Thank you for participating in Safety in Spine Surgery Month! We closed out the month with an excellent April 29 webinar on Leveraging the Team to Make Spine Surgery Safer. The replay will be available on our website next week.

Our last week of safety videos included some outstanding content & practical tips. We heard from:

  • Dr. Nicholas Fletcher on Mean Arterial Pressure Parameters
  • Dr. Sumeet Garg on Getting the Team on the Same Page
  • Dr. Jean-Pierre Mobasser on the Risks of K Wires and Guidewires in Spine Procedures
  • Dr. Michael Glotzbecker on Overcommunication
  • Dr. Massimo Balsano on his safety tips
  • Dr. Suken Shah on the Surgeon Performance Program
  • Dr. David Skaggs on Setting up Systems
  • Dr. Roger Härtl and Dr. Jacob Goldberg on Emergency Workflow Training

As always, you can review all these videos, plus our library of past talks, for free on the website.

We want to thank this week’s contributors, as well as this week’s partner organizations: SMISS, ISASS, SRS, Setting Scoliosis Straight Foundation, and POSNA.

We hope you’ll join us for next year’s Safety in Spine Surgery Summit (Spring 2022 in New York).

View all this week’s videos here.

Did you catch these highlights from Safety in Spine Surgery Month, Week 3? Our April 15 webinar was packed full of practical advice on implementing checklists and guidelines, and the faculty included leaders from the SRS, the AANS, POSNA, and more. We jammed a lot of education into those 2 hours! You can catch the replay on our website here.

Since we are talking about checklists, do you know about all the free safety in spine surgery resources on the S3P website? We have risk severity scores, checklists, pathways, and more.

We also continue to post daily videos about safety from a variety of leaders across all our social media channels. I think these videos are getting better and better! This week’s videos included:

  • Carlton Weatherby from Medtronic talking about their steadfast commitment to unmatched quality.
  • Dr. John Smith sharing about the success he’s seen in dedicated surgical teams and checklists—they make surgery “much more efficient, safer, and fun.”
  • We posted a clip from Dr. Roger Härtl’s 2020 talk about the market approval process for new technology.
  • Dr. Kevin Shea told us about the POSNA Safe Surgery Program. Learn more here.
  • Dr. Rick Sasso explained the No Strikeout Protocol he developed at the CSRS. This resource is free to download, too.
  • Dr. Chris Hardesty shared about peri-op care protocols, which “help remove variation in practice, which can help decrease variation in outcomes.”
  • Finally, we capped off the week with General Stan McChrystal, our Keynote Lecturer at the 2018 Safety in Spine Surgery Summit, sharing his thoughts on how teams impact safety.

As always, you can review all these videos, plus our library of past talks, for free on the website.

We want to thank this week’s contributors, as well as this week’s partner organizations: Medtronic, Pediatric Spine Study Group & the Pediatric Spine Foundation, POSNA, and the CSRS.

We still want to hear from you! Post safety tips or questions on your own social media—tag us, and you might win a $100 gift card! Winners are drawn each week from all social media channels.

View all this week’s videos here.

We had some amazing videos sharing the message about safety in spine surgery, with both top-level commentary as well as practical tips. This week our daily safety tip videos were seen by over 11,000 people, and our overall audience grew by 40%. Highlights included:

  • Dr. Lehman asked us, “Why is it safer to fly in an airplane than to have surgery?,” in his video on Safety By the Numbers.
  • Prof Carl-Eric Aubin shared about the biomechanical considerations in assessing spinal instrumentation for safety.
  • Vafa Jamali from Zimmer Biomet shared about their support of the Safety month.
  • Dr. Hey shared about the importance of spine surgery checklists, including a link to the downloadable checklists he’s created.
  • And finally, Dr. Elowitz explained the connections between communication, patient safety, and medical malpractice.

Several of these daily tip videos are taken from longer talks presented at past Safety in Spine Surgery Summits. Did you know we have a library of these talks that you can browse & watch for free? Visit the videos tab on our website, or start here with the 2020 Safety Summit videos.

