Requirements towards the institution which runs the fellowship program

If there is a catalogue of requirements from the National Society in the country where the fellowship is done, this is also the base for the fellowship requirements of the ESF.

In case there are no national guidelines for national fellowship, then it is the duty of the EuroSpine Foundation to put together such a catalogue of requirements.  This ESF catalogue may be also considered as an add on catalogue for those countries with little or no requirements.

The National or the requirements of the ESF are as follows:

The “Training Center” must be an independent Spine Unit or a relatively autonomous Spine Unit in the ortho or neuro spine department, preferentially in a teaching hospital or in a big public or private hospital.

This unit must be headed by a full time spine surgeon.  This Spine Unit must have a structured day schedule including morning rounds, outpatient clinic, surgical OR sessions, as well as invasive diagnostic procedure in an X-ray unit (facet joint, epidural blocs, extra-foraminal blocs, discography) as well as regular interdisciplinary dialogues.  There must be at least once per week a structured education session which is prepared by the fellowship candidate under supervision including case discussion and more basic scientific issues.  The Spine Unit must use a strict registry monitoring all cases or it is the duty of the fellow to implement ( Spine Tango ) registry and enter all the cases he has observed.

It is recommended that each Spine Unit which qualifies for fellowship organizes on a regular basis (bi weekly) a journal club where relevant papers from the leading journals (Spine, European Spine Journal, journal of neurosurgery) are discussed.

There are two kind of fellowships: the 6 months and 9 - 12 months fellowship. The candidate should stay in one institution for a minimum duration of 6 months for his or her full training.  For the “9-12 months professorship fellowship” program the candidate must produce at least 2 papers for peer review journals and has to attend preferentially and submit a presentation at the EuroSpine Annual meeting.

A center is qualified to run a fellowship if:

  •  It belongs to one of the European Community countries where the European Medical Doctor Diploma is recognized
  •  At least 250 spine surgeries / year distributed over the main pathologies of spine disorders:
    •  Deformities
    •  Degenerative lumbar and cervical
    • Trauma
    • Tumors
    •  Occipito-cervical junction
    •  Malformative spine and spinal cord disease
  • There must be a consideration of a center with a specific expertise in deformities or degenerative diseases or trauma which will allow them to do less surgery in other spinal disorders as long as this unit can partnering with one other center to offer the full spectrum of spine surgery. An official private agreement between neuro surgical and orthopaedic department or proximity centers should be signed, to promote the possibility for the fellow to participate on both parts.

The decision to qualify one or a group of 2 spine centers as a qualified Training Center belongs to the SSE Edu Com and fellowship committee and stands for 2 years.  It is possible to appeal to a special ad hoc committee including:

  • the ESF chairman & Vice chairman
  • President and secretary of SSE

To facilitate communication and address administrative questions, one representative of the Training Center must be identified.