The Virtual Global Spine Conference (VGSC) is an international, case-based spine education webinar series that began in April 2020 and now runs as a free, weekly Zoom meeting for spine specialists worldwide.
The conference was founded in April 2020 by a multi‑institutional group of fellowship-trained spinal neurosurgeons and an interventional neuroradiologist as an educational response to the loss of in‑person spine meetings during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
The aim is to create a free, interactive, real‑time platform to discuss spine cases and topics, reduce disparities in access to spine education, and involve neurosurgeons, orthopedic spine surgeons, neuroradiologists, and other spine‑related specialists globally.
Presentations focus on real clinical cases, advances in spine surgery, imaging, and innovative technologies, with contributions from both neurosurgical and orthopedic spine faculty.
Registration and announcements are coordinated through a dedicated website and social media channels (including Twitter/X and LinkedIn), and applications to attend are handled online.
Sessions are recorded and archived; many past conferences are available on the official VGSC YouTube channel, which hosts an extensive library of weekly case‑based lectures for asynchronous viewing.
VGSC has been highlighted in the neurosurgical and spine education literature as a model for virtual learning in response to COVID‑19, demonstrating high engagement, perceived educational value, and scalability to other specialties.
References:
Rasouli JJ, Shin JH, Than KD, Gibbs WN, Baum GR, Baaj AA. Virtual Spine: A Novel, International Teleconferencing Program Developed to Increase the Accessibility of Spine Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic. World Neurosurg. 2020 Aug;140:e367-e372. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2020.05.191. Epub 2020 May 28. PMID: 32474104; PMCID: PMC7255710.
Amna Hussein, Khoi Than, Wende Gibbs, Jonathan Rasouli, Nader S. Dahdaleh, Michael Selby, Michael Galgano, Alexander Mameghani, Matthew L. Goodwin, John Shin, Alfredo Guiroy, Ali Baaj, Assessing the Accessibility, Engagement, and Value of the Virtual Global Spine Conference as an Educational Platform for Spine: A Three-Year Review, World Neurosurgery, Volume 185, 2024, Pages e1040-e1048, ISSN 1878-8750, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2024.03.019.
Medcentral online:
https://www.medcentral.com/pain/spine/virtual-global-spine-conference