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Medtronic, the sole Platinum Level exhibitor in Carlsbad, deserves the Western's thanks for making the meeting a success.
We hope our members will support the companies that support the Western.
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1st Call for Abstracts
Andrew Little, MD, Scientific Program chairman for the 2017 meeting has issued the first call for abstracts. He and his committee will welcome abstracts by members and guests, candidates for membership and residents. Instructions for submitting abstracts are located on the WNS Website at: westnsurg.org/forms_documents.asp
In addition to the Cloward Medal talk and Ablin lecture (see below), Dr. Little plans invited talks on Trump and the Neurosurgeon by Katie Orrico,
Spine Outcomes and Databases by Matthew McGirt, controversies in Peripheral Nerve Surgery and controversies in Spinal Deformity Surgery plus the usual resident award presentations in basic and clinical science (which include travel and accommodations for the resident and spouse/friend).
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CLOWARD MEDAL 2017
Volker K.H. Sonntag, MD, FACS
Dr. Sonntag was born in Germany in 1944 but immigrated to the USA as a youngster and became a US citizen in 1965 while he was getting his B.S. degree from Arizona State University which he completed in 1967. He moved cross state to rival University of Arizona for medical school and internship. Taking an even bigger step, he went cross country to Tufts in Boston to train under Ben Stein in neurosurgery which he completed in 1977. Too much an Arizonan, he returned home to Phoenix and did private practice until snapped up by the Barrow Neurological Institute in 1983 where he practiced and did research predominantly on spinal surgery until 2009 when he retired.
His years at the BNI fit him well as he eschewed administrative activities and paperwork and was allowed to do what he loved, namely spine surgery and clinical research and carved out a national reputation for spinal surgical excellence especially in the cervical spine. He ended up authoring over 450 papers and 100 book chapters and editing 5 textbooks. At a time when orthpods with one year of spinal surgical training were holding themselves out as God’s gift to the spine, through his complex spine techniques, novel instrumentation and writings and conducting educational courses at the AANS, CNS and Joint Spine Section, Dr. Sonntag led the charge to train neurosurgeons as premier spine surgeons capable of complex surgery of the entire spine. He has been a force for creating neurosurgical subspecialization via his roles in the Society of Neurological Surgeons and on the Committee on Advanced Surgical Techniques.
Volker was a member of the WNS from 1992 until 1998 when he, because of his extremely busy schedule, could not make our meetings regularly and was dropped from membership, an occurrence that has since been changed so a member now can become inactive for a time rather than our losing him/her altogether. Some of his busyness was due to his leadership roles in the North American Spine Society (President), AANS (Vice-President and Professional Conduct Committee), Academy of Neurological Surgeons (President), the ABNS (Director and chair of the Recertification Committee) and Neurosurgery Resident Review Committee (6 years). He was the Honored Guest of the CNS in 2002 and has been chairman of the JNS and JNS:Spine editorial board.
Retirement is a relative term when applied to Dr. Sonntag. To this day he still serves on several editorial boards, teaches and lectures, gives courses and has been a visiting Professor at 73 institutions with more scheduled. His wife Lynne has stuck with him for 43 years and bore him three children: Alissa (now 38 and living in Dana Point, CA with her husband Tyler and Volker’s two grandchildren), Chris (35) and Stephen (26). Little surprise that the Sonntags have a home in coastal Dana Point to enjoy grandchildren and a clime a bit cooler than Phoenix in summer.
Volker has written a book entitled “Backbone” which is sub-titled “The life and game-changing career of a spinal neurosurgeon” with a scheduled publication on May 2nd, 2017 and available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble. No shock then that the title of his Cloward presentation at our meeting in Banff will be “The Journey of Spinal Neurosurgery in the US”.
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ARBOR--Gold level support of the 2016 meeting
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George Ablin Memorial Lecture 2017
The Ablin Lecture at each annual meeting affords the President the opportunity to present speakers on topics often unrelated to neurosurgery. The lecture honors the memory of George Ablin and his contributions to neurosurgery in general and the Western in particular. This year’s lecturer is Lucy Kalanithi, MD, whose reflections on her experience as a spouse of a neurosurgeon who succumbed to lung cancer hold some insights for us all, members and spouses alike.
