Dear OTW Reader:
NASS and The Spine Journal…could perception management have been better? Johns Hopkins awards musculoskeletal research grants…international trauma care and research event a roaring success…those wanting to dump industry funding living in a fantasy world?
Research From Rush
Brian Cole, M.D., Professor in the Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Anatomy & Cell Biology at Rush University Medical Center, tells OTW, “We have a number of exciting biologics that we are working on in test tubes and animal models. For example, we are looking at platelet rich plasma (PRP), and our early clinical results show possible benefits for osteoarthritis (OA) and tendinopathy. Now, we have the burden to prove this in a clinical setting…what’s really needed are well powered randomized clinical trials. We are also undertaking a trial on OA in the knee, and will soon move forward with one in the shoulder—in both of these we are comparing PRP to traditional treatment models.”
OrthoHelix Has Award-Winning CFO
Cameron Rubino of OrthoHelix Surgical Designs, Inc. was recently awarded the Crain’s Cleveland 2011 CFO of the Year Award in the medium private company category. OrthoHelix indicates that Rubino has been instrumental in many aspects of the business, including the fundraising process and management of all aspects of financial reporting. By writing two Third Frontier grant applications, Rubino has helped OrthoHelix secure $2 million to complete the development of new technology and add more than 60 jobs over three years. Rubino was previously the CFO of a $170 million venture capital firm and spent a number of years as an auditor with a Big 4 public accounting firm. Rubino has also worked with a number of start-up companies providing financial advice prior to joining OrthoHelix.
Industry Not Out to Get People
A spine guru tells OTW, “While there is a lot of concern in spine about industry funded research, what people often forget is that companies don’t want to harm people…and they certainly don’t want to invest millions of dollars and then have everything blow up in their faces. Industry is a very important partner for orthopedic surgeons, and it is a mistake to assume that any industry funded research is tainted. The fact is that as a field we are getting better at reporting conflicts of interest. And anyone who thinks that there is enough funding to do large research trials without industry is living in some fantasy world.”
NASS Awards!
Hong Joo Moon, M.D., Ph.D. of Seoul, South Korea has been awarded the 2011 Research Traveling Fellowship. Winners of the 2011 Research Grant award are: D. Greg Anderson, M.D., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Correlation of Clinical Outcome after Lumbar Fusion with Intradiscal Cytokine Expression and a Novel Assay System [Translational]); Jeffrey Borckardt, Ph.D. of Charleston, South Carolina (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation [tDCS] in the Management of Acute Post-Spine Surgery Pain: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial [Clinical]; Fackson Mwale, Ph.D. of Montreal, Canada (Biological Repair of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration [Basic]); Claudio Hetz, Ph.D. of Santiago, Chile (Defining the Role of the Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and the UPR in Spinal Cord Injury [Basic]).
Disc Herniation: New Aproaches
James Iatridis, Ph.D., is Professor and Director of Spine Research at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He tells OTW, “There are few procedures available for treating intervertebral disc herniation that address structural repair of the ruptured annulus fibrosus; consequently, when surgical microdiscectomy is performed to address acute pain there is a high risk of chronic disc degeneration—which can lead to future back pain. There is little that surgeons can do at the time of the microdiscectomy to slow the progression of disc degeneration or reduce the pain…we think that early and minimally invasive interventions are key. We are working on two strategies: one using biological therapies and the other using annulus repair. We recently developed a new biomaterial to enhance annulus repair following herniation. Our biomaterial uses a crosslinking agent to modify fibrin. Thus far we have found that this modified fibrin: has material properties closely matching those of the native annulus tissue, greatly increases the adhesive strength to native tissue, is cytocompatibile and slows the resorption rate of fibrin, allowing it to last significantly longer. In the next few months we will be making additional modifications to improve cytocompatibility and enhance cell proliferation. Our material is best used as a sealant for small defects or as an adhesive to be used with other biomaterials. I believe that there are several promising tissue engineered biomaterials that may eventually be used separately or in combination to provide effective annular closure following herniation.”
