Fall 2017 Issue
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President's Message
By Keith Tansey, MD, PhD
ASIA President
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| Keith Tansey, MD, PhD |
Well, it has been a busy six months for ASIA. We have gained a new Board member and are taking nominations for our next one. We have negotiated a new and improved contract with our management company, Ruggles Service Corporation, for the next two years. Our committees have completed a review of our Strategic Plan from two years ago and made new goals for this year and next. Our ISNCSCI Training Program continues to develop and will soon be contracting with outside entities to conduct training of the exam. This will be a great product for our brand and potentially a lucrative one!
The planning for our 2018 Annual Meeting is well underway and it has been a record year for submissions. We had 152 oral, poster or case report abstracts submitted, in addition to 43 courses. These were reviewed by the Program Committee and notices will be sent soon to submitters. The program this year will feature five parallel tracks from basic science through ethics and legislative policy and everything SCI in between. The program is a great balance of topics and formats with something for everyone. The program committee is also working on identifying orienting “tracts” within the program for newcomers, for scientists wanting to learn about the clinical world and for clinicians wanting to learn more about basic and translational research in SCI. We will again have our Round Tables of topical discussions for different clinicians and researchers, integrated across the spectrum of training and some new working groups to craft branding of ASIA for target audiences like therapists and biomedical engineers. This year, we will also have expanded mentoring, including a “Morning Coffee with the Professor” event where junior members can get some one-on-one time with leaders in the field. The Mayo Clinic will be offering a precourse on non-traumatic myelopathy and we will hear from luminaries like Zev Rymer, Mary Bunge, Lisa Harvey and Wolfram Tetzlaff. We also look forward to oral and poster award winners, a Neilsen Award winner, and the first in Fellows of ASIA (FASIA) Award.
In 2018, we announce recipients of the inaugural Mulcahey and TRoHNS awards. The Mulcahey Award, named after MJ Mulcahey, ASIA’s former President, will be given for the best abstract in the field of outcome measurement (or outcomes research) in spinal cord injury rehabilitation. The TRoHNS Award, sponsored by ASIA's current President, Keith Tansey, will be given for the best abstract submitted to the annual ASIA conference by a clinician or scientist involved in translational research or human neuroscience studies in spinal cord injury.
Finally, as we enter this time of Thanksgiving, I also hope the entire ASIA family can take a moment to give thanks for what we have and for the opportunity we get to serve our fellow professionals and those with spinal cord injuries.
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ASIA 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting
May 2-4, 2018
Mayo Civic Center
Rochester, Minnesota