Columbia Neurosurgery Navigating the Future at LV Spine Summit 2024
Embracing Technology and Innovation to Improve Patient Care
Last week, Columbia Neurosurgery's Spine Division members, Dr. Dean Chou, Dr. Andrew Chan, Paytyn Leveto, NP and Vivian Le, Spine Clinical Research Manager, traveled to Las Vegas for the 2024 Spine Summit. This meeting represents the AANS/CNS Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves and was created "to foster spinal neurosurgical methods for treating diseases of the spinal neural elements and the peripheral nerves. The section strives to advance spinal neurosurgery and related sciences, improve patient care, support meaningful basic and clinical research, provide leadership in undergraduate and graduate continuing education and promote administrative facilities necessary to achieve these goals."
This year's theme, "Embracing Technology and Innovation to Improve Patient Care," included some of the timeliest developments for the medical community, including the use of emerging technologies in AI and ChatGPT.
Dr. Dean Chou was a Course Director in "Special Course Spine Oncology Update." Highlighting the multidisciplinary management of spinal tumors for the practicing surgeon, emphasizing complications avoidance and surgical planning. The course also explored applications of robotics, endoscopy, navigation, and custom implants in addition to case discussions.
Dr. Chou also participated in the Cahill Debates at the 2024 Spine Summit meeting in Las Vegas, NV. The annual lively Cahill Debates are held at each Spine Summit meeting, and they are focused on topics in spine surgery that don't always have a single solution. The session was moderated by Dr. Daniel Hoh, President-Elect of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Chou debated Dr. Michael Wang, Past Chair of the Section on Disorders of Spine and Peripheral Nerves of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Dean Chou is the Scientific Program Chair for the 2025 Spine Summit meeting in Tampa, FL.
Dr. Andrew Chan served as moderator for "Specialty Breakout: Spinal Deformity Abstracts," leading the session on research papers from around the world on innovative topics, including Comparative Analysis of the Utilization of AI in Minimally Invasive Adult Spinal Deformity Surgery, Leveraging Machine Learning for Predicting Back and Leg Pain and Augmented Reality vs. Freehand, among others.
Dr. Chan also served as a panelist during the course "Deformity: How to Avoid and Manage Reoperations," where he shared cases to facilitate lively discussion among course attendees.
Dr. Chan reflected, "It is great to see the expanding footprint of minimally invasive approaches to adult spinal deformity at this year's section meeting. By sharing successes in deformity cases using these less invasive approaches, the appropriate utilization of MIS should continue to expand."
Columbia Neurosurgery was honored to serve at the 2024 Spine Summit as we continue to lead the next generation of spine surgeons and their teams through this unprecedented time of innovation and ongoing metamorphosis through new technology and practical implications for our interdisciplinary model of care.
