Back Talk | Spine Education

Saturday’s continuing medical education sessions will include three concurrent sessions with nine different topics for conference attendees to choose from.  This blog entry will highlight those sessions available in “Concurrent Sessions Three” that will be on Saturday morning (9/11/10). 

These sessions will include:

The Anatomy of the Exam - This is a clinical workshop that will be co-presented by minimally invasive spine specialist Kevin Macadaeg, MD, and nurse practitioner Alta Skelton, RN, MSN, NP-C.  This workshop will provide an in-depth look at the patient exam and will utilize a live-model to demonstrate the critical components of the physical exam.  What is normal and abnormal during the cervical and lumbar exam will be discussed, as well as a review of the neurological exam.  Additionally, this session will also discuss multiple problems that present as back or should/neck pain and will review clinical algorithms. 

Active and Injured | A Look at Sports Injuries – This session, presented by chiropractic physician Tony Origer, DC, ATC, will highlight common sports injuries related to popular recreational activities of adults, e.g. golf, tennis, weights/fitness training and running.  This continuing medical education session will review the anatomical and physiologic functional changes of the spine that result with aging, and the effects of sports on the spine.  Additionally, the patient assessment of patients that present with spinal pain and injuries from sports-related activities will be discussed, as well as appropriate levels of care and red-flags. 

(Tony Origer, DC, ATC, is a chiropractic physician with Performance Chiropractic and Sports Rehabilitation.)
 

The Workplace | Back Pain and Injuries |  This continuing medical education concurrent session will be presented by Marc Duerden, MD, FAAPM&R, CIME.  Dr. Duerden is a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician with Rehabilitation Associates of Indiana. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is projected that annually more than one million workers injure their back representing one out of five work place injuries.  During this session Dr. Duerden will review common workplace spinal injuries and their contributing factors to back pain.  Additionally, the short- and long-term effects on the worker’s status will be reviewed.  Spinal conditions and physical attributes that predispose an individual to back injuries will be discussed as well as the indications and treatment options for low back pain.  

For more information about Back Talk, or to register click here, or call (317) 228-7000.

The Nutritionally Healthy Spine – This continuing medical education session, presented by Lori Petrie, RD, will continue to focus on a healthy spine and the importance of nutrition in achieving and maintaining a healthy spine. This session will provide important nutritional recommendations for a healthy spine.  In addition to diet and lifestyle other factors that will be addressed for a healthy spine will include popular over-the-count medications, and a review of herbal, vitamin and nutritional supplements. Ms. Petrie is an outpatient nutritional counselor with St.Vincent Hospital.

Back Pain | Chronic and Failed – It is estimated that approximately 40% of individuals that undergo back surgery continue to have back pain.  Jonathan Gentile, MD, a minimally invasive spine specialist with Indiana Spine Group will address this ongoing issue.  In this educational session he will address both chronic back pain and failed back syndrome and will discuss the differentiation factors, and the diagnostic perils.  Additionally, Dr. Gentile will discuss the treatment options, indications and patient selection for various treatment options.  One treatment option that will be highlighted will included the spinal cord stimulator, used as an option for failed back syndrome. 

For more information about Back Talk, visit our web site, or call (317) 228-7000.

Back Talk, Indiana Spine Groups continuing medical education symposium, will provide concurrent sessions in addition to the two educational tracks (general and in-depth) and general sessions. These concurrent educational sessions will provide conference attendees a wide array of topics related to spinal conditions and treatments. A few of the concurrent sessions include:

Myths and Realities | Treatment of Vertebral Compression Fractures – This session, which will be presented by Indiana Spine Group minimally invasive spine specialist Kevin Macadaeg, MD, will highlight the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment indicators for vertebral compression fractures. Vertebral compression fractures have been identified as one of the most common fragility fractures in the U.S. During this educational session, two common treatment procedures for vertebral compression fractures will be discussed – this includes kyphoplasty and vertebroplasty.    

The Wellness Paradigm – Presented by chiropractic physician Nate Blume, DC, this continuing medical education session will apply the concept of functional medicine to spine health. The role of functional medicine in spinal health looks at contributing factors such as genetics and lifestyle. In this session, how to apply a wellness model to patient care and the role of functional medicine to improve the quality of a patient’s back health will be discussed. 

(Nate Blume, DC, is a chiropractic physician with Lakeside Chiropractic.)

