North American Spine Education Committee (NASEC)
By Randall M. Chesnut, M.D., Chairman
As NASEC begins its fourth year of existence, the details of its charter have been codified with the finalization of the membership roster and the terms of office. The balance of representation between Neurosurgery and Orthopaedics will be maintained.
A new slot for Neurosurgery was formed and Ziya Gokaslan, MD, from MD Anderson has agreed to fill it. In addition, with the resignation of Marcel Dvorak, MD, from Vancouver, BC, Norman Chutkin, MD, from LSU in New Orleans has accepted the invitation to sit in his stead. With Darrel Brodke, MD, assuming his new position with NASEC at the September meeting, we remain at full force.
At present, the biannual emphasis on Comprehensive and Interactive Courses continues. The next Course will take place in San Diego, April 17-20, 2002. It will be chaired by Paul Arnold, MD, and Darrel Brodke, MD.
The Residents Course has evolved into a "Residents and Fellows" Course, and has been accepted with great fervor by all attendees. Focused on fundamentals, using trauma as the clinical scenario, and biomechanical principles as they apply to the spine as the bioskills emphasis, it is evolving into a well defined set of teaching materials and labs. Its fourth iteration will be held August 3-4 of this year.
On the evolutionary front for NASEC, there will be four specialty courses offered this year. Ziya Gokaslan, MD, will chair the course on Tumours of the Spine, March 3-4. This course will include not only spine surgeons but also other medical specialists in this area. There will be two Spine Trauma Courses during 2002, the first on April 27-28, chaired by John Sledge, MD, and Sean Grady, MD, and the second, November 16-17, chaired by Darrel Brodke, MD, and Andrew Daily, MD. Kirkham Wood, MD, will chair the Spinal Deformity Course to be held June 1-2. Finally, a Spinal Degenerative Disease Course will be held on July 13-14, chaired by Seth Zeidman, MD, and Cameron Huckel, MD. All of these courses are first-time ventures, but much work has been done over the past several years in preparing the list of lectures and objectives for each presentation to be delivered. Obviously, with so many new offerings coming out this year, there is much anticipation of the feedback from attendees as well as the teaching staff, as to how the individual courses as well as the concept of subspecialty courses in North America will proceed in the future.
One of the major efforts of the past year for NASEC has been the initiation of ten AO Spine Fellowships in North America. This process is now well along, with the first fellowships anticipated to be beginning in 2003. The formal definition and scope of the fellowships has been completed and the organizational details are being finalized at this point. The object is to parallel the established and respected AO Trauma Fellowships in providing principles-based comprehensive education in spinal surgery to a group of fellows who will form a growing kernel of a North American AO Spinal Fellowship Association. Fundamental to this effort is the development of a case database that will be prospectively compiled by all fellows as part of their charter, both for the purpose of quality control and for future research efforts.
Following the CME meeting held in Charleston, North Carolina, October 27-28, 2001, in conjunction with representatives from the other North American AO educational divisions, a new emphasis on closing the loop in course quality development is beginning this year. A multifactorial effort in all areas, some primary steps will be improving the incorporation of attendee feedback into future courses as well as augmenting the education of instructors in effective teaching. These changes will take place over the next several years with the goal of maintaining AO education as a quality standard in North America.
Finally, the next Faculty Forum will be held in Lake George, New York, August 23-25 of this year. In addition to the open interchange between instructors regarding course development and further evolution of the AO Spine vision for North America that is fundamental to these symposia, special focus will be directed toward "Teaching the Teachers" as well as evidence-based medicine. New this meeting will be the attendance of members of the AO Spine Specialty Executive Board.
NASEC remains in a constant state of growth and development. Input and feedback in all areas is welcome. Please contact me (chesnutr@ohsu.edu), or any NASEC member, with thoughts or suggestions on present projects or suggested future efforts.