Newsletters

This issue is packed with interviews of Zo Ghogawala, Volker Sonntag, Dan Resnick, Dan Riew, and David Kline. There are also timely updates from our members on the Washington and Fellowship Committees. And, as always, excellent material from our peripheral nerve group.

In this edition, you will find interviews with Drs. Michael Wang, John Wilson, and Rajiv Midha. Dr. Griffin Baum provides an insightful commentary on his experience as a neurosurgeon completing an orthopedic spine surgery fellowship. Drs. T. J. Wilson and Zack Ray educate us on meralgia paresthetica in the Peripheral Nerve Learning Corner. And there are timely updates provided by our volunteer leaders in Coding, Payor Response and Peripheral Nerve.

In this issue, we present interviews with our outgoing Chair, Marjorie Wang, and Paul McCormick, the Meritorious Award recipient for Spine at the recent Spine Summit Meeting in Orlando. Also, Bob Harbaugh, Tony Asher and Mo Bydon provide an update on the status of the Quality Outcomes Database. In our Peripheral Nerve learning corner, TJ Wilson and Zack Ray describe nerve transfers for disabling injuries of the upper trunk of the brachial plexus. Finally, John Ratliff elucidates key changes in CPT coding for 2018.

In this issue, Rick Fessler gives us an overview of very exciting preliminary results from the ongoing Asterias clinical trial for stem cell transplantation in spinal cord injury. Cheerag Upadhyaya interviews our outgoing Section Chair, Jack Knightly on the eve of the Spine Summit in Las Vegas. Line Jacques speaks with Eric Zager on advances in peripheral nerve care and technology. Also from the Peripheral Nerve corner, Zack Ray and Thomas Wilson offer an excellent and concise review of Parsonage-Turner Syndrome. John Ratliff provides an update from the RUC, and Kurt Eichholz gives us an overview of recent payor and policy issues.

John O’Toole conducts a Q&A with our Present Chair of the Joint Section, Praveen Mummaneni. We will continue to interview each of the Chairs and other senior EC members in future editions. The Nerve Update has fantastic content in this issue. David Kline, one of the luminaries of nerve surgery, is interviewed by Cheerag Upadhyaya. Zack Ray and Thomas Wilson provide a focused review of hand weakness. Line Jacques and Lynda Yang offer a nerve member update focusing upon course offerings and grant opportunities. Joseph Cheng offers an update of coverage changes relevant to neurosurgical practice. Finally, Bradley Jacobs, Chair of the DSPN Rules and Regulations Committee, has a review of the Rules and Regs changes that are up for review by our membership. We are presenting these changes a second time; they will be voted on during the Business Session of the upcoming DSPN meeting.