Osteoporosis, also called the silent disease, has been estimated to affect 10 million Americans.  Another 34 million are projected to have low bone mass, according the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Needless to say, this critical topic will be discussed at Indiana Spine Group’s annual continuing medical education symposium Back Talk. This talk entitled The Silent Disease | Osteoporosis Updates will be presented by William Schmalz, MD, an internist from Bloomington, Ind.

During this talk, Dr. Schmalz will discuss the latest screening, diagnostic and treatment algorithms for osteopenia and osteoporosis, including the recommendations for various demographic groups, e.g. teenagers and young adults. Additionally, Dr. Schmalz will review the indications and contra-indications of medications and hormone replacement therapy in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis – and will address the menopausal and post-menopausal life stages. 

One general session that will be given at Back Talk, Indiana Spine Group’s continuing medical education symposium, is entitled Making the Diagnosis| Differential Factors in Spinal Diagnosis. This presentation will be given by neurosurgical spine surgeon Kenneth Renkens, MD, FACS.

During this presentation, Dr. Kenneth Renkens will discuss the differential diagnoses of lower back and extremity pain. The importance of identifying coexisting conditions affecting spinal pain and treatment will be reviewed. Additionally, Dr. Renkens will discuss spinal infections and inflammations that present as back pain neck pain.  

Following the educational tracks for Indiana Spine Group’s annual continuing medical education symposium Back Talk, we will then feature the keynote speaker. As previously blogged, our keynote speaker joins us from Salt Lake City, Utah. James McGreevy, MD, is a trauma surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Utah Medical Center and Chief of Surgery for the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center. Additionally, he is a Colonel in the United States Air Force Reserve and the Commander of the 419^th Medical Squadron.

During Dr. McGreevy’s keynote address he will discuss medicine on the front lines – as he talks about his experiences in Iraq. A few things that will be discussed include the operations of the Balad Air Force Theater Hospital, the level of trauma care available to wounded military personnel and civilians. Additionally, he will discuss the common occupational health hazards associated with fighter types of operations in a deployed environment. 

Dr. McGreevy was deployed in 2005 and 2007, and has served as a flight surgeon in Balad at the Balad Air Force Theater Hospital. This is one of the largest U.S. military hospitals in Balad, a multi-specialty trauma hospital that treats soldiers, military personnel, civilians and sometimes insurgents.

At Indiana Spine Group’s Back Talk continuing medical education symposium, as highlighted in a previous blog entry , there are two educational tracks that will be available for conference attendees on day one.  In addition to the general track discussed in the prior blog, there is a more in-depth track entitled, More Specifics | Spinal Diagnostics and Treatment. 

In this education track there will be a few sessions focusing on the diagnosis of spinal disorders and abnormalities.  One session titled Spinal Imaging | Technology and Diagnosis, will be presented by Stephen Pomeranz, MD. Dr. Pomerance is a radiologist. In this session, Dr. Pomeranz will provide an in-depth look at spinal imaging technologies and highlight the latest developments in spinal imaging technology and their applications in spinal diagnostics.  Additionally, using case studies, he will review radiological finds and diagnostic indicators. 

The second session of this educational track will focus on The Electrodiagnostic Evaluation, and will be presented by physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist Dr. Shashank Dave.  During his presentation, Dr.Dave will discuss the role and application of electromyography in the diagnosis of spinal disorders and diseases.  Additionally, he will review case studies which utilize electromyography and identify specific diagnoses. 

Another session presented for the in-depth track will focus on Diagnostic and Therapeutic Injections of the Spine.  This will be presented by minimally invasive spine specialist John Arbuckle, MD.  During this session Dr. Arbuckle will review and differentiate between the different type of therapeutic injections and will review the treatment efficacy of injections, the clinical protocols, indications and expected outcomes. 

The last session of this continuing education track will highlight spine surgery, and is entitled Surgical Perspectives | Fusion vs Arthroplasty, presented by spine surgeon Rick Sasso, MD.  During this session, Dr. Sasso will provide a detailed analysis of spinal fusion and arthroplasty and he will discuss motion preservation modalities for the treatment of generative disc disease.  He will highlight lumbar and cervical artificial discs as well as review research studies and discuss patient selection, indications and expected outcomes. 

Planning continues for Back Talk | Comprehensive Concepts in Spinal Diagnosis and Abnormalities, Indiana Spine Group’s 4^th annual spine symposium. For this year’s conference there will be two educational tracks. One track will provide more general information and one in-depth. These tracks will be held the morning of day one. 

