President's Corner

By Glenn Rechtine, M.D.

I write this as my term as President of ASIA winds down to this year’s annual meeting in June. I am the first one year term ASIA President, and I must confess that when ASIA made the change from two year to one year terms for its officers, I wondered how much could be accomplished in such a short period of time. As my term comes to its conclusion, I find that my question has been more than answered.

ASIA has been very busy in the last twelve months. Committees have been working diligently to accomplish their assignments. The Board of Directors has made many decisions that will guide ASIA to future growth, our Director of Fundraising and Development, Scott Chesney, has been successful recruiting new ASIA Partners, and the management office in Atlanta, under the direction of Executive Director Lesley M. Hudson, has kept the association moving forward at a rapid pace.

Some highlights of this year have been:

• Continued work on the "International Standards Training eLearning Program (INSTeP)", under the leadership of William Waring, M.D., and Ron Reeves, M.D., co-chairs of the Training Subcommittee of the Standards Committee. This is the first educational offering of the newly created "ASIA Online Curriculum (AOC)". Consisting of 6 interactive modules, INSTeP will be available later this year.
  This effort is made possible through the support of a donation from Medtronic, and grants from The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation and from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.
• SCOPE: ASIA continues to lead the effort of the "Spinal Cord Outcomes Partnership Endeavor (SCOPE)", an academic-industry partnership dedicated to improving communication, assessing the state of the science, conducting educational workshops, and disseminating white paper position statements on outcomes measurement in spinal cord injury and disease research and treatment. For the third time, SCOPE presents a pre-course to this year’s annual meeting, entitled "Standards and Outcomes for Assessing SCI: Integrating into Clinical Trials."
• ASIA Partners: ASIA has revamped its fundraising program to attract corporate partners which endorse its mission and will participate in the achievement of its stated goals. The "ASIA Industry Advisory Council (IAC)" has been established to facilitate our relationship with these partners. The IAC consists of four senior members of ASIA, and representatives of our corporate partners. The IAC will have its first meeting at this year’s annual meeting.
• Membership Drive: ASIA faces a significant challenge to repopulate its membership. With the passage of time, many long term members are retiring, and as that natural process unfolds, it is critical that ASIA maintains its position in the field by attracting new members who will continue the work that is underway. The goal is to recruit 90 new members to ASIA by the end of calendar 2008. At this writing, 30 individuals have been accepted into membership. There is still much to be done. Every current member of ASIA must step up and recruit as many new members as possible in order for this drive to reach its goal. I encourage your active participation in this effort.
• Website: The ASIA website (www.asia-spinalinjury.org) continues to improve. It is the best source of information about the association, and I urge you to browse the site often, and share the URL with your colleagues so that they can learn about ASIA.
• Awards: ASIA offers several awards for excellence. Among them are: The Nader Award, which will be given for the fifth and final time at the 2008 annual meeting. This rewards a breakthrough achievement in neuroscience research. The Synthes Award, given to the surgeon in training whose abstract for the annual meeting receives the highest score from the Program Committee. The Apple Award, in its second year, is presented for excellence in publishing in spinal cord rehabilitation. The Best Published Article by a Member Award is selected from articles published in the previous year. And finally, three awards are given for Best Oral Presentation and three awards for Best Poster Presentation at the annual meeting.
  Beginning in 2009, two new awards will be added -- The Sam Schmidt Paralysis Research Award and the Research Award of Distinction. The former will be presented under the auspices of The Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation, to recognize excellence in SCI research. The latter will be presented by ASIA, for outstanding contributions to the body of SCI research in a specific specialty area.
• Annual Meeting: Highlights of this year’s meeting include the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to J. Darrell Shea, M.D. Dr. Shea is a founding member of ASIA, and served as its fifth president (1985-1987). An orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Shea was instrumental in laying the foundation of ASIA’s decades long achievements in standards for neurological classification. This year’s Sell Lectureship, the twenty-seventh, will be given by Mark H. Tuszynski, M.D., Ph.D. of the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Tuszynski’s topic is: "Enhancing Plasticity and Regeneration After SCI: Challenges of Clinical Translation." Several innovations will debut at this year’s meeting, including 90 minute Best Practice and Expert Panel sessions, and electronic poster presentations.

This has been a very busy year, as you can see. These are exciting times for ASIA, and I am gratified to have served as President at this critical juncture. I want to offer my sincere thanks to all who have contributed to ASIA’s continuing success, and extend my support to Amie B. Jackson, M.D. as she assumes the presidency.