On Saturday, the Back Talk continuing medical education program will focus on different diagnoses and treatments and will feature concurrent sessions.  These next series of blog entries will highlight these special interest symposiums.

One special interest symposium entitled, The Healthy Spine, will be presented by Alta Skelton.  Alta is a nurse practitioner with Indiana Spine Group.  

During this session, Alta will be discussing how lifestyle can affect the health of one’s spine.  She will address exercise, posture, obesity, smoking and the role of nutrition and diet; and how these key lifestyle factors affect the spine.  Additionally, Alta will discuss key characteristics that dispose an individual to spine problems. 

On Friday the continuing medical education session will also be on spine surgery.  Dr. Rick Sasso, a spine surgeon with Indiana Spine Group, will discuss the indications and surgical options for the cervical patient.

Dr. Sasso’s discussion will:

§          Review traumatic and degenerative cervical pathologies.

§          Review the indications and considerations for cervical disc fusion and artificial cervical disc replacement.

§          Provide a brief overview of the surgical procedures and expected outcomes for cervical disc fusions and artificial cervical discs.

This continuing medical education program will also provide in-depth information on spine surgery – areas focused on will be lumbar surgery and cervical spine surgery. 

This session will be presented by neurosurgical spine surgeon Kenneth Renkens, MD, and will provide an overview of spine surgery procedures for the lower back and indications. 

Topics discussed will include:

 §     Identify and discuss the indications for common lumbar surgical  procedures, including decompression, lumbar spinal fusion and disc replacement.

In this session, which focuses on evaluating a patient for spine surgery, spine surgeon Thomas Reilly, MD, will discuss when spine surgery is an option and timing for referral to a spine surgeon. 

In that only 10 -20% of patients with spine problems require spine surgery, this session will provide: 

§          Detailed indications and contraindications for spinal surgery.

§          When to refer to the spine surgeon; a review of case studies.

§          An overview of surgical options and expected outcomes.

Another session on spinal therapeutics will focus on minimally invasive treatment options.  For this session, Dr. John Arbuckle will provide an overview of the different treatment options and discuss their effectiveness.  Dr. Arbuckle is a minimally invasive spine specialist with Indiana Spine Group.

Presentation objectives include:

·        Review of back and neck diagnoses clinically appropriate for minimally interventional treatments.

·        Guidelines, indications and efficacy for specific treatments, including spinal injections, percutaneous discectomy, radiofrequency rhizotomy, IDET and nucleoplasty.

On June 4, Indiana Spine Group will host a continuing medical education dinner on treatment options of the osteoporotic spine.  Objectives of this session entitled, “A Current Review of Pharmacologic and Interventional Treatments of the Osteoporotic Spine”, includes: 

• A review of the latest pharmacologic clinical guidelines for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. 
• A discussion of treatment algorithms for the osteoporotic spine; including indications and outcomes of vertebral augmentation. 

 

For more information about this program, please call 317.228.7000.

On Friday morning, there will be two sessions on spinal therapeutics.  One session will focus on non-operative management of spinal problems.  For this session, Dr. Jonathan Gentile will provide an overview of the medical options for spinal treatment.  Dr. Gentile is a minimally invasive spine specialist with Indiana Spine Group.

Session objectives include:

§          Guidelines and parameters of when additional treatment is necessary.

§          Limitations of medical treatment options, including physical therapy, exercise therapy and pharmacological management.

In addition to continuing medical education credits being provided for physicians, this spine symposium was recently approved for continuing education credits for nurse practitioners.  The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners has approved this symposium for 10.75 credit hours for nurse practitioners.  Additionally, Logan College of Chiropractics will be sponsoring this program for Indiana Chiropractors for 12 hours.  Click here, to read a summary of continuing medical education and continuing education credits provided for this spine symposium.

Another session on spinal diagnostics will be an in-depth review of  spinal imaging.  This presentation will be given by Tom Reilly, MD.  Dr. Reilly is a spine surgeon with Indiana Spine Group.  
 

During this presentation, Dr. Reilly will review the essential elements to help primary care physicians understand the different imaging options and he will also review spinal images and diagnoses.

The overall objectives of this presentation include:

§          Review spinal imaging options and identify the appropriate use and applicability to diagnose spinal problems.

§          Identify limitations of spinal imaging and indications for additional testing.

§          Highlight and review spinal imaging studies with discussion of surgical versus medical management.

On Friday (August 22), there will be an in-depth review of spinal diagnostics.  One session entitled, The Essentials of Diagnosing   Spinal Pain will be presented by Kevin Macadaeg, MD.  Dr. Macadaeg is a minimally invasive interventional spine specialist with Indiana Spine Group.  
 

