Top Award Granted to African Orthopedics Organization
The Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine (FOCOS), a nonprofit organization founded by the eminent Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, M.D., a native of Ghana, West Africa, has been recognized for its contribution towards the delivery of high quality orthopedic health care in Africa. FOCOS received the award at the recent African Governance & Corporate Leadership Forum, organized by the Institute for Governance Research Leadership and Technology, at the Nicon Luxury Hotel in Abuja, Nigeria. FOCOS patients range from ages 3 to 80+ with different economic backgrounds. They are not only from Ghana, but other countries, including Ethiopia, Haiti, U.S., the Philippines, and Albania.
Dr. Boachie-Adjei, president of FOCOS and CEO and medical director of the hospital, told OTW, “I am so grateful to the Boards and staff of FOCOS Ghana and USA, who have guided our vision to establish a sustainable infrastructure for orthopedic care and professional development in Ghana.”
“FOCOS was founded in 1998 and to date about 2, 200 major orthopedics surgeries including complex spine deformities, total joint replacement, trauma and general pediatric orthopedics procedures have been performed with well over 50, 000 patient reviews.”
”This award brings more credence to FOCOS as a center of excellence for orthopedic care especially in the area of spine and joint replacement surgery in West Africa. We have worked hard to establish this state of the art facility to deliver the highest quality, safe and affordable orthopedic care. To me personally it is a realization of the dream to bring optimal orthopedic services to Ghanaians and Africans as a whole.”
“We hope next year to serve more people in the West Africa sub-region who need complex spine and joint replacement surgery and train our first batch of residents in anesthesia and orthopedic surgery from the West Africa and the Ghana colleges of surgeons.”
NASS Selects Wetzel to Succeed Bono as President
F. Todd Wetzel, M.D., professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurosurgery at Temple University School of Medicine, is the new leader of the North American Spine Society (NASS). Dr. Wetzel, who accepted his new position at the 31st annual meeting of NASS, is an orthopedic surgeon who lives in Wilmington, Delaware and practices medicine in Philadelphia.
Dr. Wetzel has named several goals for his presidential year: Advance NASS’ reputation as the premier spine society; Maintain its leadership on ethical issues; Continuously improve the services NASS provides to members; Expand NASS’ widening international reach; Grow NASS’ advocacy efforts on behalf of patients and members.
Dr. Wetzel completed his undergraduate training at Harvard University then went on to obtain an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His postgraduate training included an orthopedic residency at Yale University, a postdoctoral fellowship in research (biomechanics) with Manohar Panjabi, Ph.D., also at Yale University, and a spine fellowship under the direction of the late Henry LaRocca, M.D., in New Orleans. He was awarded the NASS Henry Farfan Award for outstanding contributions to the field of spine care, in the areas of conservative care and biomechanics. His current research interests include disc biomechanics, the influence of activating factors on degeneration, ethics and conflict of interest in medical decision-making and evidence-based assessment of diagnostic and therapeutic spine care. Dr. Wetzel most recently served on the NASS Board of Directors as the First Vice President.
Dr. Wetzel told OTW, “To be the 33rd President of NASS is a tremendous privilege. As a long-standing member, I have been fortunate enough to see NASS grow form its humble roots to the preeminent spine society in the world. NASS is a leader in all aspects of spine care, clinical, research, educational, health policy and advocacy and ethics. In an era of changing paradigms in health care, leadership in these areas is important. Maintaining our primary focus on improving patient care is especially challenging as we transition to new delivery and reimbursement models. As such, an immediate goal is provider and patient education and aid during the transition to value based care.”
The CTGF Protein Missing Link to Spinal Cord Repair?
Many have read about the little fish that could…the zebrafish that can heal its spinal cord after being severed. Now, Duke University scientists have discovered that a particular protein, the CTGF protein is a key actor in this process.
Kenneth Poss, Ph.D., is professor of cell biology and director of the Regeneration Next initiative at Duke University. Dr. Poss told OTW, “Zebrafish possess an innate ability to regenerate after spinal cord injury. We wanted to understand how zebrafish repair their injured spinal cord, and to characterize the factors that drive this regeneration process. Profiling of the proteins that are expressed in the regenerating spinal cord led us to identify and characterize the pro-regenerative function of the CTGF [connective tissue growth factor] protein.”
Lead author Mayssa Mokalled, a postdoctoral fellow in Poss’s group, told OTW, “During the process of spinal cord regeneration in the zebrafish, an actual bridge forms. The first cells extend projections into a distance tens of times their own length and connect across much of the injury; then the nerve cells follow suit. At the eight-week mark, new nerve tissue has filled the gap and the paralysis has been completely reversed!”
Dr. Poss commented to OTW, “Our genome-wide screen from whole spinal cord tissue guided us to glial cells. Glial cells have been traditionally thought of as the scar-causing cells that present a roadblock for spinal cord repair. We were intrigued by a potential pro-regenerative role for zebrafish glial cells, particularly considering the negative effects of glial scarring after human spinal cord injury. The pro-regenerative function of the CTGF gene was also intriguing. This is a multifunctional gene that has been associated with both scarring and stem cell function. The enhanced regeneration we observed after supplying CTGF into the injured spinal cord was also striking.”
“Spinal cord injuries are complex conditions that will likely require a combination of treatment approaches, including surgical and bioengineering therapeutics. In parallel, developing molecular and cellular therapies that boost the endogenous regenerative capacity of the human spinal cord could contribute major therapeutic advances. We think that combined efforts from surgeons, bioengineers, cell and molecular biologists is key in this case.”
Asked what challenges lay ahead, Dr. Poss noted, “We don’t think CTGF is the complete answer to spinal cord repair. The injured mammalian spinal cord is a complex milieu that is composed of multiple cell types and extracellular proteins. One future challenge is to characterize the expression and function of the CTGF gene after mammalian spinal cord injury. However, it is likely that CTGF is insufficient to stimulate spinal cord regeneration on its own. Thus, we will continue to investigate mechanisms of glial bridging in zebrafish. Together, additional zebrafish and mammalian studies could inform new ways to manipulate glial cells after human spinal cord injury.”