The general track is entitled: Spinal Care Boot Camp | Diagnostics and Treatment. There will be a session on spinal anatomy, entitled Spinal Anatomy 101, presented by minimally invasive spine specialist Kevin Macadaeg, MD.  During this session, Dr. Macadaeg will discuss the functional anatomy of the spine, normal aging process, the spine’s degenerative cascading process and normal and abnormal spinal anatomy.

Another general session which will be presented by minimally invasive spine specialist John Arbuckle, MD, The ABCs of Spinal Diagnostics. In this session, the etiology of spinal pain and common spinal disorders that cause back pain will be reviewed. Additionally, Dr. Arbuckle will discuss the indications and applications of spinal testing, evidence-based guidelines for the diagnosis of lower back and neck pain, and he will highlight the red flags of spinal pain. 

Two other sessions in this track include Understanding Spinal Therapeutics and The Spine Surgery Patient. In the spinal therapeutics session, presented by minimally invasive spine specialist Jonathan Gentile, MD, he will discuss the pharmacological management of acute and chronic back pain, review common noninvasive and minimally invasive spinal therapies and their indications. Spine surgeon Paul Kraemer, MD, will discuss the spine surgery patient and will provide an overview of common spine surgery procedures, their indications and expected outcomes. Additionally, Dr. Kraemer will discuss the applications and limitations of spine surgery, and when referral to a spine surgeon is indicated. 

For a complete Back Talk agenda, link here. 

Registration is now available for Indiana Spine Group’s continuing medical education spine symposium Back Talk | Comprehensive Concepts in Spinal Disorders and Abnormalities.  This conference is for anyone who treats patients with spinal problems.  Conference attendees will learn the latest as speakers present the most current evidence-based information about the diagnosis and treatment of spinal disorders and abnormalities.

For the latest information about Back Talk, visit Indiana Spine Group’s web site:

Accreditation / Continuing Medical Education Information

Conference Agenda

Registration Form

• American Academy of Family Physicians
• Indiana State Medical Association
• Indiana State Nurses Association
• American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
• Logan College of Chiropractic
• Commission for Case Manager Certification
• American Society of Radiologic Technologists

We are excited to announce that the keynote speaker for Indiana Spine Group’s 4^th annual continuing medical education spine symposium Back Talk | Comprehensive Concepts in Spinal Disorders and Abnormalities is James McGreevy, M.D.  Dr. McGreevy is a trauma surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Utah Medical Center and Chief of Surgery for the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center.  Additionally, he is a Colonel in the United States Air Force Reserve and the Commander of the 419^th Medical Squadron.  In 2005 and 2007 Dr. McGreevy served in Operation Iraq Freedom in Balad, Iraq as a flight surgeon.

His talk, entitled The Front Lines | Reflections of Iraq, will give first-hand stories about the medical care provided at the Balad Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad Iraq.  This multispecialty trauma center is the U.S. military’s largest hospital in Iraq which treats soldiers, military personnel, civilians and sometimes insurgents.  During his talk, Dr. McGreevy will discuss the operations of the Balad Air Force Theater Hospital, describe the level of trauma care available to wounded civilians and military personnel and highlight the common occupational health hazards associated with fighter type operations in a deployed environment.

 For more information about Indiana Spine Group's continuing medical education symposium Back Talk, call (317) 228-7000 or visit Indiana Spine Group's web site. 

·         Understand the clinical algorithms to effectively diagnose and treat patients that present with back or neck pain. 

·         Discuss comprehensive evidence-based treatment options for the spine patient, from a non-operative and operative treatment prospective; including indications, applications and expected outcomes.

·         Identify common and uncommon spinal disorders; including spinal trauma, and discuss the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment options. 

·         Address conditions and prevalent diagnoses that affect patients at specific life-stages.  Additionally, discuss intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting these diagnoses, as well as prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these spinal disorders.

·         Highlight new and emerging technologies for the treatment of spinal disorders and abnormalities; including the indications and potential benefits. 

If you were not able to attend Indiana Spine Group’s continuing medical education conference, Back Talk | Comprehensive Concepts in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Spinal Disorders -  educational sessions are now available on-line.

Educational Sessions include:

• The Fundamentals of Spinal Diagnostics | Kevin Macadaeg, MD
• Common Spinal Disorders | Paul Kraemer, MD
• The Uncommon and Difficult | Part One: Benign | Michael Stack, MD, PhD
• The Uncommon and Difficult | Part Two: Urgent | Kenneth Renkens, MD
• The Basics | Spinal Imaging | Thomas Reilly, MD
• Non-Operative Care: An Evidence-Based Overview | Jonathan Gentile, MD, and Jeff Hebert, DC, PhD (c)
• Minimally Invasive Spine Treatments | John Arbuckle, MD
• The Surgical Patient | Part One: Cervical | Rick Sasso, MD
• The Surgical Patient | Part Two: Lumbar | Kenneth Renkens, MD

To view these continuing education sessions, click here.  Additionally, if you would like to receive continuing medical education credits for viewing theses sessions, visit the St.Vincent Distance Education Site and view from there. Registration is free.

