ISSUE 3 | Friday, 13 October 2017 | EUROSPINE2017.EU
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Medal lecture We need to put our egos aside so we also his identity. It took him a few can come together for the greater years, but eventually, he got back good. into rowing and went on to winning two Commonwealth medals and Mark Pollock, Explorer, Innovator & thereby gaining back his confidence. Collaboration Catalyst, Northern Ireland attended this year’s EUROSPINE At the 10th anniversary of his blindAnnual Meeting to hold a lecture on ness, after taking part in multiple his road to bring people together races and marathons, he became the from all over the world to find a cure first blind man to reach the South for paralysis. Pole. In the span of a few months, Pollock found two teammates willing Pollock was diagnosed with a detached to face the race with him and trained retina early in life, but yet he became up to 12 hours a day before maka competitive and talented rower in ing his way to the South Pole. After his teenage years. While studying weathering the freezing cold weather Business and Economics at Trinity and the tremendous physical stress, College, he became not only a he finished the trek in 43 days. champion schools rower but also the captain of the university’s rowing In 2010, just two weeks before his club. wedding day to Simone George, Pollock suffered a tragic fall from a It wasn’t until one day during rowing second-floor window which left him practice that he witnessed a blur with severe spinal injuries resulting on the edge of his vision. A mere in him being paralysed from the two weeks later, at the age of 22, he stomach down. He was told that othsuddenly found himself completely er patients with similar injuries only blind. “It wasn’t only a loss of vision, had 12 months to live, but still, he but also a loss of identity”, he says, pushed the boundaries of what’s not believing to be able to live the thought possible. life he had imagined for himself. “Sometimes we have the luxury of In the decade that followed, Pollock choosing challenges, but sometimes started to rebuild not only his life but the challenges choose us.”
Facing the challenges ahead, Pollock left the hospital 18 months later. Ever since he has been travelling the world talking to scientist, doctors, biologist and other patients and dedicated his life to finding a cure for paralysis. He’s been working with multiple specialists, and four years after his accident, Pollock moved his legs voluntarily after being aided by a noninvasive spinal stimulation technique. He was fitted with a robotic exoskeleton device and has
been taken thousands of steps with its help. “There is still no meaningful cure... yet! But history is filled with the mere impossible.” He stated that there’s a great need for fierce and brilliant competitors who can put their egos aside to come together and to collaboratively work on the greater good and to ultimately find a cure for paralysis.
The Presidential Address In her Presidential Address, Margareta Nordin reviewed her presidency and the past year of EUROSPINE. The organisation has grown to become the prime Spine Society in Europe and beyond. Currently, EUROSPINE has 1,242 mem-
bers and the annual meeting this year has a record number of participants. EUROSPINE’s EuSSAB has also been developing exceptionally well with 29 organisations from 26 countries.
To grow this quality research over one million Euros in grant money has been distributed to members since 2010. Three researchers who have changed clinicians way of practice by showing the importance of using the bio-physical model in daily clinical “EUROSPINE is growing well. We work, data collection in daily clinical have outstanding educational prowork and evidence were shown. The grams for spine surgeons which will advantage of big data for research soon be offered for non-surgeons. and evidence-based best practice We are also working for a recognised was also a point stressed. NeverEuropean Spine Specialty Diploma for theless, there are many issues as all clinicians, and we have high-qual- standardisation and regulation to be ity courses in research and promodiscussed. tion of the research community and much, much more.”
“What does EUROSPINE do for you?” she asked the members, institutional members and guests. “We listen, we change, we adapt, we want YOU to be the best.” The take-home message was summarised with quotes of Churchill: ”To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often” and by Stephen Hawking: ”intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” Yesterday morning we broke the record for registered delegates to a EUROSPINE Annual Meeting with almost 2,300 registrations. Thank you for your continued interest!