Early Onset Scoliosis (ePub)

Dr. Ahmad has been active in spinal orthopedic education initiatives, both locally and globally. In Palestine he has trained residents in the orthopedic residency program beside being a member of the orthopedic committee of the Palestinian Board for 9 years. He also became head of the orthopedic program at the Palestine International Cooperation Agency (PICA), in charge of developing a Pediatric Spine Surgery Program in Mozambique and Nicaragua as well as pediatric spine missions in Pakistan and Rwanda. Globally, he is a member in the growing spine committee- (SRS), International Outreach Work Group- (NASS), education strategy task force- (AO Spine), spine committee chair and secretary general of World Orthopedic Concern (WOC)- (SICOT), COSECSA international fellow. In addition, he is involved in Weil Cornell Spine education program in Tanzania. He possesses a global vision and the ability and drive to collaborate with colleagues toward the development of education and training programs that can improve spine surgery services in countries with limited resources.

Dr. Aakash Agarwal

Aakash Agarwal, PhD, is the Director of Research at Spinal Balance Inc. (Toledo, USA) and an Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at University of Toledo (Toledo, USA). Dr. Agarwal is a prolific researcher in the field of preventive and predictive science of spinal pathology and postoperative complications, such as spinal deformity, surgical site infection, hardware failure, and spino-pelvic imbalance. Dr. Agarwal's primary expertise lies in new preventative measures to combat spinal surgery complications, including surgical site infection, and implant failures associated with early onset scoliosis. His major interests include translational research with immediate bench-to-bedside applicability. He has been a major contributor to several important projects that have been recognized as majorly significant. He uses combinatory knowledge of biomedical engineering, clinical medicine, mechanical engineering, and biomechanics to study surgical failures and new treatments to mitigate the risk of complications and infections. He is the inventor of a "two-step asepsis" process involving providing spinal implants in an individual-sterile tube, and a preloaded intraoperative sheath allowing implants to be handled hygienically, aimed at reducing surgical site infection and biofilm formation. Dr. Agarwal also have extensively explored the mechanism behind scoliosis spinal implants failure in children. Through human trial studies and biomechanical simulations, he identified the high failure rate of certain distraction-based rods and growth-guided systems and also provided guidelines on how to reduce such failure modes. Dr. Agarwal holds several national and international patents. He is an Editorial Board member for the journals Clinical Spine Surgery and Spine by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Dr. Agarwal also is an Advisory Board member for Center for the Disruptive Musculoskeletal Innovation (CDMI) under the aegis of the National Science Foundation (NSF).