REACT

• Aaron will be heading to New York to undertake a Spinal Fellowship and a Master’s Degree in August 2017.
• Joey has accepted a spine fellowship at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee starting in July 2017.
• Michael Tso has secured a prestigious Endovascular Fellowship spot in Buffalo, New York to start in July 2018. He also was awarded the K.G. McKenzie prize in Basic Neuroscience Research at the CNSF Congress in June 2016, as well as the Doug Zochodne Award for Excellence in Basic Science Research at the annual DCNS Research Day.
• Dan was awarded the prestigious Mayfield Clinical Science Award at the AANS/CNS Joint Section for Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerve annual meeting in Las Vegas recently. He also won the Best Resident Research Award at the Canadian Spine Society annual meeting in Montreal.
• Rita successfully passed her candidacy exams for her PhD.
• Candice has been busy – she was awarded the Bryce Weir Award for the best basic science research at the 2016 Alberta Neurosurgical Society annual meeting. In addition, she won second prize for her poster at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute Research Day, garnered the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship as well as the Faculty of Graduate Studies Doctoral Scholarship. More recently, she has been awarded the Clark H. Smith Brain Tumor Centre Graduate Studentship.
• Mike Avery was awarded the Joe Niekro Research Grant, Canada Graduate Scholarship-CIHR, Denyse Lajoie-Lake Fellowship, and an Alberta Graduate Student Scholarship.
• Ahmed has been enjoying his studies in New York and is working hard to maintain his honours status. He has achieved an award and has been working on a project with an international company. He will be returning to our program in mid-May.
• Stefan was awarded the K.G. McKenzie Prize for Clinical Research.
• Michael Yang achieved the Pediatric Top Poster Award for his “Video Diversion Improves Success Rate of Fundoscopic Exam in Children: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial” at the AANS annual meeting. As well, he was recently awarded a Kuntz award which was presented at the recent AANS/CNS Joint Section for Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerve annual meeting in Las Vegas.
• Rita and John Kelly celebrated their marriage Sept. 10 at the Riverside Café on Prince’s Island and are expecting their first child this summer.
• Albert wed Gloria Aninkorah Oct. 9 in Toronto and will be heading to St. Louis to start his PhD pursuits in July.
• Michael and Rainie welcomed baby Lucas on Sept. 22 at 2230 hrs – 2.9 kgs!
• Candice and Eric are expecting their first child (a son) in the latter part of April.
• Nick has completely recovered from his fractured right clavicle while longboarding last summer (good thing he was on Gen Surg at the time!)
• Daniel Yavin – PGY5 (returned to training July 1, 2016 and plans to defend his thesis in the near future)
  • attended the Annual AANS/CNS Joint Section for Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerve 2017 having been awarded the Mayfield Clinical Science Award
  • was awarded the Best Resident Research Award for his presentation at the Canadian Spine Society annual meeting in February 2017
• Dr. Hurlbert returned to Calgary to attend the wedding of Rita and John. He has settled into and is enjoying his new position in Tucson but misses all of the residents and colleagues here – definitely does not miss the weather!
• Forest Hsu was also in town for the wedding accompanied by his eldest daughter Alycia who is in her sophomore year at Berkley. He is doing well in his spine practice in Ventura, Calif.

Conferences:

Magalie Cadieux – PGY2

• had a poster presentation at the annual CNSF meeting in Quebec City
• had a platform presentation at the annual Alberta Neurosurgical Society Meeting in Banff
• attended the International Hydrocephalus Conference in Banff
• has a poster presentation at the CNS annual meeting in San Diego
• will have another poster presentation at the upcoming CNSF meeting in Victoria
• will be attending the International Hydrocephalus Conference annual meeting in Cartegena
• is part of a poster presentation for the Society for Neuro-Oncology annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona

Michael Yang – PGY3

• Podium presentations:

1.   84^th AANS Annual Conference, 2016
      Yang MM, St-Pierre G, Murray J, Bouchard J
      Across the Spectrum of Total Lumbar Disc Replacement: 12 years experience in Calgary

2.  16^th Annual Scientific Canadian Spine Society Conference, 2016
      Yang MM, St-Pierre G, duPlessis SJ
     Deriving a clinical prediction model for degenerative spine disorders

