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SCI Care: What Really Matters
SCI Care: What Really Matters
2nd ISCoS International Regional Symposium : Sharing world knowledge for practical advancements
The Vison of ISCoS is to "facilitate healthy and inclusive lives for people with spinal cord injury or dysfunction globally". Partnership and collaboration is key in helping us to realise this vision. We are delighted that we have been able to partner with Wellspect to deliver, in addition to a number of webinars and podcasts, educational support for the ISCoS International Regional Symposia.
In this webinar, the 2nd ISCoS International Regional Symposium - Sharing world knowledge for practical advancements will be discussed by the panel:
Dr. Ronald Reeves, MD , Chair of the ISCoS Education Committee,
Dr. Francois Theron, MBChB, MMed, Chair of the ISCoS Affiliated Societies and Networks Committee
Professor Moon Suk Bang, MD, Phd, Seoul National University College of Medicine and Chair of the Local Organising Committee.
The panel highlight the work of the Korean Spinal Cord Society and spinal cord Injury care in Korea and discuss the work of the ISCoS Regional Symposia Initiative to promote multi-disciplinary, integrated care and training, the comprehensive care for which ISCoS is well known, within affiliated societies and regional networks.
The opinions of our host and guests are their own; ISCoS does not endorse any individual viewpoints, given products or companies.
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The SCI Care: What Really Matters podcast aims to provide valuable insights and the most up-to-date information for those providing care to people with spinal cord injury (SCI) worldwide. The vision of the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) is to "facilitate healthy and inclusive lives for people with spinal cord injury or dysfunction globally".
Contact us directly with any questions or comments at iscos@associationsltd.co.uk
It's an honor to be able to participate in this webinar today as part of the ISCAS Spinal Cord Injury Webinar Care Platform, and my name is Ron Reeves.
Speaker 1:I'm a rehabilitation physician at Mayo Clinic, and it's my honor today to welcome two distinguished guests Dr Francois Throne, from South Africa, who is at the MuleMed Hospital and the University of Pretoria, as well as Professor Bang, who is at the Seoul National University College of Medicine, and he's also the president of the NAPA. We're talking about the second ISCAS regional symposium, which will occur in Seoul, south Korea, the end of the month of June, and the purpose of the webinar is to highlight the fantastic work that's going on with the Korean Spinal Cord Association, the history of spinal cord care in Korea, and also emphasize ISCAS's regional symposia that will be going on in the years ahead as well, and so first I'd like to invite Professor Bang to make some comments introducing his center, the hospital and the Korean Spinal Cord Network, and I thank you very much, professor Bang and the Korean Spinal Cord Network, and I thank you very much, professor Bang, for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for your introduction. Let me briefly introduce the Korean Society of Spinal Cord Society. In Korea, spinal Cord Society was established in year 2000, 24 years ago. Efforts of physicians including physiatrists, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons and urologists. The number may be 30 or so, but annually we expanded and now we have annual meetings each year and we have a review course for the resident physicians and elite health personnel every year. This year the total number of members almost 1,000 members, including rehabilitation physicians, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, and recently we involved other elite health personnel including physical therapists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, social workers and nurses. So I'm happy to hold the second regional symposium for Seoul capital. Thank you.
Speaker 1:And, as I understand it, your hospital is quite large with, I think, almost 200 beds. Is that correct? Maybe tell us a bit about your hospital as well. It's really an outstanding center.
Speaker 2:Yes, I belong to Seoul National University Hospital. It's the largest medical college in Korea. We have a main hospital, which has more than 2,000 beds, in capital Seoul, and we have another general hospital near Seoul. I'm the chief of rehabilitation hospital, which have more than 230 beds specialized in trauma rehabilitation, including spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury and amputation.
Speaker 1:So really an amazing array of resources, and we're honored to be able to partner with the Korean Spinal Cord Society to host this regional symposium, the second one in South Korea. Dr Throne, you share a little bit about ISCAS's history with regional development and partnering with centers and regional societies.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you, dr Reeves, and it's truly an honor that we've come this far to actually start presenting the second regional symposium. I think ESCOS has a long history of actually having close relations with all its affiliated societies. Currently I chair the Affiliated Societies and Networks Subcommittee of ESCOS and we have 19 official societies that are associated or affiliated with ESCOS. The need for regional symposia has developed over the last couple of years because we've realized that, although ESCOS is well known for the annual scientific meeting, this is a high-powered, very scientific meeting that promotes new research in the field of spinal cord injury care, but a lot of the actual work that makes a difference to our patients happens within our affiliated societies and networks.
