The Spine Times Milan

Welcome to EUROSPINE 2022 in Milan, Italy!

Dear members, colleagues, guests and friends,

I am very honoured and excited to welcome you at the 24th editon of the EUROSPINE Annual Meetng in Milan. It flls me with pride that the meetng has developed immensely through the years. With over a thousand EUROSPINE members and partcipants from almost 80 countries, the Annual Meetng has become a premier gathering for spine specialists not only in Europe but also worldwide. Even though EUROSPINE faced chal lenges related to the outbreak of Covid-19 in the last years, the society never disregarded its main objectve to stmulate the exchange of knowledge and ideas in the feld of research, preventon and treatment of spine disorders and related prob

lems, and to coordinate the eforts undertaken in European countries for further development in this feld. This success is testament to our strength as an organizaton on an internatonal level with an important impact on clinical care, educaton, research, communicaton and knowledge transfer. Our local hosts Marco Teli, Sabrina Donzelli and Pedro Berjano have organised an excellent net working programme with many opportunites to establish new contacts and deepen already exis tng ones. Let me once again express my grattude and enthusiasm to welcome you in this beautful city. I look forward to scientfc and social success and that everyone has a pleasant and fruitul tme during the congress.

Thomas Blatert, EUROSPINE President 2022

Benvenuti – The Local Hosts

The EUROSPINE Annual Meetng is with no doubt a scientfc highlight for everyone interested and working within the feld of spine care. Sessions of diferent formats like keynote lectures, panel discussions, presentatons, symposia, and net working events will allow our partcipants various insights and diferent approaches, whether it is to take up the latest informaton and techniques, discuss newest research outcome, exchange ideas and new skills or simply gather with colleagues and friends. The mission is to optmize patent care and spine disorders preventon, provide and support constant research and coordinate related eforts undertaken in European countries.

EUROSPINE 2022 takes place in the newly renova ted Allianz MiCo (former Milano Conventon Centre), one of Europe’s largest and best convent on centres. Located only a few steps from the

CityLife district and Corso Sempione, the area boasts a full range of accommodaton facilites in a walking distance as well as bars, restaurants and shopping opportunites nearby. This annual congress will be held more than 10 years afer the frst Italian meetng, which happened to be in Milan too. Normally it is cites such as Rome and Florence that immediately spring to mind as destnatons for discovering Italy’s rich cultural heritage, but Milan is a gem that shouldn’t be overlooked. Therefore, we highly encourage every partcipant to explore this beautful city.

We look forward welcoming you personally to meet, exchange ideas and partnerships and to bring home a variety of cultural experiences.

Your Local Hosts, Marco Teli, Pedro Berjano, Sabrina Donzelli.

Teli

Meier

WELCOME MESSAGE

INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT

Prof. Dr. med. Thomas R. Blattert

As the President of EUROSPINE, you had the tough privilege of taking over the organisaton during the pandemic. What goals were you able to achieve du ring these challenging tmes of your presidency?

First and foremost, my colleagues from the Executve Commitee and I had to take all the necessary measures to ensure the survival of the Society. We wanted to reassure and demonstrate to all members and stakeholders that EUROSPINE can and will manage all pandemic challenges by fully maintaining the highest quality standards in all four core actvites.

In this year‘s Annual Meetng, we have further improved the scientfc quality of the Programme. Our Educatonal Ofering has been widened and strengthened by launching the Spine Tuesday webinars and introducing the virtual-only delive ry model at short notce last year. This year our Educaton Week in Strasbourg has been based on a blended learning approach that includes e-learning and a live virtual component with on line frontal lectures and face-to-face discussions. Also, very important to menton that our EDISC course (EUROSPINE Diploma of Interdisciplinary Spine Care) can now be delivered online to atract many diferent spine professionals.

On the Research side, I am delighted to say that we were able to put aside new funds for react vatng the Grant Research Programme which has been on hold for the last two years. We also suc cessfully contnued the EUROSPINE Surgical Spine Center of Excellence Certfcaton (SSCoE). We did in fact achieve further goals, which I will speak about later.

Nevertheless, we are all curious about the infuences of the Corona crisis on EUROSPINE actvites. Were there new insights developed that were then later explored during the crisis?

There were indeed new developments, scientfc approaches, and a change in thinking. It was a booster for digitalizaton; platorms, such as our Registry SpineTango, were further developed and digitalized with an amended implant catalogue of more than 180‘000 implants from almost 50 manufacturers that is now available. This expan sion not only strengthened our cooperaton with the industry but also made the Registry even more accessible and efcient for all its users and partci pants.

On the Human Resources side, the entre person nel recruitng, interviews and search for talents has been digitalized and is now standard. All our working processes, operaton calls and some of our Executve Commitee meetngs are fully digi tal, which is cost-efcient and saves tme for all individuals involved.

EUROSPINE will certainly leverage these latest di gitalizaton developments. Our current, upcoming core priorites will be to go live with a new websi te based on a fully integrated data management system, which will create additonal benefts for all our members and stakeholders

Center of Excellence Certfcaton (SSCoE). We did in fact achieve further goals, which I will speak about later.

Through your functon, you are also a Member of the Programme Commitee. What is your personal high light of this year‘s congress that you would personally recommend our partcipants atend?

As a trauma and tumor specialist, I look forward to all the related sessions.

To make the Programme atractve for non-sur geons, we introduced basic science, biology and biomechanics, epidemiology and medical econo mics sessions. We also created something new. The Members-only Breakfast Clubs, which include sessions that move away from pure surgical and spine-related topics and deal with more general issues of importance today, such as a session on how to use social media.

