SpineFEST™
SHAPING THE LANDSCAPE OF SPINE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
On June 8, 2015, the University Of Toronto Department
Of Surgery Spine Program celebrated its 7th annual
SpineFEST™ meeting. SpineFEST™ is the key annual
academic meeting for the U of T Department of
Surgery Spine Program. Bringing together clinicians
and scientists around the city’s university affiliated hospitals,
this event aims to foster collaboration within the
spine community locally and also serves as a venue to
disseminate our activities to invited professors nationally
and internationally.
Keynote Speaker: Professoer Wilco Peul – Leiden, The Netherlands presenting
his morning talk
Co-led by Albert Yee and Michael Fehlings, we held
several thematic sessions on clinical outcomes in spine
surgery, advances in surgical education, and spine trainee
research presentations. Our keynote Tator-Hall Visiting
Professorship Lecture was presented by Professor
Wilco Peul (Chair of Neurosurgery, Leiden University,
The Hague & Leiden - The Netherlands). He provided
a dynamic talk emphasizing the importance of critically
evaluating outcomes following spine surgery, studying
and understanding and variation in clinical practice
including considering appropriateness of care delivery.
He also led important discussions on the added value of
spine surgery and its societal impact. Following his keynote
presentation, our program also welcomed our new
U of T Spine Program faculty member Dr. Meaghan
O’Reilly, who was recently recruited as a Scientist at the
Sunnybrook Research Institute. She provided an update
to the group on her research area of interest focused
ultrasound therapy targeting the spine.
During our morning session of clinical outcomes, Raj
Rampersaud (University Health Network - Toronto
Western Hospital) presented an update on his research
studying the long-term outcomes of surgical treatment
for lumbar spinal stenosis. Henry Ahn (St. Michael’s
Hospital) engaged us in an important dialogue about
Randomized Controlled Trials and the adoption of new
technology into clinical practice. Carlo Ammendolia
(Mount Sinai Hospital) provided an update on interesting
observations he has found in conducting clinical
trials on lumbar degenerative neurogenic claudication.
Michael Fehlings (University Health Network - Toronto
Western Hospital) concluded the session as he introduced
the results of an international, multi-centre
AOSpine study on outcomes of surgical treatment for
cervical spondylolytic myelopathy.
Peter Ferguson (Chair, U of T Division of Orthopaedic
Surgery) led off our education session focusing on his
experience enacting fundamental change in Postgraduate
Surgical Training (Competency-Based-Curriculum in
Orthopaedic Surgery). Stephen Lewis (University Health
Network - Toronto Western Hospital and Hospital for
Sick Children) illustrated his experience in training
spine fellows at the University of Toronto. Albert Yee
(Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre) ended the session
with a talk on defining the Spine Surgeon in 2015 which
highlighted the newly developed Canadian Spine Society
curriculum on spine surgery fellowship education.
Our afternoon academic session featured trainee
research presentations - clinical and preclinical. Two
of the U of T Spine Program city-wide spine fellows
presented their research. Jeremie Larouche (Supervisor:
Albert Yee) and Spyridon Karadimas (Supervisor:
Michael Fehlings) presented consecutively on development
of Canadian competency-based spine surgery
fellowship education curricula, and studies on characterizing
a novel Locomotor Central Pattern Generator in
Spinal Cord Injury.
This year, the U of T Spine Program received 40
abstract submissions. Winners of 1st place abstract,
2nd place abstract, and 3rd place abstract provided
a podium presentation of their research findings.
Michael Hardisty (Research Engineer, Orthopaedic
Biomechanics Laboratory, Sunnybrook Health Sciences
Centre: Supervisor: Cari Whyne) presented research
on evaluating “Pathologic vertebral fracture severity:
Semi automated quantitative CT based assessment”.
