"To develop formal and informal relationships is incredibly valuable"

 

 

Jeff Wang, MD is the chair of the 4th Global Spine Congress (GSC). FacultyFocus spoke with him about the continuing success of this event and the upcoming congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

 

 

The GSC in Buenos Aires is the 4th event. How has the congress evolved in terms of the scientific program?

I have been very happy with the rapid growth of the GSC. Every year we have seen a tremendous increase in the number of attendees and in the number of scientific submissions. Each meeting we try to have more scientific presentations and more poster sessions because of the larger submission volume. We also started to hold partnership symposiums as well as pre-courses with other academic spine societies from all over the world. We have our own symposia on the most current topics in spine surgery today, but we try to carve out more and more of these partnerships because the interest from other academic societies has grown.

 

Can you explain the overriding interest in the GSC?

I do not think that there is any other academic spine meeting that has such as wide, global audience. Most of the academic meetings are regional or within a country. At the GSC the attendance is truly global in nature, so I think the people are attracted to the meeting because of the international audience. People get exposed to things that they would not see at any other meeting.

 

Have you seen an increased interest in a particular specialization?

We have seen a larger interest in looking at sagittal balance, spinal deformities. Certainly, minimal invasive surgery has always been very attractive and it is only growing, and biologics is also a very hot topic. An area that people are particularly interested in is socioeconomic issues. Surgeons want to know who is paying for treatment and general costs of health care. It is not so much about what is the newest technology, but more so, what technology is cost effective.

 

Some people say that the rise of online meetings might make physical conferences obsolete.

I think that new technologies such as the internet will replace some of the more traditional educational approaches. That is why, if you are going to do a meeting like the GSC, you have to make sure that you are giving attendees some added value that they cannot get online. The GSC is unique in its way of providing opportunities to interact "live" and develop formal and informal relationships. This is incredibly valuable for any specialist in any field.

 

How do you choose the location for the GSC?

Initially we are rotating through all the regions of AO, so after the next two congresses we will have visited all the regions. Beyond that we take bids where people put in a proposal to bring the congress to their city. There is such a high demand that we are planning three years in advance now. Buenos Aires was chosen in Latin America because we got so much support from that region and it seemed a natural location to choose; it is a fantastic city!

 

The GSC will now will be held annually. What is the reason behind that decision?

There are a lot of reasons: One, the increased demand. Two, a regular annual academic meeting is going to benefit AOSpine and also the AO Foundation as a whole. Three, reputation. You cannot be an academic society in 2014 and not have an annual meeting. There are so many conferences out there but people only want to attend the best—and the GSC is considered one of the best.

 

 

 

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About Jeff Wang

 

Jeff Wang MD, is Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Neurosurgery, and Co-Director of the USC Spine Center in Los Angeles, USA. He is Chairperson of the AOSpine International Board and has been involved with AOSpine for the last 15 years. He chairs the Global Spine Congress 2015 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.