Mauricio Avila, MD
What motivated you to get involved with NASS early in your career?
The partnership that NASS offers between neurosurgery and orthopedics. NASS welcome me as a resident allowing me to be an active member. The Meetings are outstanding high yield state of the art topic and discussion.
What do you see as the most exciting developments in spine care today?
Enabling technologies. Navigation is rapidly becoming standard of care and robotics will be the next frontier. There are rumbles of augmented reality headsets.
What is the biggest challenge facing early-career spine professionals in 2025?
Even within spine who is already a sub-specialty there are now even more procedures (endoscopy, deformity, pediatrics) and it will be hard to master them all. Additionally in the US healthcare will become a challenge in terms of insurance roadblocks to our patients.
How do you think the role of technology (AI, robotics, wearables, etc.) will shape the future of spine care?
Forefront. Enabling technology is already here (navigation) this will continue to increase. I am excited about software development to help plan surgeries and more importantly predict which patient will benefit from which surgery.
What advice would you give a spine care provider just starting out in 2065?
Wow, hopefully you are still doing physical exams! Human touch will remain paramount to an accurate diagnosis. Technology will likely be at the forefront in 2065 but at the end of the day we are treating a fellow human.
What do you wish had been different about your training? What do you hope training looks like for 2065 providers?
Spine surgery as a sole subspecialty. No more neuro-ortho just one spine with comprehensive approaches and treatment.
What values or principles do you hope will continue to guide NASS over the next 40 years?
Encourage research and innovation. Continue to include early career spine specialist that will shape the filed in the future.
How has membership in NASS impacted your career so far?
Tremendously! it has allow me to meet different spine specialists, help shape some of the initiative in the NASS early career forum and I am hopeful I can continue to help.
What's one thing about spine practice in 2025 that you think will surprise physicians in 2065?
Putting pedicle screws freehand.
If you could leave a one-sentence message for your future colleagues, what would it be?
The spine is a beautiful organ, the margin of error is small but in adequately select patients we can provide relief from pain.