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NEWSLETTER
September 2007 Dear member, This newsletter serves to primarily keep you up to date with the most recent events and dealings of the EXCO and CONGRESS committees of the Society, but also to hopefully keep up your interest in the Society and encourage your participation in its activities. SASS CONGRESS DURBAN – JUNE 2007-09-12: The SASS Congress in Durban this year was again up to the high standards set in the past and was well organised, instructive and the invited guests were a pleasure to meet and hear. Well done Ashwin and committee. Again we are indebted to the trade for their ever present involvement in our congresses. MEMBERS’ CONTACT DETAILS: I was saddened to hear that some members did not attend the Durban Congress because they indicated that they did not get notification of the meeting. In order to try and address the cause of this miscommunication, the EXCO instructed Hendrika van der Merwe, the society’s administrative secretary, to individually contact each member for re-certification of e-mail addresses or other contact details. So far only 62 responses from 155 communications have been received. A SECOND attempt has been initiated, and hopefully a better response will be received. As we are a relatively small society, the participation and contribution of each member is of vital and significant communal value, as is the negative impact of passive membership on the spinal society’s effectiveness. An effective and rapid communication and response system is of vital importance, for the EXCO to have as comprehensive regard as possible of members’ opinion and input, with respect to announcements of meetings, and policy and guideline decisions that arise. Therefore if you have not had any of the above notices to affirm your contact details please contact Hendrika on the above Society office numbers. SA SPINE CONGRESS - JOHANNESBURG – JUNE 4 - 6 2009 The next official Society Meeting will be the Xth SA SPINE CONGRESS, organised by Dr Frank Snyckers. The provisional dates are as stated above, and further confirmatory communication will follow in due course, in the early part of 2008. NEUROSURGICAL CONGRESS – DURBAN - Sunday 24th – Wednesday 27th August 2008 As is now common knowledge, the Spinal Congress is to be held on alternate years, on a trail basis, mainly for certain logistical reasons as discussed at he 2006 and 2007 Society AGM’s. In an attempt not to neglect the continuing medical educational needs of members, the Neurosurgical Society and the Neurosurgical Congress Committee has so organised its program so as to have the first day (Monday) devoted to spinal topics, and the ethics lecture early on the Tuesday morning. The provisional programme will be circulated to all members in due course by the standing Neurosurgical Congress Committee. FURTHER GUIDELINES PUBLISHES ON WEBSITE: Thus far we have been able to establish good credibility and
audience with some of the medical schemes, and we predict that
this should improve in the future. We have recently posted guidelines for interspinous spacers, vertebroplasty /kyphoplasty, perioperative admission guideline and monitoring. Some of the existing guidelines are to be revised and updated, hopefully by the end of this year (November). After more than a year of discussion, it would appear that cervical disc prosthesis is going to be funded in the near future by Discovery. It would seem that Interspinous spacers will be funded by Discovery, but not to the full cost of the device, and it appears that patients will need to make some co payment. The details have not been decided upon by the funders. REGISTRAR’S TRAVELLING FELLOWSHIP: It was decided at the 2007 AGM to utilise some of the Society’s Funds towards furthering spinal education at a registrar level. This has been officially put into effect, and it will be coordinated by Dr Dunn, and should commence in the 2009 congress year. The program will start 2 weeks prior to the next congress. At this stage it will be solely sponsored by SASS. In the future the trade may be invited to add to the sponsorship. An amount of R40 000 for 2 travelling fellows was considered, but will be subjected to further investigation. Dr Dunn will formally inform the heads of the departments of orthopaedic surgery and neurosurgery. All interested registrars would have to write a letter of intend. They will rotate between Cape Town, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Durban and Pretoria. The private sector might also get involved at a later stage. The registrars’ accommodation and air fair will be paid by SASS. Arrangements for special leave will need to be negotiated with the various departments. The fellowship will be named The SASS Registrar’s Travel Fellowship. It will be later decided whether this would be an annual- or biannual event. Should it be an annual event, the fellowship will end either at the neurosurgical- or orthopaedic congress. Members are invited to contact myself or Dr Dunn with comment, suggestions or refinements regarding this project. FORTHCOMING INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS OF INTEREST: MEMBER INPUT – TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AT NEXT EXCO MEETING – MARCH 2008 The next SASS EXCO meeting is to be held in March 2008. If there is any matter that any member wants to raise for consideration, this should be addressed to myself at marus@icon.co.za before the 8th of February 2008.
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