Speaker 3:The need for diversifying and spreading the content of multidisciplinary care and more integrated care has become more apparent the world over and we would like to promote also the comprehensive care, of which ESCOS is well known, on a regional basis.
Speaker 3:To do that, the regional symposia became an obvious tool.
Speaker 3:To achieve this, we had, during the pandemic, a very successful meeting and regional symposium, which was the first one held in the Caribbean and South America which was well attended and it was a very successful meeting and from the success of that meeting.
Speaker 3:We have partnered with certain partners that enable us to, over the next couple of years on, hopefully, a six-monthly basis, hold regional symposia in partnership with our affiliated societies to spread the news and the knowledge of ESCOS to the globe as such. Therefore, professor Bang very kindly agreed with the Korean society to be the second partner with ESCOS in holding a regional symposium in the Eastern Asian region, so that we can develop and strengthen the systems and make known what the excellent work is that happens in our regional areas. The future, hopefully, will involve symposia that will be held in Eastern Europe towards the end of the year and, provisionally, we will have further symposia in 2025, hopefully in Africa and South America again. Again, the aim being that we want to involve and partner with regional societies to emphasize the core values of ESKOS, of which education is definitely part.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. One of the things that I've been super impressed with by virtue of having the opportunity to spend some time in Mongolia is the tremendous regional outreach that the South Korean centers have done over time in the region as well, and I'm wondering, Professor Bang, if you could share just some of the philosophy of the Korean Spinal Cord Society and the academic rehabilitation practice as it relates to training regional partners in other countries as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, korea has a specific history because when I started my work, late 1980s and early 1990s, korea is a transition period of a low-middle-income country. Now Korea has become a high-income country. But East Asia the economic status has a very broad spectrum from low-income to high-income. So Korean academy and many of the Korean institutions of medical colleges have a policy to share knowledge to the developing countries in this region, including Mongolia. One of the specific our philosophy is that still Korea and Japan in high advanced country in this region. Still we are a lack of experience of comprehensive management, especially for the elite health personnel like physical therapists and nurses and social workers and clinical psychologists. So we should learn much from the European country and United States and Australia and Australia, but in some parts in medical field our medical skill and research is far advanced in this region. So our goal is importing the advanced Norwegian experience from the Western countries and spread this knowledge to the regional area, which is the lack of resources.
Speaker 2:And another point is that in East Asia, including Korea and Japan, our incidence of degenerative spinal disease is very high among the countries, including many European countries. Japanese doctors and Korean doctors have much more experience about the management of, including ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament and cervical alternative disease, which is not the traumatic cases, non-traumatic myelopathy. So it is very in this symposium we will deal with those kinds of topics and high-admiss knowledge, including therapists, nurses and psychologists, from many experienced experts including United States, australia and Europe countries. So this symposium will give Korean people to share knowledge and also it is a chance to spread this kind of management system and knowledge to the developed country. Lower lack of resources Usually they are very hard to participate in East Coast annual meeting and after the meeting far from their country. So it will be a great chance for them, with a short trip, to learn much from the East Coast members.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think. As I understand it, the participants in the upcoming seminar are coming from several countries in the region and, as I believe also was the case for the first regional seminar as well. Dr Throne, you had mentioned that an upcoming regional symposium in Eastern Europe, but I believe there's plans to continue the regional symposium, potentially targeting a wider array of potential participants in other areas as well. Could you maybe speak to the kind of ISCAS's long-range perspective on this activity, both its historic support of developing centers and perhaps what it hopes to see in the years ahead?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that obviously we have a unique opportunity because we have a unique pool of knowledge in our society, and the opportunity that exists is for us to develop networks, which often we have to remember that spinal cord injury competes with other conflicting, perhaps more well-known disease entities in the developing world, with infectious diseases and things like that. So we compete with a wider range of other healthcare needs to get appropriate training and often the people that work in countries or in developing countries are not attached to specific centers. They might be few and far between, especially if we look at areas like Africa where centers for the management of spinal cord injury and the comprehensive management of spinal cord injury do not necessarily exist. We also know that often in countries there's too few people to justify a society, such as the Korean society, to develop and train people. So the idea of networks has came up and we have very successful networks within ESCOS, the longest serving one being the South American network, where several countries actually band together and form a network that spreads the knowledge. Onas is the Asian Spinal Cord Injury Network that has been going for a number of years and have regional meetings each year and those are actually bring together people from countries where they might not be in within a country, a regional society, society and I think the success of the African Spinal Cord Injury Network over the last couple of years also attests to this that bringing people together, even though they might not be huge in number, they have a huge passion and they have huge knowledge about what the local needs are and what the local societies and local perspectives are.