I also look forward to the Medal Lecture by Antonio Alizzi ttled: „Six Generatons under the same Sky - The Role of Communicaton.“ There have never been so many diferent generatons working professionally at the same tme as now, which makes communicaton and the ability to show empathy even more critcal than ever.

EUROSPINE has made enormous progress in diferent felds. Which achievements would you highlight that you are partcularly proud of and have witnessed remarkable improvement?

Well, at the beginning of my Presidency, I put several topics at the top of my personal agenda, which we fnally were all able to achieve:

Firstly, the aspect of diversity, we want to become more atractve to all women and non-surgeons. To push this forward, we have set up a Taskforce called THEMIS, which analyses the as-is situaton at EUROSPINE and presents its fndings and proposals for concrete further improvements.

We stll want to constantly improve the quality, content and delivery of our Educatonal Programme. For this, we have prepared the launch of a voluntary individual Spine Certfcate - a stan dardized, European-wide valid specialist examina ton for interested doctors across Europe to prove their qualifcaton as a spine specialist.

We have revitalized the Stakeholder Council and renamed it „Rehabilitaton Council“ to emphasize non-surgical and WHO-driven rehabilitaton issues.

One is, of course, the fnancial situaton. The Annual Meetng is essental to secure our fnancial future. So as the fnancial outcome of the meetng strongly contributes to our economic health, we are constantly working on the scientfc content and devising new ways for all partcipants to have a unique experience. For this year in Milan, we have changed the stage setng for lively discus sions and prepared a scientfcally-highly invitng programme that will undoubtedly be of high inte rest to all the partcipants coming together from

all over the world.

Last but not least is the use of social media. We made tremendous progress with all our social media actvites and will further strengthen our approach to reach as many members of the spine community as possible - not only within Europe but also across the globe.

EUROSPINE collaborates with other Internatonal Spine Societes. How have you experienced this coope raton? What plans or visions were implemented?

We had excellent relatonships with internatonal, non-European Spine Societes, which were tem porarily interrupted by the pandemic. Currently, we are in the process of re-establishing all these connectons, for instance, with Brazil and China. We have invited representatves of the Brazilian Spine Society to our Annual Meetng, and they are actvely partcipatng in the programme. For our Chinese colleagues, who stll cannot atend physically this year, we organized a virtual Scient fc Session in Milan in close cooperaton with the CCOS, China‘s largest Orthopedic Society.

Another strong focus has been on our SPINE20 ac tvity – a global alliance initatve founded in 2019 by EUROSPINE, NASS, the Saudi Spine Society, and the German Spine Society DWG. SPINE20 aims to create politcal awareness of the importance of preventon and state-of-the-art treatment of spine ailments. Afer three years, SPINE20 already has members from more than 24 countries; that indeed, is a unique opportunity for EUROSPINE to cooperate with Internatonal Spine Societes beyond Europe.

Do you have any fnal words for your colleagues, EU ROSPINE members and congress visitors?

I want to thank all EUROSPINE stakeholders, members and our loyal visitors and delegates who contnuously atend our Annual Meetngs for the commited support they have shown to us over the years, especially during the pandemic. I would also like to thank the EUROSPINE Directors and Managers, our Delegate and all the Council, Com mitee and Taskforce Members for their constant incredible work. Moreover, I want to appeal to all our Annual Meetng visitors (who are not yet members) that they would consider becoming a part of EUROSPINE and thus enjoy the associated benefts and support our impeccable spine socie ty. And fnally, I want to call upon all our members and invite them to get actvely involved in our Commitees and Taskforces.

Lukas Panzenböck about the SSCoE Programme

care. As of March 2022, there are almost 0 such certfed centres and the Orthopaedic ospital Speising, Austria, is one of the latest.

What benefts do you see from the certfcaton?

During the certfcaton process our current ope ratng procedures had to be assessed and were adapted, which resulted in a higher standard. The certfcate shows, each center went through this process and treats spinal disorders at a high quality level.

Why would you recommend certfcaton to other insttutons?

satsfacton and value in spine care goes beyond the qualifcatons and the chosen treat ments. In response to the desire to promote excellent healthcare all across its member states, EUROSPINE, in collaboraton with the erman Spine Society (DW ) and the EUROSPINE Foundaton (ESF), has developed a European certfcaton process focused on spine surgery in hospitals throughout Europe to enhance treat ment quality and to provide high standard spinal

It opens eyes. ou suddenly discover procedures and work ows, that need to be improved. In the end, the way how we handle and treat out pat ents improves.

How was the certfcaton process?

uite some work. Reviewing all the necessary documents and creatng new standard operatng

procedures was more work than I expected it to be. e ng an overview of your treated patents over the last years was very interestng.

isit eurospine.org sscoe for more informaton about the Surgical Spine Centres of Excellence

MagnetOs versus autograft The preliminary results are in...

MagnetOs Granules 78.0% (39/50)

Autograft 42.0% (21/50)

subjects) compared to 42.0% (21/50 subjects) for autograft.

details of this clinical study?

of

Data from this trial – and view the Animated Abstract.

SSCoE

EUROSPINE MEMBERSHIP

Reasons to join the EUROSPINE Family

The best spine specialists are EUROSPINE members. Although the core of EUROSPINE members consists of orthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons, all specialtes and specialists around the spine are welcome, as EUROSPINE is a place for all spine experts.

Some o the bene ts o being a member of EUROSPINE

Access to a wide range of educatonal, research and scientfc actvites, as well as informaton and data collecton tools tailored to individual needs. A unique opportunity to in uence the future of spine care in collaboraton with leading spine ex perts and fellow members. A strong network that will support your expertse and professional development.

