Our Team

Michael Vitale, MD, MPH. is the founder and president of the Project for Safety in Spine Surgery and a founding member of the Pediatric Spine Foundation. He is the Director of Pediatric Orthopaedics and Chief of the Pediatric Spine Service at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York Presbyterian, while serving as the Ana Lucia Professor of Orthopaedic and Neurological Surgery at Columbia University Irving College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his orthopedic training at Columbia University where he also earned a Master’s degree in Public Health, with fellowship training at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He has been President of POSNA, Chairman of IPOS, and on the Board of the Scoliosis Research Society. Dr Vitale has authored several focused on ways to improve the care of patients who need spine surgery, and has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers in the field. The core focus of his clinical, administrative, and academic contributions has been on helping young people with spine problems live better lives, today and in the future.

Rajiv Sethi, MD, PhD, serves as the Executive Director for the Center of Neurosciences and Spine at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, USA. This includes the chairmanship of the spinal unit which employs 16 spinal surgeons across 3 hospitals in the pacific northwest USA and has trained fellows from America’s best neurosurgery and orthopaedic programs. He is also Clinical Professor at the University of Washington specializing in health systems research in the Program of Health Economics and Outcomes Methodology in the schools of medicine and public health. Dr. Sethi attended Harvard Medical School in Boston and completed his training both in the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Program in Boston and at the University of California at San Francisco. His fellowship at UCSF focused on the management of complex spinal disorders. He was also a Fulbright Scholar in the field of public health prior to beginning medical school at Harvard.

Professor Sethi has served on the Board of Directors and is past chair of the Safety and Value committee and upcoming chair of the Program committee of the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS). He has been actively involved in the SRS serving on the adult deformity, research grant, IMAST, website and worldwide conference committees and multiple task forces. His research around team strategies and multidisciplinary protocols to enhance safety in spinal deformity surgery has led to numerous peer reviewed manuscripts and podium presentations as well invited visiting professorships in the US and abroad. He has published two textbooks focusing on value-based care in spine care delivery and spine safety protocols. This includes a recent publication in JBJS highlighting a new lean methodology method to study value- based health care. Professor Sethi has served as an invited lecturer on the topics of spine safety and advanced surgical protocols in 32 countries.

Professor Sethi’s research has been awarded major nominations including the Whitecloud Award by the SRS for best research paper and the Mary McClinton Award for Patient Safety in the United States. His work on the Seattle Spine Team approach and the use of the Toyota Production System to model safety and appropriateness in spine care have led to the designation of “centers of excellence” by American purchasers of health care and the introduction of value-based principles to American spine care.
Professor Sethi is married and has four children. He is fluent in several languages and enjoys cycling, music and spending time with the family.

David Skaggs, MD, is the Co-Director of Spine, Director of Pediatric Orthopaedics, and Executive Vice Chair of Orthopaedics at Cedars Sinai. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers and delivered over 800 national and international lectures and trained over 50 fellows. Dr. Skaggs has designed 5 lines of spinal implants and developed numerous surgical techniques adopted world-wide. He is currently developing power tools to make robotic spine surgery safer.

He received his undergraduate degree from Amherst College as an NCAA All-American at 400M hurdles. He completed his MD and residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at Columbia University. His Pediatric and Spine Fellowship was at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Dr. Skaggs serves as the Co-Editor in Chief of Orthobullets which gets over 1,000,000 hits/year and has edited multiple editions of top selling textbooks. He is the Founding President of the Pediatric Spine Foundation/Pediatric Spine Study Group and Treasurer of the Scoliosis Research Society.

Dr. Skaggs is quick to say his most important job is his family. His daughter Kira is an orthopaedic resident at Stanford University. Jamie works for a biotech hedge fund in Manhattan, and Clay is on an Air Force college scholarship. His wife Valerie Ulene is the principle of a health care navigation company. He also enjoys working out, socializing, bad jokes, and playing golf poorly.