Collaboration, research among top priorities for NASS' 2024 president
By Admin | November 26, 2023
Zoher Ghogawala, MD, president of the North American Spine Society, is looking at the year ahead as an opportunity to unite specialties amid increased economic headwinds and CMS challenges.
Dr. Ghogawala, who was named president of NASS last month, spoke with Becker's about his aspirations in his new role and what excites him in the spine industry.
Note: This conversation was edited for clarity.
Question: What do you hope to achieve in this role?
Dr. Zoher Ghogawala: I'm really looking forward to this role, and I see the key priorities for NASS as being a society that focuses upon how to bring innovative new spinal treatments to patients, and by working with researchers, bringing the evidence to our annual meeting, working with industry and bringing other key stakeholders into the equation, I think NASS is ideally suited to advocate for the the development and ultimately the the delivery of innovative spine strategies to patients.
Q: Are there any particular innovative spine treatments that you are eyeing to get to a wider audience?
ZG: I think that there is a lot that we need to understand about motion preservation, and I think there's a lot of innovation being done in this space that will allow patients to be more active and a return to productivity after spinal surgery in ways that we did not have available to us in the past.
Q: When you think about motion preserving surgery with the technology and techniques that are available right now, what's going well in that area and where do you see the need for more improvement?
ZG: What is really emerging as a new strategy for patients with neck problems is a procedure called laminoplasty, which recent evidence suggests that patients treated with it have preservation of their motion in their neck after surgery, have less requirement for opioids, return to work faster and...(More)
For more info please read, Collaboration, research among top priorities for NASS' 2024 President, Becker's Spine Review