The Society compromises the following membership categories Actve members, Honorary members, Senior members, Corresponding members, oung members, Associated members and Insttutonal Society Membership.

ACTIVE MEMBERS are medical doctors and other professionals who are engaged in research into or management of the preventon and treatment of spinal disorders and their related problems. They should be residents of geographic Europe at least untl eligible for senior membership.

CORRESPONDING MEMBERS shall be distnguis hed specialists resident outside geographic Europe who have not reached the age of years.

SENIOR MEMBERS are, without any formality, former Actve and Corresponding members aged over or who have retred or become disabled.

HONORARY MEMBERS are elected for their outstanding contributons to the Society and or in the feld of spinal disorders and their related problems.

YOUNG MEMBERS are actve or corresponding members under the age of 40. They shall pay a reduced member fee. Afer two years they will automatcally become actve or corresponding members depending on their place of residence.

ASSOCIATED MEMBERS are linked via Insttutonal Society Membership , i.e. if their individual natonal society or specialist society becomes formally associated to EUROSPINE. They are not eligible for commi ees or task forces and do not have votng rights.

INSTITUTIONAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP

(Insttutonal Members) natonal and specialist spine related societes organisatons cooperatng with EUROSPINE for specifc tasks in their func ton as insttutonal body. They are not eligible for commi ees or task forces and do not have votng rights.

EUROSPINE s EuSSAB Idea Goals

In October 2014, EUROSPINE founded EuSSAB, the European Spine Societes Advisory oard, to create a common umbrella and communicaton platorm where natonal societes can meet and exchange regularly as equal partners to defne common goals, identfy challenges and develop strategies.

Eurospine‘s concept is to bring together all spine specialist societes in Europe in a very structured and systematc way. So far, they have managed to unite 2 spine societes from 2 European coun tries, representng a total of ,000 spine specia lists from all over Europe.

EuSSAB aims to combine all energies and forces and can be extremely helpful in unifying all pro cesses and creatng a Europe wide training cur riculum or Eurospine co projects, such as cert fcaton of spine centres and spine registries. In additon, EuSSA has a votng representaton in the Executve Commi ee of the Society, which re ally makes it a politcally relevant insttuton, espe cially with the newly established EuSSA Council.

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Crossword Puzzle

IEW WIT

Dr. Marco Teli

As the new president of EUROSPINE, what are your personal expectatons regarding your upcoming term in o ce? What will you be focusing on?

The expectaton is for the Society to reach as many young and new professionals as possible and to involve them in our actvites educaton and research plus quality assurance, i.e. data registries such as our Spine Tango and else. All of the above, with the aim of improving patents ouctomes.

What short and long term goals visions have you and your colleagues set for EUROSPINE?

We are aiming at making Eurospine reachable via modern, pocket appliances i.e. on our phones and to communicate with members more closely thanks to these technologies. We would also like to further expand the society’s reach beyond geo graphical Europe whilst maintaining its traditonal avour and features I am referring to Eurospine s 2 year long unspoiled reputaton for being free from commercial bias. To foster diversity and inclusion, a crucial factor to improve the quality of healthcare, we have entered a project called T EMIS, form the name of the reek oddess of justce and temperance in human afairs.

ou are also a local host at the nnual Meetng this year. What is your insider tp for Milan?

Milan has an ancient history and derives its name from being a mid land, a land among rivers and major roads from South, North, East and West. In tme, it has not lost this feature and is now a pri me cultural, fnancial and commercial hub. Almost hidden, the city will reveal treasures and gems to the interested visitor in its central medieval streets, in its water canals designed by Leonardo, in its churches and Museums, one of which will host a spectacular Congress evening.

What can EUROSPINE members partcularly look for ward to during your term in o ce?

They can rely on an o cer in his early ffies who has devoted himself to clinical research, educa ton and networking within the Society for the last twenty years, with the added value of having worked for long years in diferent European envi ronments. This blend will hopefully make my term the one to mark for inclusion and modernisaton.

What events would you like to highlight for what should someone not miss out on?

Among others, we are proposing to the eneral Assembly the approval of a new, agile member ship scheme with very reasonable annual pay ments and even more convenient year packages. We will contnue with our benchmark educatonal actvites that include monthly webinars and the famous Diploma. We are funding the re design of our website and looking for resources to design our app.

What would be your personal message to the congress visitors and members of EUROSPINE for this year?

e courageous, voice your dreams and concerns, speak out and reach us. As board, we have spent the last two years in keeping the Society healthy with di cultes that have been unique in our privileged lifetmes. The Society needs you more than ever to prosper and expand its borders make it happen, it is your EUROSPINE

Dr. Marco Teli’s Biography

Consultant at the Dept of spinal de ormit s r er , alea i Ins t te, ilan, Ital

Consultant at the Hospital of Legnano, Italy

Consultant at the Walton Center for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Liverpool, England

In 2021, he returned to Italy and started as Director of Complex Spine Surgery at San Paolo and Carlo University Hospital in Milan.

In the mean me, r Teli as rst a ointed ead o em ershi ommitee, then Treas rer, em er at ar e and nall i e President o EUROSPINE. He is currently the incoming President.

Personal Notes

Currently living in Milan as children een involved in clinical research and educaton for EUROSPINE and Universites in Italy and U een on long distance running, tennis, winter sports as well as architecture, history and human behavioural sciences.

orn in Italy, he has always had the vision of bee ing part of the great European community. eing on the board of EUROSPINE and becoming presi dent is not only a privilege for him, but also the realizaton of a dream he had since he was young.

”My vision for EUROSPINE is to become global whilst keeping its European favour, culture, history and way of life. Something unique that every member will appreciate very much.“

INSIGHTS ABOUT THE HOSTING CITY

Welcome to Milan! Benvenuti a Milano!

