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.

In this issue, we offer a Q&A between the most recent Past Chair of the Joint Section, Mike Groff, and John Ratliff. We will try to continue to interview each of the Chairs and Past Chairs in future editions. Charles Sansur brings us up to date with recent Rapid Response Team activity. Also new in this issue is a Nerve Update, focusing upon course offerings and grant opportunities from Line Jacques and Lynda Yang. There are a lot of changes in the PQRS system for 2015, these are briefly outlined in this edition and a more thorough review prepared by Rachel Groman of Hart Health Strategies is provided for your review. The financial impact of the changes may be significant. In other good news, we also review recent RUC activity relevant to spine surgeons. In closing and with great sadness, we report the passing of Charlie Kuntz, one of the giants of our Section. His eulogy is attached at the end of our Newsletter. We will be honoring him at the upcoming Spine Section meeting. He will be missed.

In this issue, we present a brief update on RUC activity and quickly note upcoming changes in ICD-10 coding that will impact all neurosurgeons. A new Aetna policy revising their coverage for spine cages for use in cervical spine surgery is reviewed in this issue. We also include content on recent positions taken by the Spine Section with regard to percutaneous image-guided lumbar decompression.