Speaker 3:Because obviously local societies and local perspectives are, because obviously you can't always transplant all the knowledge that exists in the developed world, in Europe or in America, directly into a developing situation, for instance in Africa or certain parts of Asia.
Speaker 3:So the idea, I think, is again to make people talk to each other, to exchange knowledge, to exchange the experience.
Speaker 3:One can often learn from local people how they've addressed the challenges that they see in their setting very much more eloquently than just transplanting whatever knowledge is gained or what we often think of as the standard of care.
Speaker 3:Having said that, there is a standard that we have to adhere to and I think we have to aspire to as developing countries, to achieve those standards to the benefits of our passion. So the idea behind, I think, in the future and what the history of ESCOS has shown us, is to break down barriers, to break down separation between different societies and countries and to learn from each other. And that's where these regional symposia become so invaluable, because it gives people from a specific geographical area with similar challenges the opportunity to speak to each other, to learn from each other and to share their best practice guidelines. I think the future at this stage we know about the situation in Eastern Europe and that would be a next focus after this second regional symposium is to get people on the ground in Eastern Europe talking to each other and solving problems for their patients in that area and then hopefully, if things go according to plan, to have similar meetings in Africa and South America to actually see if we can get people talking and sharing their knowledge.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. And certainly one of the things that I also very much appreciate about ISCAS and the regional symposiums is the opportunity to learn from regional experts that have expertise that sometimes we don't necessarily see. And so, as Professor Bang highlighted, the expertise with degenerative cervical myelopathy and ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament tremendous opportunity for those of us traveling to Korea to learn from their expertise, and just as we've learned from expertise of management of TB spine from colleagues in other parts of the world that see that more. Professor Bang, you highlighted some of the key aspects of the symposium in terms of the clinicians coming from Europe and North America, highlighted some talks in terms of spinal cord stimulation. I believe it's a two-day symposium and there are some other aspects to the symposium as well. Maybe could you highlight some of the other lectures that will be going on that may be of interest to the webinar viewership.
Speaker 2:Yes, our viewership. Yes, at first Professor Seron suggested me to hold a symposium. I'm considering what kind of topic we should deal with. There is, for example, in East Asia, basic introduction of the Beijing for the early health personnel may be important, but some experts want to update the recent research in the field of spinal cord injury. In today's symposium we mixed up the updated knowledge, including spinal cord stimulation and autonomic dysfunction, and the intrinsic carbapropan therapy was specific, and also we included general knowledge about practice in physical therapy in western country, occupational therapy in western countries and the role of nurses in Western countries.
Speaker 2:Because still in Japan and Korea and Taiwan, which is one of the high-income countries in East Asia, but still our system is not sufficient for the elite health personnel like those people. So another point is that the actual history and their talk of people with spinal cord injury in this country who have been injured in this country and lived as people with spinal cord injury more than 20 years and more than almost 30 years in a very dynamic country like Korea when they got injured we have still in Korea. It is very hard to get motorized wheelchair at the time, but now he or she can afford a motorized wheelchair with universal health coverage. So their frank talk will be much valuable for the people from many countries. They will have the same experience when the economy will change. I think maybe the characteristics of this symposium in East Asia.
Speaker 3:I want to chip in here and just thank Professor Vang for actually compiling this program so well and after having been put under pressure to do so, because I think there's a unique opportunity, as we see that the whole world economy is busy growing and that there are many countries that are going through this transition from, as you say, low middle-income countries. Hopefully, a lot of our affiliates will actually experience the same thing that you've experienced in the last 30 years in transitioning to a more developed economy, and the pitfalls as well as the exciting opportunities that they are in such a transition, I think, in providing comprehensive care is huge, and I think the important other point that you've already made, professor Banning, is that you have managed to involve the whole team around the program and there's an opportunity for everybody to learn something from each other. So thank you very much for the comprehensive program, and squeezing it all into two days has been quite remarkable.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm particularly impressed with is that in two days, you managed to cover everything from the fundamentals of bedside care, neurogenic bladder, neurogenic bowel, tendon transfers really every aspect of spinal cord care is touched upon, and so there'll be something for everyone there, as I also understand that the people with lived experience with spinal cord injury and the consumer groups are also particularly robust and involved and support the care and advocacy, and so that's another kind of tremendous highlight of the experience in South Korea, and I wonder if there's anything that we should highlight for the webinar viewers just in terms of the people with lived experience and the size and the activity of those organizations in South Korea as well.