Neck and back pain are common symptoms of many underlying spinal problems.  Key to diagnosing the cause of this pain is to have an understanding of the overall spinal mechanics and also what is “normal”, in respect to degenerative changes of the spine.

The objectives of this presentation include:

§         Define the normal aging process and common degenerative changes of the spine.

§         Identify common spinal problems that cause lower back and neck pain and key indicators for diagnosis. 

§         Review the evidence-based guidelines for the diagnostic triage of lower back pain, including appropriateness and use of invasive diagnostic testing.

§         Identify the “yellow” and “red” flags that present as back pain.

At the Back Talk continuing medical education conference sponsored by Indiana Spine Group, on Friday there will be three key topic categories.  These include:  spinal diagnostics, medical and minimally invasive spinal therapeutics and spine surgery. 

On Saturday there will be special interest sessions.  These sessions will focus on specific diagnoses and treatment options for patients with neck and back pain.  A few topics include; osteoporosis, spinal manipulation, assessment and management of low-back pain in the primary care setting, spinal injuries of athletes and the weekend warrior, pediatric and adolescent spine problems and spinal arthritis. 

The Back Talk agenda is in the process of being finalized. 

Conference topics will include information about the diagnosis of spinal pain including spinal imaging.  There will also be presentations about medical and minimally invasive spinal therapeutics including the non-operative management of spinal problems and minimally invasive treatments. 


The section on spine surgery will address the appropriate timing for patient referrals for spine surgery and when surgery is an option.  Additionally, the surgery section will discuss surgical options for lumbar surgery and surgical options for cervical degenerative disc disease – including updates on cervical artificial discs. 

Planning continues on the spine conference Back Talk!  We are excited to announce our keynote speaker for the conference.  Our keynote speaker is Dr. Stephen Olvey – who recently wrote a book entitled, Rapid Response:  My inside story as a motor racing life-saver. 

Currently, Dr. Olvey is the Director of the Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit at Jackson  Memorial Hospital in Miami and an Associate Professor of Clinical Neurological Surgery for the University of Miami School of Medicine.  Additionally, Dr. officer a medical consultant for the Indianapolis 500 and the chief medical officer for the Grand Prix Master’s Series. 

As keynote speaker at the spine symposium, Dr. Olvey  will talk about “Lessons Learned from Motorsports”  and some of the key objectives he will be addressing are :

Key to planning our spine continuing medical education program is determining the overall objectives.  For this process, we reviewed the comments from last year’s spine symposium, as well as identified key issues important to physicians and other health care providers. 

Overall objectives for this year’s spine symposium are as follows:

•Provide a comprehensive diagnostic assessment of patients who present with back and neck pain including appropriateness for referral to spine specialists.

•Understand the overall principles for evidence-based medicine for the treatment of spinal disorders from an operative and non-operative perspective.

•Understand extrinsic factors affecting spine health; i.e. daily activities, lifestyle habits, sports, aging, and with this information will be able to provide patients’ guidelines to maintain a healthy spine.

•Identify surgical and medical advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with spinal problems and disorders.

•Identify medical and minimally interventional treatment options for patients with spinal disorders, and back or neck pain; as well as have an understanding of the indications and effectiveness of these treatment options.

•Understand the diagnostic and treatment options of patients with specific conditions/issues, including the young athlete, scoliosis, rheumatologic disorders, and the osteoporotic spine patient.

To learn more about the conferece visit our web site or call (317) 228-7000. 

All About Our Spine Symposium - Continuing Medical Education  

Welcome to Indiana Spine Group’s spine education blog.  The purpose of this blog is to provide information about continuing medical education opportunities sponsored by Indiana Spine Group.  In 2007, Indiana Spine Group hosted their first spine symposium for physicians and other health care practitioners.  Over 120 people attended this conference. 

At this conference, we kept hearing about the need for this type of conference – so Indiana Spine Group is going to host a spine symposium in 2008.  Entitled Back Talk – the second spine symposium will be held on August 22 and 23, 2008.  This continuing medical education conference for physicians and other health pracititioners will provide the latest information on interventional pain management - including non-surgical spine treatments, minimally invasive spine procedures and back surgery (cervical and lower back surgery) - helping practitioners treat their patients with back pain and spinal disorders.

To learn more about the conference call 317.228.7000 or click here.   

If you would like to receive a spine conference brochure, send us your contact information.  This can be faxed to 317.228.9029 or emailed to lkriech@indianaspinegroup.com.