Johns Hopkins Awards Grants
The Johns Hopkins Center for Musculoskeletal Research has established a Musculoskeletal Research Pilot and Feasibility Grant Program. The goals of this program are to raise the visibility of the musculoskeletal research community and to support young investigators in the field. The awardees for 2011 are: Ron Cohn, M.D., Assistant Professor, Pediatrics, McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine (Preclinical testing of TGF beta inhibitors in models of acquired myopathies); Tao Qiu, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery (Role of TbetaRII in coordination of PTH and TGF beta in bone remodeling); Ryan Riddle, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery (Interaction of Hif-1 and Beta-catenin during skeletal mechanotransduction).
NASS and TSJ: Perception Management
Someone familiar with the workings of NASS tells OTW, “The subtext of the 2011 NASS meeting was The Spine Journal/BMP issue. There is enormous potential for BMP-2. Doctors are wondering where the truth lies in terms of how best to use BMP…and they are asking, ‘Where is the real scientific data?’ Many are afraid of litigation. There is a pervasive misperception that there is a connection between The Spine Journal [TSJ] activities and the NASS Board. TSJ actions are independent of NASS Board influence, but in retrospect, NASS could have done some things differently that would have helped people understand the separation between what the journal does and what NASS does as an organization. Perhaps separating our press releases from those of The Spine Journal would have helped. The organization can do more to manage these perceptions…but in the end, there are always people who love conspiracy theories.”
Volunteer Recognized
Dr. Jacob Heydemann, an El Paso orthopedic surgeon, has been recognized as a “Border Hero” by the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. Dr. Heydemann, who regularly donates his time and services to clinics and hospitals in Mexico, was honored with the award at a dinner on November 5, 2011.
UConn Welcomes New Orthopedists
Two new orthopedic surgeons have joined the University of Connecticut Health Center…Dr. Tessa Balach is among a small group of orthopedic surgeons in the U.S. with specialized training in the management of musculoskeletal tumors, both adult and pediatric. She also has expertise in the treatment of patients with arthritis of the hip and knee. Dr. Balach completed her orthopedic oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she also completed her orthopedic surgery residency. Her medical degree is from New York Medical College. Dr. Isaac Moss, specializes in advanced surgical management strategies for a range of acute spine problems as well as minimally invasive surgical techniques. Dr. Moss completed his fellowship training in spinal and scoliosis surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago; he completed his orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Toronto, and earned his medical degree at McGill University in Montreal.
North, South America Cooperate for Trauma Care
Ted Miclau, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon with San Francisco General Hospital, recently chaired the Forum of the Americas. Dr. Miclau tells OTW, “I was asked to Chair a meeting sponsored by the Osteosynthesis and Trauma Care Foundation, and I looked forward to bringing surgeons together from Canada, the United States, and Latin America in a way that I was not aware had been done before. There were surgeons representing every country in South America as well as Mexico, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua; surgeons from China, Japan, and Europe were also in attendance. The topics of the meeting included trauma systems, the conduct of clinical research, and current topics in orthopedic traumatology. We also wanted to take this opportunity to build a potential research consortium for Latin America, and we held a breakout session that identified obstacles to research. Going forward, the University of California, San Francisco/San Francisco General Hospital Orthopaedic Trauma Institute and the Institute for Global Orthopaedics and Traumatology will work with Mohit Bhandari, M.D. and McMaster University on bringing this group together with larger global groups in Asia and Africa. One of the likely early research topics will be to develop fracture registries worldwide. We will also work together on developing funding strategies for this worthwhile endeavor involving the developing world.”
Resurgens Orthopaedics Growing
Georgia’s largest orthopedic practice has opened its doors to Dr. Jeffrey I. Peretz, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in total joint replacement and hip and knee arthroscopy. Dr. Peretz completed his medical degree at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey at the New Jersey Medical School. He completed his residency in orthopedic surgery at the Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, and completed an Otto E. Aufranc Fellowship in Adult Reconstructive Surgery at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