Milan is Italy s center ground for internatonal business and sumptuous cuisine, along with world leading fashion producton in additon to spectacular architecture and excellent art. Synony mous with the thriving vogue and design industry, Milan is not only a perfect place to shop, but also to discover the latest trends in style Milan is the trendse er par excellence. From the most exquisi te restaurants to entertaining theatres, museums, opera and breathtaking monuments, Milan is a visitor s city of dreams. Everyone is sure to fnd something to their taste here.

Another eye-catcher for visitors to Milan would be the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which survived the bombings of the Second World War. On the back wall of the dining room is the most famous Renaissance paintng in history The Last Supper by Leonardo da inci from the 1 th cen tury. This world famous paintng, which covers an area of 460cm × 880cm, can only be viewed in small groups. Tickets are available outside the church or online.

restaurants, and caf s have sprung up all around, creatng a real hustle and bustle on weekends.

Also visit the Museo del Novecento, located in the Palazzo dell Arengario at the Piazza del Duomo. It has an enormous collecton of more than four thousand works of art which give an overview of the development of 20th century Italian art. The artworks range from 1902 to the art of the early 1980s. The Pinacoteca di Brera is also not to be missed. Its collecton includes some of the grea test masterpieces of Italian and European art from the 13th to the 20th century. These are on display on the frst oor of the building where the Acade my of Fine Arts also resides.

Culture & History

The city has made its name not only for its life style, its numerous shopping opportunites, or its opera, but also for its rich and glorious history. This is re ected in the abundance of magnifcent buildings created over the centuries by the best architects in the world. Architecture in Italy usu ally re ects a specifc architectural era. Milan s architecture, on the contrary, comes from several eras, startng with the Renaissance and ending with Neoclassicism.

Milan has been the centre of several important European art movements over the years, including 1 th century othic and Futurism in the early 20th century. With unrivalled collectons of Italian modernism, Milan is a city where you can redisco ver a lifetme of famous art.

But that is by far not all. Milan has many other interestng a ractons that are a must see, such as the Castello Sforzesco, former seat, and residence of the Duchy of Milan and one of the largest citadels in Europe. Today it houses various muse ums and numerous important works of art and relics. Moreover, it is a pure pleasure just to stroll through its inner courtyard and let the historical charm take efect on you. When you are done with the tour through the castle, we recommend lea ving it through the back gate, which leads you di rectly to Parco Sempione, Milan‘s so-called „green lung , and one of the city s most beautful parks.

One of the world‘s leading opera houses can also be found in Milan the famous La Scala .

The building dates back from the late aroque period and was built on the remains of a 14th cen tury monastery of the umiliat Order. Thanks to the interventon of Maria Theresa, the Academy of Fine Arts has been housed there since the second half of the 18th century.

Just as every major European city has a famous architectural monument Paris the Eifel Tower, erlin the erlin ate, it is no diferent in Milan. The magnifcent Duomo, which is the third largest church in Europe and dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente, is the heart of the city. The most im pressive and, at the same tme, the most elabora te Gothic cathedral in Italy took almost six cen turies to complete. Constructon of the building began in 1386 by Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo and completed in 1805 by Napoleon Bonaparte. isitors to the Duomo are able to climb up to the roof level, for a breathtaking view of the city and a close-up look at the impressive gargoyles and complex spires.

It brings together the choir, ballet, and orchestra of La Scala Theatre. The o cial season opening takes usually place on th December. Nearby, the large alleria i orio Emanuele II stands out with its glass dome and arcades. This shopping centre was built around 1870, in the heady days of Italian unifcaton, and was then the frst building in the city with electric lightng. Today, with its chic bou tques, restaurants, and caf s, it underlines Milan s status as Italy‘s fashion capital and is one of the city‘s most important landmarks.

Of course, it‘s not just the historic centre that ma kes Milan aesthetcally appealing. The picturesque Navigli district was built over several hundred years with the assistance of Leonardo da inci. Milan‘s former canal system, which was navigable and interconnected, provided the inland city with be er access to the outside world at the tme.

Unfortunately, today only the Naviglio Grande and Naviglio Pavese can be seen, and a myriad of bars,

Milanese Gastronomy

Even the food in Milan stands out! The surroun ding mountains, coasts, lakes, and farmlands are clearly re ected in Milan s cuisine. Dishes are traditonally rich and hearty, with meat, pasta, and rice being partcularly favoured. What we would urge you to try is the traditonal Milanese special tes such as riso o alla milanese (safron riso o) or cotole a alla milanese (breaded veal cutlet) as well as piadina (thin, crispy atbread).

What Super owl is for the Americans, Fashion Week is for the Milanese. Defnitely one of the most important weeks of the year. owever, glamour and style can also be found here outside the catwalk. Italy s fashion city is home to some of the coolest agship bars and restaurants from the world’s biggest fashion labels.

Armani Ristorante and the adjacent amboo ar combine the simple elegance of iorgio Armani s design language with the gourmet world. With a breathtaking view of Milan s impressive skyline, modern Italian dishes are served in the restaurant and classic cocktails are recreated in the bar. And if it is not too cold, you can take advantage of the ar ulgari s beautful outdoor garden. The bar features elegant, monochrome furnishings. With absolute precision, a enton has been paid to eve ry fnest detail. ere you will spend an unforge a ble evening enjoying some of Milan s best cock tails. Caf Trussardi is located right next to the Milanese mega brand s agship store and ofers a beautful view of the famous La Scala theatre. The bar has an extensive selecton of premium spirits as well as cigars. The Trussardi alla Scala restau rant ofers innovatve reinterpretatons of classic Italian cuisine.

