Clinical Science Advisory Commission Interview with Michael Fehlings and Philip Louie

In June this year, Michael Fehlings, MD, chaired the first meeting of the AO ITC Clinical Science Advisory Commission (CSAC). Following an interview with Dr Fehlings and the spine representative of the group Dr Philip Louie, we briefly summarize the purpose of the CSAC.

• The CSAC is a critical part of the AO Innovation Translation Center and is predated by an advisory committee that was formed to offer guidance to AO CID—one of the orig­inal critical pillars of the AO Foundation.

• The CSAC is intrinsically involved with the AO Tech­nical Commission (formerly known as the AOTK) and provides strategic advice around clinical science related to the work of the AO Innovation Translation Center and the whole concept of the recently formed AO Global Network.

• The membership on the commission includes representation from all clinical divisions.

• The AO Clinical Investigation Department, now the business units AO ITC Clin­ical Operations and Clinical Science form the Clinical Evidence competence area within AO ITC, became a required pillar of the AO tasked with studying and documenting patient treatment outcomes.

• When innovation occurs through surgeon collaboration, the clinical research infrastruc­ture of the AO via the work of AO ITC Clinical Evidence and CSAC, ensures that studies performed by ARI (assessing basic and fundamental science) and the AO TC (performing device-ori­ented research) adopt the correct approach and interpret out­comes accurately. The CSAC is an objective committee created to assess all elements of a study and work in partnership across the AO ITC to drive innovation and translation. CSAC is intrinsi­cally involved in knowledge creation, which is critical to the mission of the AO.

Read the full interview here

The AO ITC acknowledges Michael Fehlings and Philip Louie for their contribution to this article and all members of the Clinical Science Advisory Commission.