Zoher Ghogawala (Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burlington, USA) was named president of the North American Spine Society (NASS) during the society’s recent 38th annual meeting (18–21 October, Los Angeles, USA).
“It is truly an honour to be named president of NASS, an organisation I have been part of for 15 years,” Ghogawala said. “As we continue acclimating to the post-pandemic landscape in healthcare and beyond, we face many challenges as an organisation. But, I look forward to meeting them head on, as we collaboratively work to improve NASS and spine care in general. I also believe that organised orthopaedics and organised neurosurgery need to be aligned to advocate for our patients. I can’t wait to get to work!”
Ghogawala is a board-certified neurosurgeon and professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, USA, and chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington.
He has been an active NASS member since 2008, and has extensive experience with various NASS committees and leadership roles, including Clinical Research Development chair, Research Council director, Health Policy Council director, and Clinical Practice Guideline committee member and section chair.
Ghogawala has undergraduate and medical school degrees magna cum laude from Harvard University and Harvard Medical School (Cambridge, USA). He was a deputy editor for The Spine Journal for seven years and also served on the editorial board of Spine. He has contributed to more than 100 published articles and has delivered over 100 visiting professor lectureships.
In addition, his work on comparative effectiveness research has been funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), and he has published his work in the New England Journal of Medicine as well as in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Ghogawala has also been actively involved in organised neurosurgery, serving as the past chair of the Joint Spine Section of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS).
