Spine

Private equity has the potential to help keep spine practices independent, but it doesn't come without risk, according to Kornelis Poelstra, MD, PhD, of the Robotic Spine Institute of Silicon Valley in Los Gatos, Calif.

A 500-pound man with debilitating back pain was turned away from four spine surgeons in Ohio before Minnesota neurosurgeon Hamid Abbasi, MD, PhD, agreed to take on the case with a unique approach.

 John Berry-Candelario, MD, was hired at Novant Health Spine Specialists - Ballantyne in Charlotte, N.C., the health system said June 15.

Two surgeon-owned centers and three more spine practices to know:

Neurosurgeon Dave Atteberry, MD, is competing against two other physicians for a position as chief medical officer on the Yakima (Wash.) Health District Board of Health, according to YakimaHerald.com.

A lawsuit over Aetna Life Insurance's spine surgery coverage that was originally dismissed in 2019 will now go forward, according to a motion granted June 11.

Ernest Braxton, MD, has laid out three key advantages of awake spinal fusion, a procedure that he first performed in 2016, Summit Daily reported June 14.

An editorial in the Journal of Pain Research is supporting updated terminology for patients with chronic spine pain.

From new leadership appointments and partnerships, here's what major spine and orthopedic organizations did in the first half of 2021:

The implementation of sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms has the potential to transform how spine surgeons approach preoperative clinic visits and guide decisions based on predictive models.