Speaker 2:The costing body in Korea is Korean Spinal Cord Society and the Korean Association of People with Spinal Cord Injury will cause this symposium. Unfortunately, this meeting was planned in April, but because of a special situation in Korea the doctor's strike it has postponed in June, so also venue have been changed. At first the venue was the place in center of the capital, seoul, just near the place of the Korean Association of People with Spinal Cord Injury. My first intention is that as many as people with spinal cord injury will also participate and discuss as attendee of this symposium.
Speaker 1:And I know so. Example for Dr Throne in some parts of the world where there aren't well-developed systems of care, actually the providers sometimes are local health advocacy experts and people with lived experience and peers, and so there's a lot that we could learn from the well-developed system in South Korea and certainly looking forward to highlighting that as well.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I think that's the beauty of these regional symposia is that you get a different perspective. I think if we look at Africa, certain countries, there are very little professional people being doctors, nurses, the multidisciplinary team in providing care, and a lot of the care is actually done by peer supporters and peer groups. So I think empowering those groups and learning from the Korean experience and perhaps building networks and links with these local peer supporters in future will be an invaluable resource and the regional networks, as facilitators in this, have a huge role to play to address the needs of people on the ground.
Speaker 1:I think as I can't emphasize enough I'm deeply grateful to you both and your teams for all the planning and the hard work that's gone into this regional symposium. Despite the fact there are a couple of bumps along the way, as Professor Bang alluded to, it's really going to be a fantastic symposium. I'm disappointed that I'm not able to be there in person, but I'm thrilled that you're able to be there, francois. I'm wondering, as we think about wrapping up the webinar here, if there are any final comments that you want to share from your individual perspectives.
Speaker 3:If you don't mind, I'll go first, professor Bang. I'm hugely excited by traveling. It's a unique opportunity. It's a long way for me to go, but it's going to be a huge experience for me and I can't wait. With all the hard work you and your team have put in, professor Bang, the program looks fantastic. The registrations are what I gather from organizers are going well, it's going well and there's people that will be there to share their ideas. I think I'm going to learn a lot, so I'm really excited and thank you for the opportunity. I'm sorry you won't be there, ron, but I'm glad that I will.
Speaker 2:I appreciate much both of you to support this regional symposium. Anyway, both of you are very busy person. So at first in scheduled meeting in April France won't come, but after we postponed the meeting, rowan you won't come. But anyway, both of you are very busy person. Asian network already exists but the Asian network is usually South Asia meeting in India, pakistan, bangladesh, myanmar and Thailand and other countries. They're very relatively. They are close countries to India, bangladesh and Thailand because it's a long way if they want to go. But even in Korea, korea is a peninsula but because of North Korea it's like an island, so they should travel using a plane. I realize that Seoul, korea, is not the easy way to travel from the viewpoint of our colleague from East Asia. Anyway, if we can prepare next symposium, we'll think about the comfort of attendees and participants. Next symposium will be better and better, I think.
Speaker 3:I think there's a huge opportunity, and I think the important thing for us is also to highlight the different aspects of Asia. If you come from outside the region, you don't have a clear understanding of what the differences necessarily are, but I think ISCOS has a long history, with societies in East Asia and Japan and Korea definitely being part of it, and that's why it's very important for us to focus on that region as well and make sure that the excellent work that you have been doing there gets the necessary attention. So thank you, professor Bain.
Speaker 1:Certainly from a world population point of view, it's pretty important for us to attend to supporting our colleagues in Asia, given just the enormous needs that are across the continent. And if it weren't for a graduation that I should be attending, I would definitely be there. And again, I'm sorry that I can't be, but really appreciate all the work that both of you have done and I think this is going to be a fantastic symposium coming up here at the end of June. So thank you both for your time and participating in the webinar today. Fantastic two-day symposium in Seoul, South Korea, coming up in just a couple of weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I also thank you both of you for your tremendous support. We did a lot of Zoom meetings very early in the morning in the United States and late evening in Korea and lunch time in South Africa. I really appreciate your support during the preparation of this wonderful symposium.
Speaker 1:Thank you, and ISKAS definitely appreciates everything the Korean society has done. You've really done an enormous amount of work as a society and thank you for your dedication to the needs of the patients and the region, and I think with that we will conclude. Thank you.