Anthony Bateman (clinical spine fellow, Supervisor:
Albert Yee) presented “Closure of the intervertebral
disc annulus fibrosus using a novel suture application
device – in vivo porcine and ex-vivo biomechanical
evaluation”. Lindsay Tetreault (graduate student at U
of T Institute of Medial Sciences, Supervisor: Michael
Fehlings) discussed research on defining “The minimal
clinically important difference of the modified Japanese
orthopaedic association scale in patients with degenerative
cervical myelopathy”. Jared Wilcox (MD/PhD U
of T trainee, Supervisor: Michael Fehlings) presented
an update on “Neural stem cells promote multimodal
recovery in a severe bilateral model of cervical spinal cord
injury through myelination and not direct synaptic connectivity”,
and Allan Martin (Neurosurgery resident,
Supervisor: Michael Fehlings) presented interesting
imaging work on “Next-generation MRI of the human
spinal cord: methods of a longitudinal translational study
to develop quantitative imaging biomarkers in cervical
spondylotic myelopathy (CSM)”. Finally, Jonathan Lu,
on behalf of Rahul Gawri (Post-Doc trainee, Supervisor:
Rita Kandel), presented tissue engineering research on
“Enhancing nucleus pulposus tissue formation in-vitro:
A novel approach”.
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This year, SpineFEST™ went ecofriendly and our
day’s program was framed around electronic poster presentation
sessions. First Prize Oral Poster Presentation
was awarded to Laureen Hachem (MD Candidate,
Supervisor: Charles Tator) for her presentation entitled
“Effect of clinically relevant cell survival factors for
spinal cord injury in models of In vitro oxidative stress
on adult spinal cord–derived neural stem/progenitor
cells ”, So Kato (Pediatric orthopaedic spine fellow,
Supervisor: Reinhard Zeller) won the second Prize
Poster Presentation award for his presentation entitled
“Postoperative improvement of apical vertebral rotation
in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: 3-dimensional reconstruction
analysis by EOS imaging”.
SpineFEST bringing together clinicians and scientists around the city’s
University affiliated hospitals
SpineFEST™ ended with an enjoyable Monday
evening event -- the U of T/ Greater Toronto Area
GTA Spine Rounds (organized by Joel Finkelstien,
Orthopedic Surgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences
Centre). The U of T Department of Surgery Spine
Program celebrated the spine surgeons graduating as
part of our City-Wide Clinical Spine Fellows Program,
individuals who completed their fellowship training during
the academic year 2014/2015.
The U of T Department of Surgery Spine Program congratulates the following surgeons on their successful
completion of Clinical Spine fellowship in Toronto:
Tony Bateman, Jeremie Larouche, and Sirajeddin
Belkhair supervised by Michael Ford, Albert Yee, Joel
Finkelstein, and Henry Ahn. We also congratulate David
Pinilla supervised by Howard Ginsberg.
Pediatric Spine Fellow: So Kato supervised by Reinhard
Zeller, and Stephen Lewis.
Simon Harris, Clifford Lin, Carlo Santaguida,
Chandan Mohanty, and Roy Chaudhary supervised by
Michael Fehlings, Eric Massicotte, Stephen Lewis, Raj
Rampersaud, and Mohammed Shamji.
Congratulations to our alumni and best of wishes to
all our fellows in their career and future endeavors.
Special thanks to our visiting Keynote speaker Professor
Wilco Peul who, in addition to his morning SpineFEST
keynote address also provided a memorable evening talk
at the U of T/ GTA Spine Rounds. The evening talk was
more philosophical and personal in-nature. Professor Peul
engaged the group in an interesting dialogue on ”The
ambiguous life of a spine surgeon & epidemiologist” presenting
thoughts ranging from challenging cranio-cervical
surgery to hard evidence- based medicine in a political and
academic environment. Professor Peul shared with the
group photos of his happy family, his wife and their three
children who live in the beautiful area of Hague-Leiden.
Many thanks to Professor Peul for contributing towards the
success of our year end academic festivities!
left to right- Michael Fehlings, Peter Ferguson, and Albert Yee
The U of T Department of Surgery Spine Program
would like to thank our participants for contributing
towards the ongoing success of SpineFEST. We extend
our appreciation to Professors Charles Tator, Hamilton
Hall, Andres Lozano, Peter Ferguson, and James
Rutka for their strong support of SpineFEST™ and
the U of T Department of Surgery Spine Program
over the years. The U of T Department of Surgery
Spine Program also extend gratitude to our educational
event sponsors Stryker, Medtronic, Zimmer, DePuy
Synthes, and Ethicon.
SpineFEST™ next year will be held on Monday
June 13, 2016 at MaRS, 101 College St. Toronto. For
further details of the U of T Department of Surgery
Spine Program, please visit our program website at
http://surgery.utoronto.ca/programs/spine.htm and follow
on twitter at https://twitter.com/uoftspine
Nadia Jaber with input from Drs Albert Yee and
Michael Fehlings
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