Meet the new AO Spine council members in Latin America

AO Spine Latin America is proud to welcome the new council members in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.

Recently, several new members were elected to three AO Spine Country Councils in Latin America and their three-year terms have commenced. The new members were elected based on the votes cast by each country’s electorate of active members, and the results have been approved by the respective AO Spine Nomination Committees (NomCom).

In Argentina, Alfredo José Guiroy (Education Neuro) stated that, among other initiatives, he wishes to encourage the training of Argentinian neurosurgeons in spine surgery, involve more spine surgeons in the research activities of the Spine Study Groups, and stimulate the participation of new centers in the studies proposed by AO Spine Latin America.

Read Guiroy's recent article on Lumbar Single Position Surgery in the AO Spine Guest Blog and find out more about the AO Spine Latin America Study Groups.

Guiroy joins Pablo Jalón (Chairperson) and Nicolás Coombes (Education Ortho) in the efforts to grow AO Spine in Argentina.

In Brazil, the new Country Council members are Jerônimo Milano (Chairperson), Cristiano Menezes (Education Ortho), and Charles Carazzo (Education Neuro). Carazzo emphasized that he would focus his efforts, among other matters, on continuing the virtual and face-to-face courses, running courses at the host centers where fellows are being trained, and enabling courses in new technologies.

In Chile, Marcelo Molina was reelected as Education Orthopedics Officer, and he rejoins Ratko Yurac (Chairperson) and Felipe Rossel (Education Neurosurgery) to continue nurturing the AO Spine community in Chile. Molina aims to participate actively in the organization of AO Spine courses in Chile for traumatology residents, fellows, and spine surgeons.

As well as working on new projects, Molina will help further the prospective and multicenter studies currently running in Chile and Latin America: the RECOSAN (Record of Spine Surgeries in Chile) and the ESTENOCOL (a study on degenerative lumbar stenosis in Latin America).

AO Spine Latin America Chairperson Juan Emmerich warmly welcomes the newly elected chairpersons and representatives. Join us in congratulating them and wishing them all the best for their new terms.

Find out more about AO Spine's Governance structure and bodies here.