The City of Aperitivo

The aperitvo is considered a real traditon in Milan. Don t leave the city without having prac tsed this ritual before your meal. It is said that the aperitvo was invented in Turin during the 18th century.

owever, the term aperitvo hour only caught on later in Milan. In the 1 20s, when aspare Campa ri was rumoured to have started mixing the kind of cocktails that are now synonymous with the Italian version of happy hour, the aperitf established itself as a ritual among the Milanese and indeed the whole of Italian society. What many people do not know is that the Negroni cocktail, made with gin, vermouth, and Campari, was also invented in Milan.

Although the aperitvo is of course appreciated all over Italy, there is no denying that the Milane se enjoy it in the best way. In the evenings afer work, between pm and 8pm, the whole city treats itself to a drink and a complimentary snack before heading home or out to dinner. To do as the Milanese do, just stand at the counter of a caf with a drink and snack on crisps and olives. If you want to be more leisurely, you can also visit one of the many stylish bars and enjoy a delicious feast of cured meats, cheeses, and focaccia along side your drinks.

Recommended wine bars

At Il Malto E L uva, drinking well is a way of life. Located in the Conciliazione district, this small wine shop is a real gem. The owners of the esta blishment were driven by a passion to discover the best grape varietes from all over Italy, and thus decided to open Il Malto e l Uva. A shop window on the ground level, with two walls of shelves flled with hundreds of bo les arranged by label, origin, and typology. Researching the area and local productons makes this urban corner a real insider s tp for wine lovers. Then there is also La o ega Del ino. A wine shop, restaurant and bistro which is a great place for an aperitf or

dinner overlooking Sempione Park. The excepto nal selecton of Italian and non Italian wines from the most sought afer brands, provides a treat for the palate. This is complemented by a selecton of beers, spirits and delicious cocktails that promise the highest quality. The interior is elegant and cosy, with several small wooden tables and a long table for evenings in larger groups or simply for sharing with others.

Milan‘s fashion and design heritage

Milan remains the centre of Italian fashion. Many celebrites, such as flm stars, supermodels and even paparazzi visit the city twice a year for the spring and autumn shows. There you can see the designs of the most famous fashion brands such as Armani, Prada, Dolce abbana, ersace, ucci and many others, and also browse the designers agship stores in the city centre.

One thing is for sure, anyone who visits and ex plores Milan will be able to notce how its beauty unfolds li le by li le, leaving no one indiferent. This is defnitely a city with heart and soul which makes everyone want to come back.

REPORT FACTS AND FI URES

EUROSPINE Annual Meeting 2021 in Vienna

EUROSPINE has high demands on the quality management of meetngs and therefore seeks to contnuously improve the standards. During the hybrid Annual Meetng, we asked all delegates to kindly take the tme to partcipate in our survey.

We have received complete responses and are happy about the results Thank you for the constructve feedback. We look forward to contnuously improve standards for you.

Info about the Survey

There were:

00 completed surveys from visitors

1 completed virtual surveys

1.1 registered delegates

Delegates from all over the world a ended the Annual Conference in ienna. The top countries with the most partcipants were clearly Switzer land, ermany, U , Austria and Italy. The age of the survey partcipants ranged from years, of which 8 were male and 1 female. The ma jority of them were doctors by profession with the main role as clinicians or clinical academics.

Reasons for atending EUROSPINE ?

answered that they enjoyed previous EUROSPINE meetngs and 8 saw this as part of their professional development.

What is your atendee status?

0 of the partcipants were a endees, while 1 came on behalf of the faculty and only were presenters of oral communicaton.

Why did you choose to partcipate virtually?

Unfortunately, 1 of the partcipants did not have the opportunity to travel and another 0 were dependent on virtual partcipaton due to CO ID related restrictons. owever, 20 of res pondents found that this ofered them more exi bility and only 1 opted for the virtual opton for fnancial reasons.

If there was no virtual opton to oin, would you atend in person or not atend at all?

Fortunately for us, the vast majority ( 0 ) would stll want to a end in person and only would forgo our Annual Meetng. Those who would not know make 2 .CO ID related restrictons. ow ever, 20 of respondents found that this ofered them more exibility and only 1 opted for the virtual opton for fnancial reasons.

Why did you choose to partcipate in person?

The majority ( ) chose to do so in order to network be er with their colleagues. 1 felt

that they would have a be er learning experience locally, while 20 took the opportunity to travel.

Which partcipaton opton would you prefer for EUROSPINE ?

of partcipants prefer to a end our Annual Meetngs in person and only virtually. 2 pre fer to a end in person and see the virtual opton as a good alternatve. Only 1 don’t have a clear preference for the partcipaton.

re you planning to atend EUROPSPINE ?

of partcipants would like to a end our Annual Meetng again and only 2 do not plan to.

What was the best thing were the best things about the congress?

8 found the high quality of the presentatons (e.g. qualifed researchers, excellent technical presentatons) commendable. Another 0 were impressed by the structure of the scientfc programme (e.g. not too many parallel sessions). The remaining 22 found the networking oppor tunites (e.g. EUROSPINE booth, social program me) great.

INTERVIEW WITH THE NEW DIRECTOR OF MEETINGS AND OPERATIONS

Juergen Meier

s a relatvely new staf member of EUROSPINE, what do you expect from the congress and your new positon as an organisatonal executve?

This year s Annual Meetng is excitng in two ways to me. It is my frst EUROSPINE Annual Meetng and the in person gathering for our members and partcipants afer the pandemic. That is why I expect a happy reunion, outstanding scientfc ses sions and successful networking at the exhibiton with partcipants from all over the world.