We also had over 500 people register for the April 15 webinar Checklists & Guidelines Which Make Spine Surgery Safer, which featured 4 of our Award Winners for the Best New Methodologies and Techniques to Enhance Safety in Spine Surgery, as well as a “who’s who” of surgeon leaders representing spine safety efforts from leading societies including the SRS, AANS, and POSNA.

We want to thank this week’s contributors, as well as this week’s partner organizations: NewYork-Presbyterian, Medtronic, Zimmer Biomet, NeuroPoint Alliance, Hey Clinic, and CareGuard.

We want to hear from you, too! Post safety tips or questions on your own social media—tag us, and you might win a $100 gift card! Winners are drawn each week from all social media channels.

View all this week’s videos here.

Welcome to the Safety in Spine Surgery Month, Week 1! This week we reached over 2,000 unique visitors across our social media channels with the message of safety in spine surgery. We saw some excellent and diverse perspectives on what safety means to surgeons, industry, and our partners. Highlights included:

  • Dr. Vitale reminded us, “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re probably in the wrong room,” in his video on Calling in the Reinforcements.
  • Dr. Yazici spoke about the safe management of complex neuromuscular deformities.
  • Dr. Lenke showed us the process of using 3D models to study anatomical landmarks prior to surgery and during surgery.
  • Dr. Sponseller talked us through the why & how of using an IVAC to reduce infection risk in neuromuscular patients following PSF.
  • David Bailey of OrthoPediatrics shared about their support of the Safety month.
  • Dr. Flynn talked about the impact dedicated spine teams have had – he calls them “the greatest safety measure that I’ve seen in my 25 year career”
  • And finally, Dr. Radcliff explained three ways the operative microscope affects safety in spine surgery.

We heard from followers on social media, too—Dr. Vitale commented about 3D Models—“Great way to ‘navigate’ before you get into the OR—much like an athlete visualizes performance prior to the event.” Dr. Sumeet Garg commented on what he’s found effective for improving safety—“Working with plastic surgeons on closure for cases to pelvis. Navigation speeds up placement of sacral and pelvic fixation and aids in maximizing screw diameter.”

We want to thank this week’s contributors, as well as this week’s partner organizations: The Scoliosis Research Society, The Setting Scoliosis Straight Foundation, OrthoPediatrics, and the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery.

We want to hear from you, too! Join us on social media with your own safety tips or questions. Tag us, and you might win a $100 gift card!

View all this week’s videos here.

Less than 2 weeks before the 5th Annual Safety in Spine Surgery Summit on March 13, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital received its first COVID patient. These were the early days of an unprecedented strain on the city’s healthcare system. NYC is still fighting a hard battle every day and continues to rise to the challenge.

Despite taking the necessary step to cancel the live Safety Summit in March, we were still committed to providing top-tier educational resources to the spine surgery community. Our local faculty gathered for discussion and our long-distance faculty recorded their own presentations. In the words of Dr. Flynn & Dr. Vitale, it’s more a mission than a course. Thanks to our faculty and supporters, we’re now pleased to present these to you as a free Safety Summit Online CME video series.

Surgeons, PAs, and Nurses can earn 4.2 hours of CME/CE credit by viewing this series of lectures and panel discussions. Learn from experts in spine surgery, neuromonitoring, medical device approval, malpractice, and more. Plus, gain invaluable insight from Stephen Harden of LifeWings, a leader in transforming patient safety programs around the country. We’ve also provided the full text of the outstanding abstracts submitted for this meeting. In addition, you can review the E-Poster presentations, representing some of the best new research in our field. This CME-accredited course is available through February 2021.

We hope you’ll take advantage of this year’s on-demand learning experience. We look forward to joining together in person again for the 6th Annual Safety Summit in Spring 2021. Until then—stay healthy. Stay safe.

Click here for more information.

View the videos from presenters at the 4th Annual Safety in Spine Surgery Summit. Learn insights and practical techniques for improvement of safety in spine surgery from experts in the medical field as well as other fields.

Click here to view videos