I was fortunate to work with the several stalwarts in Spine surgery across the world. Be it Dr Fischgrund (Beaumont, Royal Oak) or Dr Lavelle (SUNY Upstate, Syracuse), mentored me on the technical aspects of spine surgery but also on participation in research and organizational involvement. On the other hand, my mentor from Mumbai, India, Dr Bhojraj (The Spine Foundation) stressed on the importance of going beyond patient care and engagement in philanthropy and research.

My involvement in NASS gave me a much broader perspective on the field of spine surgery and healthcare in general. The importance of advocacy and policy making, strengthening the professional societies like NASS, making robust practice guidelines and actively contributing to these activities has a strong influence on the quality of patient care that we value the most as spine professionals. Being an integral part of NASS and its committees, I can navigate the practice challenges much better.

I practice in central Pennsylvania as a part of a large health system and the access to healthcare and especially care for common spine aliments has been limited. With the help of our team, we were able to establish a spine service that made the access to care available locally. Based on evidence-based guidelines, it was possible to offer operative and nonoperative care in inpatient, outpatient and emergency settings. The ability to offer both conventional and advanced spine surgical techniques for the common and complex spinal pathologies, was an important accomplishment.