Our scientific results are among the most important publications in the world
2023.05.16.
Report from Dr. Áron Lazáry about this year’s World Congress on Spine Surgery and current events around the AOSpine world organization
“AOSpine is the only global spine surgical society. The goals of the society, which has more than 6,000 active members, are to teach the professional principles and methods of modern spine surgery, to promote spine surgery research and the worldwide cooperation of spine surgeons. The organization, which operates in a professional structure, celebrated its 20th birthday this year. The global, regional and local (national) officials are elected democratically, the elected officials work hard for the development of the membership and ultimately for the improvement of patient care. I myself have been working in the structure of AOSpine for 12 years, currently as a European research leader and as a management member of the international knowledge center for tumor surgery. In both positions, we hold numerous online and personal meetings and discussions throughout the year, and we carry out decision-making and scientific publication work in connection with projects that are unique on the global scene of spine surgery. The pinnacle of events related to AOSpine is the annual Global Spine conference, which is always held at a different location, and this year was held in Prague, at the Congress Center, at the end of May.
Before the conference, we worked for several days in the research committee and in the regional committees with AOSpine officials from all over the world. We celebrated the organization’s 20th birthday in Moldova with a social dinner combined with a boat trip. One of the attractions of AOSpine is that anyone who is a member can meet the world’s best-known and most respected spine surgeons, the South Korean resident can boldly and without unnecessary constraints converse with the newly elected Argentinean president of the company, or the leading American deformity surgeon who is respected as an idol. Personally, I am proud to be able to work with many internationally recognized specialists in spine surgery, developing a closer personal relationship with some of them, and I am also proud that within AOSpine this can be achieved by anyone who invests enough work and energy in the development of spine surgery. and to promote the training and education of colleagues.
The organization devotes most of its energy and resources to education and to supporting the entire process of lifelong learning. The Global Spine Diploma program organically complements the sub-specific professional courses and trainings, the jewel of which is the course in Davos in December, which has always been a prominent event in the history of the entire AO (among musculoskeletal surgeons – traumatologists, oral surgeons, spine surgeons, orthopedists – it is a common belief that everyone should experience the so-called Davos experience at least once in their life, which is a professional, social and spiritual peak experience at the same time…). This year, I will also be able to participate in the organization and conduct of the Davos spine course, which will be one of the highlights of my educational activities (even in terms of workload, since the course is 3 days long, with 8-10 hours of instruction, autopsy room exercises, and model surgeries).
The congress itself, Global Spine, is an excellent forum for the wide dissemination of scientific results in spine surgery and spine medicine, as well as professional debates and discussions. Every year, speakers and participants come from all over the world, and the program is not dominated by the parade of industry, but by numerous so-called expert forum, special symposium layers the professional and scientific evidence related to different areas of spine surgery into a digestible, transparent format. At the congress, the staff of the National Spine Center presented 6 lectures and 2 posters, and we are also proud that the Hungarian spine surgery community was also represented with a presentation from the Dr. Manninger Jenő Trauma Center in Budapest.
In the field of spinal surgery innovations, the integration of robotic technology, endoscopy and artificial intelligence are the leading topics that dominate industrial developments and the exhibition space, but many symposia talked about how the application of spinal surgery principles and scientifically based techniques can ensure a high level of patient care also in an economic environment that does not allow the acquisition and application of the latest industrial developments. Considering the global economic situation, AOSpine considers knowledge transfer and making spine surgery knowledge material to be particularly important. To this end, the organization also provides space and support for younger spine surgeons to study abroad, within the framework of which each year several foreign scholarship holders spend longer or shorter periods of time at our institute. I was especially proud this year when a Swiss spine surgeon from among last year’s scholarship recipients gave a presentation, who reported on how he used the surgical technique he had seen at our National Spine Center in connection with a patient with cancer during an operation on a patient belonging to a different patient group at his parent institution. These moments are worth working for!”