3. 16^th Annual Scientific Canadian Spine Society Conference, 2016
     St-Pierre G, Yang MM, Hurlbert J
     Reliability of the Spine CPR score among Emergency Physicians

4.  16^th Annual Scientific Canadian Spine Society Conference, 2016
     St-Pierre, G, Yang MM, Thomas K, Hurlbert J
     Performance Indicators in Spine Surgery

5.   Annual AANS/CNS Joint Section for Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerve
     2017 – Kuntz award recipient

• Poster presentations:

1.  84^th AANS Annual Conference, 2016
     Yang MM, Dulko B, Casha S
     Radiological Natural History of Kyphosis of Thoracolumbar Burst Fractures 
     Managed using Thoracolumbarsacral orthosis and its relationship to outcome

2.  84^th AANS Annual Conference, 2016
     Yang MM, Singhal A, Kerr JM, Hengel R, George S, Thiessen P, Muir K, Enarson P
     Video Diversion Improves Success Rate of Fundoscopic Exam in Children: A Prospective Randomized controlled trial

3.  16^th Annual Scientific Canadian Spine Society Conference, 2016
     Hardy St-Pierre G, Yang MM, Thomas K, Hurlbert RJ
     Performance Indicators in Spine Surgery

4.  84^th AANS Annual Conference, 2016
     Yang MM, Hardy St-Pierre G, Nataraj A
     Clinical Outcome of Dynesys System: A Systematic Review

5.  16^th Annual Scientific Canadian Spine Society Conference, 2016
     Hardy St-Pierre G, Yang MM, Hurlbert RJ
     Reliability of the Spine CPR score among Emergency Physicians

6.  PGME Educational simulation Conference, October, 2016
     Crossover from Mission Preparation: What can neurosurgery training learn from military flying?

Michael Opoku-Darko – PGY4

• has a poster presentation at the Society for Neuro-Oncology Annual Scientific meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona “Surgical management of incidental diffusely infiltrating gliomas: a single institutional experience”
• has recently had a paper accepted in the Journal of Neurosurgery titled “Surgical management of incidentally discovered diffusely infiltrating glioma” co-authored with Dr. J. Kelly

Mike Avery – PGY5

• published a case report in Surgical Neurology International
• has submitted a systematic review and meta-analysis to J of Neurointerventional Surgery
• had a poster presentation at the Brain Aneurysm Foundation Research Grant Symposium
• had podium presentations at the Alberta Neurosurgical Society annual meeting and U of C DCNS Research day
• has an oral presentation at the European Stroke Conference in May
• presented a poster at the Brain Aneurysm Foundation Research Grant Symposium
• had an oral presentation at the Western Canadian Cerebrovascular Surgery Symposium
• will be attending the Cerebrovascular Section annual meeting, AANS meeting, CNS meeting, and International Society for Stem Cell Research annual symposium

Candice Poon – PGY5

• attended the Society for Neuro-Oncology Annual Meeting in 2015
• had a poster presentation at the Canadian Neuro-Oncology Biannual Meeting
  Poon CC, Sarkar S, Huges M, Yong VW, Kelly JJ
  Treatment of glioblastoma brain tumor-initiating cells with microglial-and macrophage-derived cytokines

Michael Tso – PGY5 (returned to training July 1, 2016 following PhD endeavors)

• attended the AANS/CNS Cerebrovascular Section annual meeting in Houston in February 2017 followed by the International Stroke Conference where he had a poster presentation
• will be attending the CNSF annual meeting in Victoria in June 2017

Annual Events:

• The annual Resident Retreat in Kelowna took place Sept. 29-Oct. 2 and was a great success
• Dr. Brian Hoh was here as a guest speaker Oct. 6 & 7
• Dr. Alan Levy was here as guest speaker Dec. 8 & 9
• Dr. David Steven was recently invited as guest speaker March 2 & 3, 2017
• Invited guest speaker for the annual Alberta Neurosurgical meeting to be held in Banff May 5 & 6, 2017 is Dr. Jim Drake from the University of Toronto,
• This year’s Charles Taylor lectureship speaker will be Dr. Ed Benzel. The dinner will be combined with a celebration for our outgoing senior residents and past staff alumni and graduates have been invited to attend.
• We will be welcoming Madeleine DeLotbinere-Bassett and Matthew Eagles in July as they start their residency training