The international Society on Scoliosis Orthopaedic Rehabilitation and Treatment (SOSORT) elected Luke Stikeleather as president at its annual meeting held this spring in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Stikeleather is the founder and president of the National Scoliosis Center located in Fairfax (USA).
SOSORT is a nonprofit organization with a primary mission to promote multidisciplinary collaboration among scientists, healthcare professionals, patients and families and to establish “best practice” guidelines in the non-operative treatment of scoliosis and spinal deformity. A founding member of SOSORT, Stikeleather says, “I am honored to lead the society and its worldwide membership. Together, we will continue advocating for the conservative management and treatment of scoliosis and other spine deformities through an open exchange of knowledge, research, education and training.”
Stikeleather opened the National Scoliosis Center in 2015, the culmination of more than 25 years of clinical experience caring for children with scoliosis. He recalls, “Witnessing the hardships families face coordinating and traveling between multiple appointments and professionals, I realized the need for a comprehensive, state-of-the-art facility that could address their conservative care needs quickly, competently and compassionately.”
Today, as a centre of excellence serving patients from all over the country and across the world, the National Scoliosis Center is the only facility of its kind dedicated to helping children and adults with scoliosis, a press release states. Personalised services are offered in-house, including custom-fabricated braces, Schroth physical therapy, Formetric topographical scanning, and ultra-low-dose 2D/3D X-rays using the EOS imaging system. Patients also have access to pediatric orthopaedic specialists in the same building.
The National Scoliosis Center was the first facility in the Washington DC area to offer the EOS system—this provides exceptional image quality using 50% to 85% less radiation than traditional X-ray technologies. Reducing radiation is important to lowering the risk of cancer, particularly in children with conditions, such as scoliosis, that require frequent imaging.
Recently expanding its services beyond the Virginia/Washington DC metro area, the National Scoliosis Center now serves patients in a new National Scoliosis Center location equipped with EOS technology in Baltimore, Maryland (USA).
