Getting to know the AO Spine Knowledge Forums: knowledge to make your patients and practice flourish

Are you attending the Global Spine Congress (GSC) 2024? For the very first time, the AO Spine Knowledge Forums (KF) are organizing a ‘meet and engage’ symposium at the GSC in Bangkok. All congress participants are invited to join this unique opportunity, to get to know the AO Spine’s global clinical research groups and how they work, to connect with clinicians and researchers from Asia Pacific and the global AO Spine expert community. The KFs are also very much involved in the GSC scientific program with seven symposia and a pre-course.

The special KF networking event will take place on Thursday evening May 16, 2024, in the exhibition hall during the Welcome Reception starting at 18:00. The reception will open with the Global Spine Journal (GSJ) ‘Best of’ awards, followed by the presentation of the Global Spine Diploma graduates, and concludes with the KF networking symposium. Participants are invited to personally meet and connect with the Research Commission Chairperson Charles Fisher, the KF Chairpersons S. Tim Yoon, Stephen Lewis, Klaus Schnake, Brian Kwon, Ilya Laufer, and the dozens of KF Steering Committee, Advisory Committee, and Associate Members attending the GSC.

For anyone who ever wanted to meet face-to-face with the people behind the clinical evidence or wondered how to get involved, this is your chance to do so.

The Knowledge Forums are AO’s pathology focused global expert clinical research groups, founded more than a decade ago by Luiz Vialle following his vision that ‘knowledge equals power’. Today, the KFs comprise of more than 240 active members and conduct more than 60 studies with direct clinical application, and with an increasingly strong focus on translating the new knowledge into practice.

The KFs generate clinical evidence for clinical decision-making and improving patient care. They produce classifications, outcomes instruments, guidelines with treatment recommendations, as well as other tools that can be directly used in education and in daily clinical practice. Many of these outcomes—such as the AO Spine Injury Classification Systems and the latest Special Issues with new guidelines for the use of osteobiologics and for acute spinal cord injury—are available as take-aways at the GSC and can be picked up at the AO Spine booth.

Seven scientific symposia by Knowledge Forums at the GSC 2024

The KFs are a premier innovator and knowledge provider of spine care worldwide, and the following seven symposia and pre-course at the GSC will share this knowledge to help your patients and practice flourish:

Wednesday, May 15, 2024, KF pre-course

13:00–17:00 Intraoperative ultrasound—applications in spine and spinal cord surgery from basic principles to advanced applications

Friday, May 17, 2024, KF symposia

08:00–09:00 Hybrid constructs in cervical spine (ACDF and cervical disc) how will emerging and enabling technologies in spine surgery help my practice
08:00–09:00 Answers to common clinical dilemmas in spine oncology: What a surgeon can take home to their practice

Saturday, May 18, 2024, KF symposia

08:00–09:00 Continuum of care for surgical management of adult spinal deformity and the strategies for optimizing care
11:30–12:30 Emerging and enabling technologies in spine surgery: How will this help my practice?
11:30–12:30 Solving treatment variability for thoracolumbar burst fractures
11:30–12:30 Tackling the challenge of mild Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM).
13:30–14:30 Osteoporotic thoracolumbar fractures—When to operate?

Final details and schedule will be available in the GSC program on the GSC 2024 webpage.

See you there!