The newly elected AOSEC Chairperson talks about his vision, passion and what AOSpine Education means to him.

 

Bryan Ashman was elected as new AOSEC Chairperson by the members of the International and Regional Boards. In his function he will represent AOSpine Education on the AOSpine International Board. He will join the AOSEC as Chairperson Elect on July 1st, 2016, and start his official 3-year term as Chairperson on July 1st, 2017.

 

Dr Ashman commented on his vision as the new Chairperson of AOSEC: "Apart from continuing the great current work from Mike Grevitt, I'd like to widen the focus for education. I'd like to concentrate on innovation on one hand, and by going back to basics on the other hand. My vision is to pursue the management of common spine problems in developing countries and build courses and teaching modules around these topics."

 

He describes his career path as one that has grown and advanced continuously into the direction of AOSpine, rather than coming from AOSpine. He started as a full time surgeon in practice who gradually took over education as a role in his day-to-day work, reaching a new milestone by becoming the AOSEC chair.

 

In his opinion the biggest benefit of AOSpine Education is that AOSpine is a truly international network of spine surgeons that offers the opportunity to exchange knowledge with peers from all over the world, who are very enthusiastic about their work but face very different challenges in their daily lives as spine surgeons.

 

Education for surgeons is Bryan Ashman's passion and something that lies very close to his heart. His contributions to AOSpine Education are remarkable. He has been involved in AOSpine education since 2005 and has participated as a faculty member in over 50 courses around the world. Bryan Ashman represented Asia Pacific on AOSEC for 3 years before joining the International Board as chairperson of the region for a further 3 years. During that time, he adopted the original AO Principles for the AOSpine activities and wrote the defining statements. He also led the Curriculum Taskforce in developing and disseminating the AOSpine Curriculum. His work has been recognised with three awards for excellence in education.

 

Bryan Ashman is also passionate about education for himself in order to improve people's learning experience. Besides working in his position as Clinical Director of Surgery at Canberra Hospital in Canberra, Australia, he's currently completing a Master's degree in Surgical Education with his final thesis based on research into factors that motivate spine surgeons to learn new surgical techniques, such as the benefit of modern apprenticeship.

 

The handover process has already started between him and the current AOSEC Chairperson Mike Grevitt. When asked what advice he would give to Bryan Ashman, Mike Grevitt said: "Education has a lot of hopes and expectations attached to it. My advice to Bryan is to reach out to people and engage with them. As AOSpine Education has such a big portfolio, the biggest challenge will be to manage the expectations for it."