SRS

Scoliosis Research Society Funds more than $8 million for Spine Deformity Research

It’s oft repeated at the SRS that “research is our middle name.” But it’s also more than a cheeky catch phrase, it’s a mission. Our primary focus is on providing continuing medical education for health care professionals and on funding/supporting research in spinal deformities.

To support this mission, the society funds a variety of grants every year. In 2025 we funded more than $894,000 in grants dedicated to spine research, our highest single year award total ever. And with this year’s recipients, we have awarded 231 grants since 1994, totaling more than $8.2 million.

In addition, our members are prolific researchers themselves. The member-led Adult Symptomatic Lumbar Scoliosis II Study was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Funding was also provided by the SRS and several of the SRS industry partners and the International Spine Study Group.

“The more than $8 million in funding from the SRS has supported hundreds of basic and clinical studies across the spectrum of spinal deformity,” said Justin Smith, MD, PhD, SRS Research Council Chair. “Collectively, these studies have had far reaching impact on our understanding of spinal deformity and on the care and quality of life of the patients affected.”

The society has funded spinal deformity research projects from the institutions all over the world, including the United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Spain and the Netherlands. These have included studies on improved spinal cord monitoring during surgery, brace treatment effectiveness, methods to improve fusion rates, and three large studies looking for the cause of idiopathic scoliosis.

For more information on SRS Grant opportunities, visit our website. To contribute to grant research funding, review all the ways you can donate to SRS at www.srs.org.

Adult Symptomatic Lumbar Scoliosis II Study Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association

The study, Long-Term Outcomes of Operative Versus Nonoperative Treatment for Adult Symptomatic Lumbar Scoliosis (ASLS): Durability of Treatment Effects and Impact of Related Serious Adverse Events Through 8-Year Follow-Up, was published in the Journal on April 2, 2025.

According to the abstract, “In this as-treated analysis of combined randomized and observational cohorts of 286 enrolled patients from an ASLS study, operative treatment was associated with significantly greater improvement in patient-reported outcome measures compared with nonoperative treatment at eight years. The favorable outcomes of operative over nonoperative treatment at eight years remained at least as favorable as at two years and at five years after treatment.

Results suggest that the significantly greater improvement of operative vs nonoperative treatment for ASLS was durably maintained at eight-year follow-up.”

This study was also the recipient of the prestigious Russell Hibbs Award at the 2024 Annual Meeting in Barcelona. The Russell A. Hibbs Society was formed in 1947 as an international travel club for continuing medical education and furthering orthopaedic knowledge. Hibbs Society holds an educational meeting at the SRS Annual Meeting to address difficult and complex issues that do not lend themselves to the usual kind of scientific presentations.

Listen to the interview with some of the paper authors on Scoliosis Dialogues: An SRS Podcast. 

To bring the study to its full eight-year follow-up allowing for the JAMA publication, funding was provided by the SRS and several of the SRS industry partners and the International Spine Study Group. The SRS community and the study investigators appreciate the additional investments provided above and beyond their support of SRS, made by Globus Medical, K2M/Stryker Spine, Medtronic, NuVasive, and Zimmer Biomet.

According to their website, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association. It covers various aspects of the medical field and has been in publication since 1883. JAMA is one of the most widely circulated medical journals in the world.

Scoliosis Research Society Launches a New SRS Asia Pacific Meeting

Billed as For the Region, By the Region, this meeting will be February 6-7, 2026, in Fukuoka, Japan. To really highlight the regional focus, submitted abstracts will have a senior author and/or presenting author and a majority of co-authors from the regions of Asia and/or Oceania. 

The program will be inclusive of spine deformity issues and feature the latest in innovative approaches and technology on topics including Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis, Kyphosis, Basic/Translational Science, Cervical Deformity, Non-Operative Treatment Methods and Early Onset Scoliosis. 

“The Scoliosis Research Society is the premier society for Deformity Surgeons and Researchers. This inaugural meeting signifies the importance of collaborating with our Deformity colleagues in the Asia Pacific Region,” said meeting co-chair Brian Hsu, MD. “Through this meeting, we hope to bring together National Spine Societies in the region and individual research centres and hospitals to elevate the importance of Spine Deformities, Scoliosis and its related Research. Please join us in this important new chapter of our global society, SRS."

As part of this new effort, SRS is partnering with 14 regional societies. Each of these societies will provide the best paper from their recent Annual Meeting to be presented in the “Best Paper” session on February 6. Partner Organizations include:

• Asia Pacific Spine Society (APSS)*
• Association of Spine Surgeons of India (ASSI)
• Chinese Society of Scoliosis Surgeons
• Japanese Scoliosis Society (JSS)
• Korean Society of Spine Surgery (KSSS)
• Korean Spinal Neurosurgery Society(KSNS)
• Malaysia Spine Society (MSS)*
• New Zealand Orthopaedic Spine Society
• Philippine Spine Society
• Singapore Spine Society (SSS)*
• Spine Society of Australia
• Spine Society of Thailand (SST)*
• Taiwan Spine Society (TWSS)
• Indonesian Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon Association (IOSSA)

*not confirmed

Registration and housing for the meeting opens September 9, 2025. For more information, visit our website at SRS Asia Pacific Meeting.

Attend the 60th Annual Meeting

Please join us September 16-20, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA for the 60th SRS Annual Meeting. Vist our website for more information and to register.

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