Lucy Goddard Kalanithi did her undergraduate work at Dartmouth followed by 2 years as a research assistant then Medical School at Yale where she met her husband Paul; they married in their senior year. She and Paul then were off to the bay area for her Internal Medicine residency at UCSF and him for neurosurgery training at Stanford. Following her residency and 2 years as a Kaiser doc, she did a fellowship at Stanford on healthcare delivery innovation for CV disease then joined the Stanford faculty where she is today as a clinical assistant professor.
It was while she was in her fellowship that Paul, in his chief resident year, developed the cancer which took his life in March of 2015. His account of the cancer experience is poignantly detailed in his book “When Breath Becomes Air” which was published posthumously in 2016 and spent some 22 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Lucy wrote the epilogue.
Dr. Kalanithi’s presentation at our meeting, “When Breath Becomes Air: Book by Paul; Reflection by me“ will be a short address followed by a moderated question and answer opportunity which she feels is a format that lets the topics range a bit more widely while bringing an intimacy to the presentation.
The book is available at Amazon and bookstores and certainly worth a read. Those spouses who read the book and would like to submit a question for Dr. Kalanithi to address can send their query to this editor at
rws-avopro@sbcglobal.net.
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IN MEMORIUM
Bill Kelly, MD
1927-December 18, 2016
William Albert Kelly was a mentor, a friend and a stalwart WNS member over the years and served as WNS Secretary/Treasurer from 1970-1972 and President in 1980. He and his wonderful wife Joan were a constant fixture at WNS meetings for some three decades. Like all too many of us as we age, Bill developed a number of physical infirmities that limited playing his beloved sport of golf and an ischemic stroke really slowed him down. Post stroke, his mind and speech were clear and he still tended to his correspondence which included maintaining his Senior membership in the WNS. He did not feel comfortable traveling so no more WNS meetings. More recently he suffered from a failing memory that led to his failure to pay his WNS dues and so he was dropped from membership. This writer refuses to let him go without an appropriate recognition of his passing by the neurosurgical society he loved so much.
Bill was born in Cincinnati to Al and Margie Kelly and was always proud of his Irish heritage. He was a successful athlete in high school, lettering in football, basketball and track in 1945. After a brief stint in the Navy, he went on to Ohio Wesleyan University where he met Joan and they were married in 1952 while he was in medical school at the University of Cincinnati. His neurosurgical residency was with Art Ward (another WNS President) in Seattle at the University of Washington following which he stayed on as a faculty member there until his retirement in 1990. He served as Chairman of the Department after Dr. Ward stepped down until Dick Winn came on board.
Dr. Kelly was the consummate teacher and was responsible for introducing the operating microscope to his residents. He and Joan were known for an annual St. Patrick's Day get together for faculty and residents at their home in Lake forest Park. He was married to Joan for 61 years, a marriage that only ended with her death in 2013.
Though transplanted mid-westerners, Bill and Joan became inveterate Pacific NorthWesterners with Bill building a cabin near Steven's pass. They both snow skied, played tennis and a whole lot of golf at the Inglewood Country Club in Kenmore near their home.
Bill and Joan had two sons (which the residents came to know during those St. Patrick's Day events), Tim and Craig, who survive them along with five grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Bill's mind withstood the onslaught of his aging body but in the end the body outlasted his mind.
Godspeed old friend.
--R. Smith; Communications Committee
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2016 Annual Meeting Program on Website
For those of you who were unable to attend the annual meeting last year, the program booklet is available on our Website (westnsurg.org) as a pdf file you can download.
The program without the membership list is in the clear in the menu item "Meetings" under the 2016 listing.
If you want the complete program with all members listed with addresses and phone numbers and email address, it is located in the "Member Area Login" menu item. The password to gain access to this menu item is "Western".
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