NASS Awards Research Grants, Traveling Fellowships

The North American Spine Society (NASS) has awarded $136, 000 in research grants and traveling fellowships. Winners were selected by the NASS Research Project Management Committee and Research Council, and approved by the Executive Committee.

As indicated in the October 28, 2016 news release, the 2016 Clinical Traveling Fellowship winner is Pallav Bhatia, M.B.B.S., M.S., Mount Sinai Medical Center; Rush University; New York Presbyterian Hospital ($5, 800). The 2016 Research Traveling Fellowship winner is Nicholas Van Halm Lutterodt, M.D., Keck Medical Center of the University of Southern California ($5, 000).

The 2016 Research Grant award winners are:

• Clinical Grant: “Comparative Effectiveness of Multi-Modal Pain Management versus Standard Postoperative Analgesia: Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial to Reduce Postoperative Pain and Opioid Use Among Patients Undergoing Lumbar Spine Surgery.” Primary Investigator: Richard Skolasky, Sc.D. ($47, 748).

• Clinical Grant: “The Severity of Preoperative A1c and Predicting Postoperative Complications in Spine Surgery.” Primary Investigator: Tomoko Tanaka, M.D. ($25, 000 partial funding). Tanaka told OTW, “It is fairly well-known that preoperative hyperglycemia affects the outcome of various surgeries, however, tight preoperative control has not been well studied regarding the potential improvement in postoperative course and outcome. We would like to study the relationship of outcome in patients undergoing spine surgery to hemoglobin A1c, which the American Diabetes Association recommends using as a tool to predict outcome. This simple marker could help thousands of patients have better surgical outcomes each year.”

• Young Investigator—Basic Grant: “Does Cartilage Endplate Permeability Impact Nucleus Pulposus Cell Function?” Primary Investigator: Aaron J. Fields, Ph.D. ($25, 000 partial funding for year one of a two-year project). Fields told OTW, “Biologic therapy is a promising strategy for managing disc degeneration. However, an unresolved issue is whether the permeability of the cartilage endplate is sufficient to support the increase in nutrient transport required by these therapies. By addressing this issue, our work will inform selection criteria to identify discs appropriate for treatment.”

• Young Investigator—Clinical: “Effects of Telemedicine Triage on Efficiency and CostEffectiveness in Spinal Care.” Primary Investigator: Shari Cui, M.D. ($27, 931). Dr. Cui told OTW, “Our institution has utilized an electronic consult/telehealth triage system for new ambulatory spinal referrals since 2008 and through this system surgeons have triaged more than 30, 000 cases, determining the surgery-readiness of each case. Since inception, this utilization has increased the proportion of surgical patients seen by surgeons and effectively diverted thousands of non-operative patients away from surgical providers, to non-operative providers. Our study seeked to quantify the cost savings and clinical efficiency of our triage system; potentially providing a model by which timely specialized surgical care can reach a greater number of underserved patients while maximizing surgeon efficiency.”