SPINE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA

Transcription

1 SPINE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA MINUTES OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (FIRST BUSINESS MEETING) Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle, WA Saturday 28 April hours 1.0 PRESENT B. Slinger (President), P. Turner (Secretary), B. Ashman (Treasurer), N. Jones (President Elect) and 35 Members as listed in the Attendance book. 2.0 APOLOGIES Peter Lowthian, Bill Ryan, Peter Robertson, Nick Bogduk, Roy Carey, Bruce McPhee, Geoff Askin, Ron Beetham,? Atkinson and? Alan Crockard. 3.0 CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING It was proposed that the Minutes be accepted as a true and accurate record of the Annual General Meeting held at the Festival Centre, Adelaide, South Australia on Saturday 8 April Proposed: Gary Speck Seconded: Bryan Ashman This motion was passed 4.0 BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES There was no specific business arising from the previous Minutes, apart from those matters that will be discussed within the reports of the committees and subcommittees. 5.0 REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES 5.1 Rules Committee Gary Speck (Chairman, Rules Committee) indicated that the Committee had not been active in the last 12 months. The Membership gave no indication of new matters that they felt needed to be addressed by the Committee in the coming 12 months. 5.2 Scientific Program Committee

2 Rob Moore (Editorial Committee) indicated that he had tended a full report to the Executive. He acknowledged there had been some minor difficulties with the organisation of the Scientific Program, but was overall satisfied with the outcome. He indicated that it was an important part of the smooth organisation of the Scientific Program that all deadlines be strictly adhered to. The Chairman reported that he had been very happy with the activities of Wayne Taylor in the organisation of the current meeting and recommended that his services be utilised for the Melbourne meeting (2002). There were no voices in dissent to this suggestion. 5.3 Site Committee The meeting in 2002 is to be held in Melbourne. Arrangements are well in hand and Gary Speck made a short presentation on behalf of the local convenor (Roy Carey). A committee had already been formed and was working on preparations for this meeting. A questionnaire had been circulated to the membership seeking some indication of preference for activities to be organised in conjunction with the Scientific Program. On the recommendation of the Chair, Canberra was accepted as the venue for the meeting in Bryan Ashman would be the convenor. It was acknowledged that the Site Committee was currently not active, but the Chairman of the Nominating Committee was requested to seek a Member to be Chairman of this committee. The most immediate item of business for the new Chairman would be a recommendation for a site for the meeting in Membership Committee Orso Osti (Chairman) indicated that applications had been received and considered from 10 prospective members. The credentials of each applicant had been checked and the Committee was recommending that (names) be recommended for Membership. There was no discussion from the floor concerning any of the applicants. These names would be put to the Second Business Meeting for a final vote of acceptance. 6.0 REPORTS FROM SUBCOMMITTEES 6.1 Training Program in Spinal Surgery in Australia This Committee had not been active over the past 12 months. 6.2 Spinal Disability Assessment This Committee had not been active over the past 12 months. Michael Ryan, however, reported that the New South Wales Motor Accident Board had accepted the AMA Guides, with some modification by a local committee for assessing disability/impairment. It was anticipated that the Workers Compensation Authority would follow suit quite quickly. Barrie Slinger indicated that the

3 Supreme Court of Western Australia had recently decided that the use of the AMA Guides by the WorkCover Authority was illegal and that new legislation would be required to overcome this decision. 5.3 Quality Assurance No activity in the past 12 months. 5.4 Health Advisory Committee No activity over the last 12 months. 6.5? name of committee Professor Tom Taylor indicated that his Committee had met. The web page was now up and running. It was intended that the internet be used to allow downloading of brochures concerning spinal deformity, so that these might be accessible to Year 9 students. They were also working on an education program for radiologists. This program was nearly complete, but further discussion with the College of Radiology would be necessary before such a program could be included in the curriculum for trainee radiologists. 6.0 SPINAL RESEARCH AWARD The 4 papers that had been tended for this award had been presented during the course of the Scientific Program earlier in the day. Following completion of these presentations, the winner s cheque was presented to??adam, Pearcy and McCombe for their paper entitled Stress analysis of interbody fusion???a fin. methodology for modelling the inter-vertebral implant and vertebral body. 7.0 THE ROB JOHNSON AWARD It was confirmed that this would be for $1000 and a Selection Panel had been appointed. An announcement would be made at the end of the final presentation session to the winner. 8.0 MEDTRONIC SOFAMOR DANEK BEST PRESENTATION AWARD It was confirmed that this award was available to Members of the Society. A Selection Panel had been nominated and would announce their decision on completion of the Scientific Program. 9.0 DEPUY FELLOWSHIP It was confirmed to the Membership that there had been some delay in advertising this year s award because of difficulty in obtaining confirmation from DePuy that

