University of Calgary
Clinical Neurosciences
University of Calgary Spine Program
Overview
The spinal neurosurgery group has embraced minimally invasive techniques for spinal surgery and “bench to bedside” drug therapies for spinal cord injury and are leading the way in Canada for their application within clinical research-centered trials. Calgary is one of only two centres contributing to a national database of spinal cord injured patients. This centre has successfully launched a clinical trial in spinal cord injury based on preclinical work performed at the University of Calgary. We are also actively involved with two other industry initiated clinical trials in this disease. The outcome of this effort will be reduced post surgical lengths of stay, and reduced recovery time for patients.
The spine program is a combined fellowship program offering exposure to Orthopedic Spine and Neurosurgical spine. We are now in the 11th year of our official existence and have provided training to 4 fellows per year. Our staff has grown to 6 orthopedic spine surgeons and we are recruiting for an additional neurosurgical spine surgeon to complement the existing 3 neurosurgical spine surgeons.
Research
There are over 20 clinical trails ongoing within the program. The Odontoid screw study, Minocycline study, Bryan disc study and the Lumbar stenosis study have been underway for a number of years and are being finalized.
The Novartis SCI study, Bioset TLIF and P15 Bone putty studies are new for this year and have started enrolling patients.
The intrathecal morphine study, Cethrin study, Helmet study and the Traumatic SCI predictive index study are in undergoing through the review process.
New Developments
A number of new and exciting developments have taken place in the past year:
- Caleo Health Spine opened its doors in February 2008; this multidisciplinary spine clinic is offering a one stop spine service. Services offered include primary and secondary assessments and treatments by physiotherapists, chiropractors, medicals spine physicians as well as surgeons. This facility is geared to provide the full spectrum of spine care and rehabilitation.
- Spine Referral Project was started in the second part of 2008. The goal of this project is to improve access to spine care. The hiring of a medical spine physician has allowed for consistent flow of patients through the outpatient facilities on the 12th floor. This has enabled us to centralize the referral process and by utilize a prioritization tool developed by the spine program. The goal is to provide patients with timely access to appropriate care by the appropriate provider.
- Spine database expansion is planned for the next year with the goals being the capturing of all data from patients referred for spine care. This will involve a major expansion of our existing database infrastructure and would allow for an electronic web based process to integrate with the spine referral project. The database will be used to capture outcome data form surgical as well as non surgical patients and would provide us with the ability to track outcomes on a long term ongoing basis.
Team:
Updated: 2010-10-06