 
(A very special thank you to St.Vincent Spine Center for making these videos possible.) 

On September 11 and 12 2009, approximately 150 health care practitioners; including physicians, chiropractic physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners joined Indiana Spine Group at Back Talk.  This continuing medical education symposium provided comprehensive information on the diagnosis and treatment of spinal disorders, injuries and abnormalities.

Additionally, the keynote speaker paralympic medal winner Cheryl Angelelli, shared her story of turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones.  Conference attendees heard her story of how she overcame life’s challenges to attain her dream.  To learn more about Cheryl, visit her web site where a documentary about her story “Untold Dreams” can be purchased.  

Another session at Back Talk, the continuing medical education symposium for physicians and health care practitioners will address the failed back. Sometimes called failed back syndrome, failed back surgery or post-laminectomy syndrome – these patients continue to have ongoing back pain following spine surgery. 

This session will be presented by minimally invasive spine specialists Jonathan Gentile, MD, and John Arbuckle, MD, and spine surgeon Paul Kraemer, MD. With Indiana Spine Group, these physicians treat patients at our offices located on the north side of Indianapolis. 

During this continuing medical education session, the tools for physicians and health care practitioners to perform a diagnostic assessment of patients with chronic back pain following spine surgery will be highlighted. This diagnostic assessment will help caregivers to understand the underlying causes of ongoing back pain, and the mechanism of failed back. Additionally, medical and interventional treatments for failed back will be discussed – their indications and expected outcomes.

One out of five injuries in the work place are back injuries, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. To help address this issue – this worker’s compensation presentation at Back Talk, will provide practitioners information to help them understand the maze of worker’s compensation as they treat patients with work-related back injuries. 

The speaker for this continuing medical education concurrent session is Effie Lewin, RN, CCM, CDMS, AIC. Effie is a medical case manager with Coventry Worker’s Comp Services. During her talk, she will provide a comprehensive review of the worker’s compensation claim process, the medical and claim documentation guidelines and the role of the case manager. Additionally, she will review case studies of on-the-job injuries, including the claim process and guidelines for the documentation of medical care. 

For more information about Back Talk, call (317) 228-7000. 

Many times, when people have chronic lower back pain – they experience a greater level of depression than individuals without chronic back pain. This continuing medical education session at “Back Talk” will provide physicians and health care practitioners insight into learning to recognize and assess psychological risk factors of patients with acute and chronic back pain. 

During this session entitled "Psychological Barriers," Ricks Warren, PhD, ABPP, will identify psychological issues in patients with chronic back pain and malingering. Additionally, he will review the psychological barriers for effective treatment of acute and chronic spinal problems – and identify the warning signs and when referral to a metal health professional is indicated. 

Ricks Warren, PhD, ABPP joins the Back Talk continuing medical education  faculty from Michigan. Dr. Warren is a clinical lecturer and psychologist with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. 

When individuals think of being healthy and wellness – they generally do not thing about spine health and wellness. This spine wellness session at Back Talk, Indiana Spine Group's continuing medical education conference, will focus on keeping a healthy spine. Presented by Adam Ebbert, PT, and Lori Petrie, RD, they will address factors that affect spinal health – both intrinsic and extrinsic. 

This session will address the assessment of patient lifestyles to determine recommended prevention and lifestyle habits that can help prevent spinal problems and improve spinal health. Additionally, health factors affecting the spine specific to various patient populations will be discussed. 

Adam Ebbert, PT, is the physical therapy coordinator with Indiana Spine Group and. Lori Petrie, RD, is a registered dietician with StVincent Hospital. 

The continuing medical education symposium sponsored by Indiana Spine Group, Back Talk, provides many continuing medical education and continuing education credits for physicians and health care practitioners. 

BACK TALK: Comprehensive Concepts in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Spinal Disorders provides continuing medical education / continuing education credits for the following:

physicians (MD and DO), chiropractic physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, radiology technologists and surgical technologists. 

To see a complete listing of accreditation for this continuing medical education symposium – review the complete list.
 

For more information this continuing medical education symposium, click here or call
(317) 228-7000.