The Spine Times Lyon Issue 2

Page 1

ISSUE 2 /// THURSDAY, 2 OCTOBER 2014 /// EUROSPINE2014.EU

PATIENT DAY

LIFELONG LEARNING IN SPINAL CARE Joerg Franke, Chairman of the Education Committee, explains why the EUROSPINE education program is a valuable credential for spine care specialists. WHY DOES EUROSPINE CONSIDER EDUCATION AS ITS FOREMOST ACTIVITY?

Patient Day, done in collaboration between EUROSPINE and SFCR, took place on Tuesday morning. The conference was an open invitation to patients to join Patient Day for a morning of lectures open to the general public.

introductions by Philip Sell (President of the EUROSPINE Society), Jean Charles Le Huec (Local Host of the EUROSPINE 2014), and Antonio Faundez (Chair of the Patient Line Committee).

The conference was delivered in two parts. The first part consisted of short lectures by spinal specialists, rehabilitation specialists and spinal surgeons. The second part was an interactive audience participation Q&A. The topics covered were: t Relevance of surgery for low back pain t Anatomic structures for low back pain t Different types of pain t Childhood pain t What to do prior to seeing a surgeon? t Results of surgery t Persistent pain after surgery t Back pain and sports activities t Scoliosis: when to operate? t Chronic Pain The sessions were moderated by Cedric Barrey and Gilles Perrin. Speakers were Cedric Barrey, Gilles Perrin, Christophe Garin, Nicolas Fraisse, Emmanuel Favreul, Bertrand Debono, Jean Huppert, Pierre Roussouly, and Pierre Volckmann. There were

The meeting was a big success, and whilst the original expectation was that around 30 - 40 patients would join, in total nearly 300 people attended. There was over an hour for discussion and interaction, and the questions varied around topics of surgery, conservative treatment, the origin of back pain and rehabilitation methods. The audience was asked to keep questions more general, thus avoiding specific personal medical history and allowing for great interaction between patients and specialists.

It is EUROSPINE’s mandate to foster excellence in spinal care. Sharing knowledge of best practice techniques and latest advances is a powerful way to achieve this objective. We offer comprehensive education, research and quality-assessment programs as an important part of a lifelong learning approach. Our ultimate goal is to offer an accredited, internationallyrecognised European Spine Certification program. To accomplish this, a commonly agreed-upon core curriculum supported by national societies is a must. At the same time, this standardised curriculum will need to take into consideration regional differences in disease occurrence and treatment modalities. We will be actively consulting with those societies and stakeholders in pursuit of unbiased new education standards that will build trust among our many different stakeholder groups. HOW DO YOU ADAPT AND MEET THE EDUCATION NEEDS OF MEMBERS AND COURSE PARTICIPANTS? In the process of developing our Way Forward strategy, we organised a workshop for a group of young professionals, or in other words, potential future leaders. They provided us with detailed information related to their educational needs. High on the their list was their request for the accreditation of an officiallyrecognised European spine specialist certification.

For the April 2014 EUROSPINE Education Week in Strasbourg – offered in cooperation with our Foundation – we engaged an educational advisor, who collected input from a variety of sources. Overall the feedback was very positive, yet we also collected some helpful information on how to further improve our education program.

Specific recommendations that we are currently addressing are to: t Develop an accredited European spine surgery curriculum (confirming our goal) t Conduct a learning needs analysis t Broaden and update teaching and learning techniques t Better target the audience or “stream” participants In our quest to establish an accredited “European Spine Certification”, we are in close contact with EFFORT and EBOT (UEMS). We have also begun negotiations with established national course systems (e.g. France and Germany) in order to harmonise our efforts. Furthermore, we are in the process of creating an educational platform and jointly defining criteria and measures that support the definition of a Europe-wide core curriculum. WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES?

The main challenges of optimising education are coordinating our efforts in the most efficient way and getting the most and best out of our limited financial resources. At EUROSPINE, we are continuously seeking to increase efficiency and simplify processes in terms of introducing changes and improving our education offering. We are currently implementing an EduCom proposal regarding the recommendations received during the Strasbourg Education Week and our approach to a “European Spine Certification”. In order to facilitate better coordination and alleviate strain on our limited budget and resources, our EduCom is constantly considering options how to improve the delivery of all education related activities. EUROSPINE: YOUR PRIMARY SOURCE FOR LIFELONG SPINE CARE EDUCATION The EUROSPINE Education Program is continuously evolving to provide participants with the most relevant and latest content from top spine specialists around the world. We are streamlining our delivery mechanisms to keep overhead low while offering participants the best value for money. Our Education Week and other courses in 2014 were a resounding success, and we look forward to improving our offering even further, culminating in an internationally accredited “European Spine Certification”. Interview with Jörg Franke, Chair of the Education Committee


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