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ISSUE 3 | Friday, 21 September 2018 | EUROSPINE2018.EU
New board elected: EUROSPINE ready for future We would like to congratulate Tim Pigott, President; Everard Munting, Vice President; Jörg Franke, Secretary; Christoph Siepe, Head of the newly created EuSSAB Council; Margareta Nordin, Head of Stakeholder Council, Tamás Fekete, Head of Meeting Council and Rachid Salmi, Head of Research Council.
Interview President Tim Pigott You have been on board for one year now as Vice President – what was your first impression? It is a great honour to follow in the footsteps of my colleagues, Margareta Nordin and Frank Kandziora. My first impression is that it will be a great privilege to represent all the members of EUROSPINE, to work with such a fantastic managerial team and a great group of volunteers because this is really important and I am really looking forward to achieving progress together.
great work that has been done in the past. I am also very pleased again to be working with such a good team in terms of education and research. These are challenging plans. How do you want to achieve these plans?
What is your vision for your presidency?
I think the central core will be the careful management of resources, that means For me one of the highest priorities is to continue management resources, education resources, to offer high-quality, innovative content and topics research resources and encouraging members to of relevance to those with an interest in spinal join the society, to take part in all our activities practice. But we still always need to ensure our and to teach in our courses – and that is all really financial stability, make sure we are correctly using essential. This will only happen with the help of our resources to allow us to continue with the volunteers from the society.
Of course there will also be challenges. What challenges do you expect? There will be challenges. I think one of the biggest challenges for for us is the change in the MedTech environment and this is something we are going to have to adress. We are not going to be readily able to get as much sponsorship perhaps as before so we need to address that and think about how we are going to get other income streams to keep our activities supported. Thank you very much, Tim Pigott, EUROSPINE President 2018–2019 – we are looking forward to a successful term!
Great crowd at ESF Charity Run The first EUROSPINE Foundation (ESF) Charity Run was a great success. In the early morning hours 122 runners and walkers met to support spinal education and research. The first participant
passed the finish line only after 15 minutes – the real winner though is the foundation and its education and research programme as 100% of the registration fees will go towards its goal to advance knowledge of spinal disorders, improving the standard of care and the recovery and wellbeing of patients with back and neck problems. Thanks to SPINEART‘s support, 100% of the registration fees (€2,200) will go to the cause. We sincerely hope that the ESF Charity Run 2018 is only the first of many charity events to come.
A love letter to realism in a time of grief Mark Pollock and Simone George
Last year Mark Pollock held an incredibly inspirational Medal Lecture in Dublin. At 22 Mark found himself completely blind. He rebuilt his life and became the first blind man to reach the South Pole. In 2010, two weeks before his wedding day to Simone, Pollock suffered a tragic accident which left him paralysed from the stomach down. “Sometimes we have the luxury of choosing challenges, but sometimes the challenges choose us.” Mark Pollock, Explorer, Innovator & Collaboration Catalyst talked about how we need to put our egos aside so we can come together for the greater good. He just recorded a TED talk with his fiancee, Simone George. The talk is a beautiful reminder of the themes spoken about last year. You can view the talk at the TED website: http://go.ted.com/markandsimone