4 the funds would be available. Correspondence had recently been received from DePuy Australia, indicating that funding would be available for the next 3 years. Advertisements had been placed in the NSA and AOA Bulletins and also circularized to all Members. The closing date would be 30 June 2001 and hopefully the decision would be able to be made shortly thereafter. It was still hoped that the successful applicant would be able to make at least a work-inprogress presentation to the next Scientific Meeting in Melbourne ELECTION OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE MEMBERS Ian Torode (Immediate Past President) advised that his Committee would comprise of Peter Woodland and John Tuffley. This was accepted without comment by the Membership CORRESPONDENCE 12.1 National Centre for Classification in Health seeking expressions of interest in the ongoing assessment of the ICD-10-AM. Members were advised that further information concerning this process would be provided in the next Newsletter. It was suggested that this was a very complex document and process. It would be difficult for the Spine Society as an organisation to deal with this matter, but it was acknowledged that individual Members may have a particular interest in this area and should be encouraged to pursue their concerns. The Executive would be happy to consider any direct proposals that may come from those interested Members Professor Peter Brookes, seeking a donation from the Society to help defray the cost of running the Bone & Joint Decade. Discussion from the floor indicated a wide range of views from the Membership concerning our involvement in this program. Rob Fraser pointed out that as an affiliate of the AOA we should be concerned with the possibility that we may in effect be contributing twice, as no doubt that organisation would have been approached for a contribution as well. Peter McCombe voiced a strong view that we should not be involved at all. In the end, a motion was put to the meeting that we do make a contribution and this was carried on the casting vote of the Chairman. On a show of hands it was agreed that the donation would be at $500 and that the Secretary would write to Professor Brookes along the lines recommended by the Executive. The Secretary should also seek from Professor Brookes an undertaking to provide regular updates on the programs that we being planned as part of the Bone & Joint Decade OTHER BUSINESS 12.1 Hospital Accreditation

5 The Chairman indicated that individual Members of the Society had been approached by private hospitals seeking some indication as to how they might best accredit people to their hospital with regard to performing major spinal surgery. This stimulated some discussion from the floor, but ultimately the Chairman s recommendation was accepted in that our position would be to suggest that it would be reasonable for hospitals to use similar criteria to that used by the Society to decide eligibility for Membership. At the conclusion of this discussion, Professor Tom Taylor did point out that credentialing was in fact the responsibility of each individual hospital and we should be very cautious about any direct involvement Secretariat The Chairman indicated that this had been discussed by the Executive and determined that at this point in time it was not a viable proposition. Robert Fraser did speak in favour of his earlier recommendation that this concept be pursued. Opinions from the floor were divided, but in the end it was decided that this matter would be put on hold, at least for the present Website Nigel Jones indicated that the Neurosurgical Society was already running its own web page and he was currently its manager. Setup and maintenance costs were reasonably low. Peter McCombe spoke in favour of the proposition, indicating that not only could it act as a noticeboard for the Society, but also as a means by which information and even interesting cases could be shared among Members. Chris Cain also spoke in favour of the suggestion, but indicated that ultimately the setup cost would reflect the quality of the page achieved. The more one was prepared to pay, the better would be the page. Ian Torode had already made some enquiries through his own hospital and it had been suggested that it would cost approximately $2000 to set up and should be able to be maintained for less than $2000 each year. In the end it was accepted that this would be an appropriate activity for the Society to consider and that it be further explored by the Executive. The meeting was closed at 1810 hours.