Keynote Speakers
Spine Society of Australia | ||
 Dr Edward Benzel, Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Cleveland Clinic, is an internationally recognized thought leader in spine surgery and biomechanics. His clinical interests include cervical spondylosis, syringomyelia, complex spine instrumentation, and spine tumors. He has authored multiple textbooks in the field of spine care, co-authored and edited several texts and more than 330 chapters. In addition, Dr Benzel has published over 230 refereed manuscripts. Besides publishing research, Dr Benzel is frequently invited as a visiting professor, speaker, and faculty instructor at hospitals, universities, and major national and international medical meetings.  Dr Riew is Chief of Cervical Spine Surgery for Washington University Orthopedics, the Mildred B. Simon Distinguished Professor of Orthopedics and Neurosurgery. He has been recognized in the lists of America's Top Doctors and Best Doctors in America since 2002. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, over 60 chapters and other manuscripts. He has won outstanding research paper awards multiple times from CSRS, NASS, and SRS. He has served as a Visiting Professor, Grand Rounds Speaker, Key or Named Lecturer, nearly 70 times in over 17 countries on six continents. He is the immediate Past President of the CSRS and the Chair of the AOSpine International Research Commission. | ||
Scoliosis Research Society Worldwide Course | ||
 Professor De Kleuver is Professor of spine surgery, VU University medical center, Amsterdam and also works at Sint Maartenskliniek, the Netherlands. He is the 2013 chair elect for the Scoliosis Research Society and has been chairman of the SRS symposium at the 2012 Spineweek and on the tasforce on screening for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Professor De Kleuver is a past chairman of AOSpine Europe and on the Dutch Spine Committee for spinal accreditation and implementation of a national spinal registery.  Having received his B.A. with honors from Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, Dr John Dimar received his medical degree from Wright State University School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio. His residency training in orthopaedics was completed through the Lutheran Hospital Orthopaedic Residency Program in Fort Wayne, Indiana, followed by a six-month chief resident internship with the Leatherman Spine Center. Dr. Dimar then served in the United States Air Force at the Regional Hospital in Minot, North Dakota, serving as Chief of Surgery and Assistant Chief of Hospital Services. He then returned to Louisville to complete a spine fellowship with the Leatherman Spine Center. Dr. Dimar is a clinical professor with the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Chief Pediatric Orthopaedic surgeon at Kosair Children's Hospital and Director of Resident Basic Science Education at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He is active in instructing orthopaedic surgeons and residents in the treatment of deformities, tumors, degenerative disease and trauma involving the spine. His particular area of interest is the treatment of cervical spine disease, degenerative spine disease and spine trauma. Dr. Dimar is actively involved with research. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on the treatment of spinal problems and has spoken widely at many national and international spine meetings. He is a member of the North American Spine Society, the Scoliosis Research Society and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery in which he has won both best clinical and research paper awards.  Dr Glassman is President of the Scoliosis Research Society and Professor of Orthopaedic surgery at the University of Louisville. He has held leadership positions in several major national spine societies, serving as Education Council Chair for the Scoliosis Research Society, as 2009 Program Chair for the North American Spine Society, and as Co-Chair of the Professional Society Coalition Task Force on Lumbar Fusion. Dr Glassman has also published extensively in major peer reviewed orthopedic and spine journals, including 12 first author publications between 2007 and 2009. The quality of these studies has been recognized with a series of national awards including the Whitecloud Award for Outstanding Clinical Paper at the International Meeting for Advanced Spine Techniques in both 2008 and 2009. He also received a Spine Journal Outstanding Paper Award in 2008, and was co-author of the Spine Journal Editor's Choice Award as the outstanding paper of the year in 2009. Additionally, Dr Glassman and the Leatherman research group have been recognized with multiple North American Spine Society Outstanding Paper Awards in 2008 and 2009 research.  Professor Ito works at the Department of Advanced Medicine for Spine and Spinal Cord Disorders, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. He has previously been on the Council of AOspine Japan and a member of AOspine knowledge forum deformity. Professor Ito is also a member of AO Research Review Board, a board member of Japanese Scoliosis Society and the Japanese Society for Spine Surgery and Related Research.  Dr Sethi is currently the head of spinal surgery at Virginia Mason Medical Center and clinical assistant professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is involved in several studies focusing on utilizing team approaches to mitigate risks in adult spinal deformity surgery and currently have 3 major grants to study system safety in adult spinal deformity surgery. Dr Sethi has presented at SRS and IMAST meetings on this in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and his research on coagulopathy in adult spinal deformity surgery was nominated for the Whitecloud clinical research award by the SRS in 2012.  Professor Wong heads the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. His practice is exclusively in Spine Surgery, and is one of the pioneers of minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery for the treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. He is an active member of the Scoliosis Research Society and the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine. He is also the immediate past Chairman of the Asia Pacific Spine Society; a Board Member of the International Society for the Advancement of Spinal Surgery; and the Pacific Asian Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery. In recognition of his contributions in the field of spinal surgery, Professor Wong was awarded the National Outstanding Clinician Award by the Ministry of Health of Singapore in 2012. | ||