I am curious to meet all the people working in the various commi ees and task forces of EUROSPINE, basically the engine and heart of the Society I joined EUROSPINE to be part of an organisaton with a purpose a vision. My role is to support and add value to EUROSPINE s mission by ensuring that our projects and events are well executed.

o you plan to implement any specifc changes as the new irector of M O? If so, what are they?

In the short tme since I am with EUROSPINE, we could set a few new standards for the Annual Meetng in Milan. The programme contains more educatonal content than in the past with a great mixture of a signifcantly increased number of oral presentatons and invited keynote lectures. We also have more panel discussions on controversial cases than ever before as well as the debate on Friday and the est of Show session. Especially for our members, we will introduce the breakfast club sessions a format focused on discussing challenging cases with top level experts. The Annual Meetng is our agship event. We will contnue to further develop the congress with in novatve new sessions, networking opportunites, high quality educatonal content and an excitng onsite experience

We have excellent relatonships with our indust ry partners. Especially during the pandemic, we received tremendous support for our events. We want to further intensify this cooperaton in the future by proactvely creatng additonal well tailored benefts. This topic is one of the top priorites on our presidental line agenda.

Next year we will introduce a new membership model, with a new digital membership opton and a simplifed membership structure that will be proposed to this year’s eneral Assembly. EUROSPINE s goal is to ofer our members rele vant and unbiased educatonal content which is easily consumable at home afer a stressful wor king day. We believe that a series of new virtual events with CME accreditaton is of high value for our members and that our content platorm is a tremendous resource of knowledge by providing access to high quality webcasts, ePosters and abs tracts from our past Annual Meetngs. The platorm itself is searchable, intuitve and ap pealing in its user interface. It is a content plat form, accessible days a year and an essental beneft for our members

Later in 202 , we will also add community fea tures to foster the virtual exchange and discussion

between members. In a nutshell, this new membership opton is a logical consequence of our digitzaton strategy.

For me, the core project for 202 is the imple mentaton of a completely new data management system. We need to aggregate our data to under stand what we are doing well and what needs to be improved in order to become more e cient and serve our members and stakeholders even be er. The objectve is to integrate all our various sofware tools and data into one central database allowing us to make be er decisions and identfy opportunites. With this data, we can strengthen our marketng eforts to ensure the best service possible for our target groups.

To which upcoming EUROSPINE events can we look forward to in the coming year? Which ones are you most excited about?

We plan to co host an event together with EANS about Tumours and Infectons in udapest next year in spring. The exact date will be announced shortly.

We will contnue to ofer all our EDISC courses online also in 202 , and in une and we will host the well known EduWeek again in Strasbourg. I a ended this year s editon. It was fantastc great educatonal content, a renowned faculty, networking events and the excellent facilites at the IRCAD in Strasbourg.

Furthermore, I am very glad to see how our so cial media actvites have developed and will be further strengthened in order to reach also the younger generatons in the spine community.

Our Annual Meetng from October 202 in Frankfurt, ermany, will be a very special event. We will celebrate 2 years of EUROSPINE and I invite you all to be a part of this one I am sure we will have some excitng new aspects for you in Frankfurt

Could you provide us with some interestng facts about EUROSPINE which most congress visitors may not know?

I hope that many of our partcipants know and use Spine Tango already. Since 2002, Spine Tango has been EUROSPINE’s internatonal spine registry for quality assurance and research on surgical and non surgical treatments and their outcomes. Our mission is to gather data from internatonal part cipants to provide performance benchmarking and a collectve evidence base of treatment efectve ness, patent safety and best practce. Spine Tango has made tremendous progress in the last few ye ars related to user friendliness and number of par tcipants by also running the natonal Swiss Spine registry. The great news is, that Spine Tango is free for members of EUROSPINE. If you are interested, please join the Spine Tango Lunch Symposium on Friday, startng at 11 .

T E PATIENT PLATFORM

Patient information and education with modern media – the EUROSPINE Patient Line

The role of the patent as an actve partner in health care, and not just a passive object of dia gnostc testng and medical treatment, is widely accepted. Providing informaton to patents is considered a crucial issue and the central focus in patent educatonal actvites. It is necessary to educate patents on the nature of the outcomes and the benefts and risks of the procedures to involve them in the decision making process and enable them to achieve fully informed consent. Informaton materials must contain scientfcally reliable informaton and be presented in a form that is acceptable and useful to patents. iven the mismatch between public beliefs and current evi dence, strategies for changing the public percep tons are required. Traditonal patent educaton programmes have to face the potental barriers of storage, access problems and the need to keep content materials up to date. Patent Line, as part of EUROSPINE, aims to provide this up to date in formaton to patents. A computer based resource provides many advantages, including just in tme availability and a private learning environment. The use of the Internet for patent informaton needs will contnue to expand as Internet access becomes readily available. owever, the problem is no longer in fnding informaton, but in assessing

the credibility and validity of it. ealth websites should provide health informaton that is secure and trustworthy.

What‘s the GOAL?

Patent Line (PL), a patent informaton secton on the EUROSPINE website, was born in 200 to ofer patents and the general populaton the accumula ted expertse represented by the members of the society and provide up to date informaton rela ted to spinal disorders. It is managed and edited by a commi ee of experts from diferent disciplines, including clinicians and researchers, and its infor maton is based on the latest evidence. In areas where evidence is scarce, Patent Line provides a real tme opinion of the EUROSPINE member ship. The published data re ects the pragmatc and commonsense range of treatments ofered by the EUROSPINE membership. The Patent Line Website ofers informaton for patents with spinal disorders sciatca, back pain, spinal stenosis, disc herniaton, scoliosis and many other spine related issues explained in a clear, reliable and trustwor thy way. Instead of researching and diagnosing themselves on the internet, people can use Patent Line as a credible source to gather informaton on

Education Programme

ecause educaton is key towards improved qua lity patent care, lifelong learning is of partcular importance to EUROSPINE. Over the past years, it has taken the lead to ofer and develop a diverse educatonal platorm targetng various professi onals in the spine care. Furthermore, EUROSPINE Diplomas have received excellent acceptance in the spine community.

