FacultyFocus AO Spine

Dear colleagues,

Welcome to the third 2023 edition of FacultyFocus, featuring a wide array of educational content curated with you—our AO Spine faculty—in mind.

In this edition, we bring you a forward-looking video interview in which I detail my vision for my three-year term as AO Spine Education Commission (AO SEC) chairperson in a discussion with AO SEC Immediate Past Chairperson Emre Acaroğlu. Building collaboration across the regions is one of my key priorities—and your engagement as AO Spine faculty around the world plays an important role.

Also in this FacultyFocus edition, we bring you an update on our Global Spine Diploma (GSD) program and the key role faculty plays in providing opportunities for early-career spine surgeons to advance their knowledge and skills across multiple spinal specialties. Moreover, this edition details a toolkit created by the AO Spine Knowledge Forum Spinal Cord Injury (KF SCI) equipping scientists—including AO Spine faculty who conduct research—to make Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM) studies robust, comparable, and focused on the most relevant open questions. In this addition, you can also learn about new AO Approved Solutions.

Additionally, in this FacultyFocus, you won’t want to miss the news from across the AO, including:

• Positive Faculty Education Program (FEP) feedback from operating room personnel (ORP)
• The ongoing transformation of the AO Education Institute (AO EI), now live in its new setup
• Transparent and inclusive recruitment practices driven by AO Access
• New education research output from collaborations between the clinical specialties and the AO Education Institute
• AO Access recommendations for inclusive language—and why inclusive language matters
• 10 tips for instructional design

I hope you will enjoy reading this especially informative edition of FacultyFocus!

Best regards,

Richard Bransford

Chairperson, AO Spine Education Commission