or salmon connoisseur, uh, you can go to so between those things and then just liking to be outside and hiking around the sound.

Um, I think my days will be full.

Dr. Fisher, where are we gonna find you when you're not at the meeting? How are you gonna decompress during this time? Um, well, I do have family in the Seattle area, so I'm super excited about that. Um, but also just in general, Seattle has one of the best aquariums and, uh, being a kid at heart, it's, it's super cool.

Um, and you can like, touch all the things. Um, And then I, I always like to drive past the, the troll under the bridge. It's, it's bizarre. It's so fun. Um, so I do like to check that out. And then you can take a ferry just about anywhere and they're not that expensive. Um, and it's like a free cruise almost. Um, so I do like the ferry system that they have there, and then they take you to these islands that are very, they're beautiful and, and, um, but yeah, I think sometimes just a free boat ride on the sound is just awesome.

Oh wow. That's fantastic. Um, thanks to both of you for coming and doing the podcast with us today. Um, to those of you viewing or listening, Please come join us in Seattle, come for the meeting, but come for the golf, the food, the aquarium, the ferries, and apparently the bridge trolls. I'll mention it again, that advanced registration closes on August 10th.

Um, and this is our first a hundred percent in-person meeting since 2019. So we look forward to seeing you there. Uh, thanks everybody for tuning in and have a great day. Thanks.

The Scoliosis Research Society is a nonprofit professional organization made up of physicians and allied health personnel. Their primary focus is on providing continuing medical education for healthcare professionals and on funding and supporting research in spinal. Please visit srs.org for further information.