EUROSPINE Basic Diploma:

this blended learning course, divided in modu les (degeneratve challenges, spinal deformites, trauma, tumors in ammatory disease), is con ceived for young surgeons to support their clinical practce. In general, it is relevant to any health care professional involved in the spinal treatment spectrum wantng to get best practces in the specialty of spine. The diploma is now respected on a European level by many spinal societes and federatons who remain involved and informed on the project developments.

EUROSPINE Advanced Diploma:

the post graduate training builds on the basic diploma course and ofers advanced courses in 2 modules on extended indicatons and advanced operatve techniques (Advanced Module 1) and revisions and complicatons management (Advanced Module 2). This shall target confrmed spine specialists and trained surgeons who already completed their EUROSPINE Diploma or trained

and practcing surgeons with more than 2 years’ experience.

EUROSPINE Diploma in Interprofessional Spine Care (EDISC):

this new, entrely online educaton initatve aims at developing expertse and empowering spine care professionals of all specialtes in Modules (over a period of years) addressing new deve lopments in the management of spinal disorders. Contnuous medical educaton (CME) credits in form of a certfcate are awarded afer the competton.

EUROSPINE Diploma Equivalence Programme for basic ad anced and mult sourced diplomas

enables natonal and scientfc spine societes to obtain recogniton that their programme is equivalent to that of EUROSPINE. It allows young surgeons who have completed their educaton and a ended partner societes validated diploma pro grammes to receive the EUROSPINE Diploma.

There are signed agreements with societes in France, ermany, reece, Spain, Turkey and the European Associaton of Neurosurgical Societes.

EduWeek 2022:

this blended learning approach consists of a mix of online and live component, case based dis cussions and skills workshops that aims to bring

self management and efectve coping and reduce the need for medical advice. Not looking for proft, EUROSPINE experts are here to help patents and their families understand what may be worrying them and help them evaluate decisions about interventons on the spine.

The pla orm

Patent Line ofers public access to the accumula ted know how and expertse represented by the members of EUROSPINE and allows patents to easily navigate learn in simplifed language on topics such as neck pain, low back pain, etc. Since 2008, the informaton has been available in Eng lish, erman, French and Spanish. owever, EUROSPINE strives to add new languages to PL in order to reach more people and thus more patents. Currently, informaton is available in 1 diferent languages, including non European lan guages such as Arabic and Chinese. The goal is for Patent Line to become the main European patent informaton website on spinal disorders, providing reliable and updated best practce and evidence based informaton where the evidence exists.

partcipants and facultes together. The self paced e learning component for registered partcipants mirrors the live session and includes recorded vi deo and quizzes that must be completed. The live session, in turn, builds on the e learning compo

eLearning pla orm

EUROSPINE’s eLearning approach is constantly developing and prepares partcipants for case discussions, by working though video lectures and answering quizzes. Modules are subdivided into thematc sessions with several video which ends with a knowledge check. When answering at least 0 of the questons, the partcipant can proceed to the next session. Once successfully completed each session, the CME certfcate can be awarded.

Spine Tuesday:

Mark your calendar Taking place every third Tuesday of the month from 1 00 to 20 00 CET, EUROSPINE proposes a new series of webinars which focuses on updates and highlights in spine care. The webinar includes presentatons by experts where partcipants can interact. The we binars are provided to all spine care professionals, members and as non members.

esides that, all EUROSPINE events, such as the annual meetng, present a good opportunity to deepen the knowledge and discover new educatonal tools.

Research Programme

EUROSPINE has a major concern to support re search, educate researchers and foster an actve research community within the society. Following the EUROSPINE Task Force Research (TFR) vision, EUROSPINE focuses on achieving this goal through various research actvites and by the following initatves

components. It requires to work in teams with mandatory presentatons and critque sessions.

Biomechanics Summer Course at the University of Ulm

The summer course “Basic Biomechanics and Biomechanical Methods for Experimental Research of the Musculoskeletal System teaches basic prin ciples of biomechanics to clinicians and biomedical engineers. As a result, they gain know ledge in planning and conductng biomechanical experiments. The course is held by a balanced mixture of lectures and 12 laboratories. To guarantee the highest e ciency, there is a limited number of 20 partcipants.

Critcal Appraisal o the Spine Literature Course

concepts and tools to outline clinical studies. This course applies for accreditaton of the European Accreditaton Council for Contnuing Medical Educaton (EACCME) for a maximum of 28 European CME credits. In order to receive the CME Credits, the whole duraton of the course must be a ended, and the post event survey completed. The last course was held in une 2022 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with 0 partcipants and anez Mohar being the local host.

Funding programme or spine research

Due to the current Covid 1 situaton, EUROSPINE was not able to ofer the usual types of grants. It only covers Developments rants up to 10,000 , which is intended to help develop a pilot study.

Research Methods Course

Research courses are necessary for be er research and more thoughtul applicatons. These courses are designed for less experienced researchers with focus on methodologies to conduct proper research in spine and related areas. Over fve days, the courses combine lectures and experimental

Brain & Spine

Launched in summer 2021, rain Spine is the o cial journal of EUROSPINE and EANS, the European Associaton of Neurosurgical Societes. This peer reviewed open access journal allows authors from all disciplines with brain and spine specializaton the possibility to submit manuscripts describing original scientfc studies, systematc reviews and rare case illustratons. rain Spine deals with pathophysiology, diagnostcs, preven ton, surgical and non surgical interventons for structural pathological anatomical alteratons of the nervous system and axial skeleton. Thus, the published high quality papers cover a wide variety of research areas such as basic science at molecu lar level, translatonal research and clinical epide miology through to populaton health at a societal level. The journal’s goal is to add value to brain and spine patent care in the future.

The two Co Editors in Chief, Wilco Peul (EANS) and Frank andziora (EUROSPINE), along with over 0 experts from across the globe, build a diverse and multdisciplinary editorial board which adhe res to the highest standards of science and ethics to provide high quality reviews.

The research course “How to Make your Research more Relevant, Feasible and Publishable is a unique opportunity to initate the design for a research’s group study. The course is for all clini cians interested in a basic understanding of cli nical research. The course includes 5 modules, is taught in group work and transmits fundamental

Some examples are methodological advice (epide miologist, biostatstcian), discussion with collabo rators, formal literature review, translate outcome measures and test the feasibility of trial material.

In general, the most important principle to be awarded is that the research, clinical or non-clini cal, should advance knowledge and that at least one member of the research team is a EUROSPINE member.

BRAIN SPINE

EUROSPINE MAINTAINS QUALITY ASSURANCE

Spine Tango

The web based applicaton Spine Tango is EUROSPINE s Internatonal Spine Registry since 2002 and serves as a quality assurance tool and a research platorm, by collectng and evaluatng data on treatment efectveness, patent safe ty and best practce on real life data for quality assurance and research in surgical and nonsurgi cal spinal treatments. Not only patents beneft from the registry, but also care providers. Spine Tango ofers a comprehensive implant database and feedback services for clinicians, hospitals and medical device manufacturers and is contnually developing to provide valuable services to MedTech companies.

Why Spine Tango?

To date, more than 800,000 forms have been documented, including over 220,000 surgeries with over 0,000 patent outcome forms from 1 countries from Europe and non European coun tries such as the USA, Australia, and Iraq. Spine Tango is constantly engaged in the standar disaton of documentaton of treatments, defni tons, outcome parameters, and, consequently, of

spinal care and the whole spectrum of spinal treat ments. A large pan European implant library has been developed and is regularly updated. Implants and implant use can be recorded and added. This allows post market surveillance tracking of implant performance and ensures to medical departments to contnue the recording when missing implants which do not exist (existng or new implants sold in Europe will be requested to be added). A clas sifcaton architecture specifes the a ributes and enhances the reportng services.

What is new?

The new electronic feature ePROMS serves for the electronic outcome collecton which automatcally sends forms to patents on a scheduled basis.

Recent studies using Spine Tango focus on quali ty of life and mortality afer surgical treatment, comparing ultrasonic bone cure e to conventonal technique for primary lumbar decompression and the development of machine learning based model for predictng multdimensional outcome afer surgery.

oin us together with representatves of diferent natonal registries for the Spine Tango Lunch Symposium on Friday, 21st September 2022, at 11 , to share the experience and challenges in developing the registry and to discuss these topics and your views on Spine Tango.

www.sc-medica.com

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EUROSPINE‘S NEWEST INITIATIVE

Themis

EUROSPINE recently launched an excitng new pro ject called T EMIS. It was inspired by the ancient reek goddess of justce, whose symbols of the scales and the blindfold refer to the characteristcs of the project alance and Pragmatsm as well as Impartality and Objectvity.

Background

Diversifcaton of the medical workforce is critcal to reducing inequalites in healthcare and impro ving patent outcomes.

enefts of a diverse environment would be, frstly, the opportunity to develop intellectual capital through the sharing of diferent experiences and skills. In additon, the increase in a ractveness has a positve efect on the number of professionals who stay in this environment. oth the increased e ciency and the expansion of human interac tons are strong incentves for investors.

owever, the main value of diversity in healthcare is to improve patent outcomes. As several stu dies clearly show, they have a positve impact on the relatonship between patents and healthcare professionals A balanced environment promotes

improvements in communicaton, decision making processes and adherence to treatment plans.

For efectve diversity, the cut of rate is 0 . A non inclusive environment poses a potentally fa tal threat to scientfc societes and subspecialtes (such as spine surgery).

Process

The T EMIS project is divided into four phases

I. Epidemiological study

The aim of this frst step is to describe the current situaton in EUROSPINE and the natonal spine societes represented in EuSSA , so that poten tally under represented cases can be identfed. The survey explores various aspects, including age, gender, sexual orientaton, natonality, ethni city, religion, socio economic status and physical ability, and will be distributed among EUROSPINE members and EuSSA members.

II. The data analysis

This will be followed by a data collecton exercise

to defne the extent of the phenomenon. This is to reduce potental bias and confounding factors.

III Call to Acton

Once the extent of the phenomenon has been determined, a comprehensive assessment of the potental causes for its persistence is carried out This will provide for the following preventve steps. EUROSPINE will evaluate and implement specifc measures to address imbalances through specifc membership programmes, educatonal initatves, scientfc initatves and internal restructuring.

At the same tme, EuSSA will promote discussion between representatves of natonal spine socie tes to develop common guidelines and recom mendatons.

IV. Monitoring

Although some of the initatves should produce preliminary results quickly (1 to 2 years), funda mental changes under unfavourable conditons may require a longer period ( years). During this tme, close monitoring of events will allow the ef fectveness of the measures taken to be assessed and changes to be made if necessary.

Running together for Excellence in Spine Education and Research

For