Education Committee: Curriculum Development

Mark N. Malinowski, DO; Rany T. Abdallah, MD PhD

2018 was a very busy year for the members of the Education Committee. Dr. Ahmed Raslan assumed the position of chair from Dr. Konstatin Slavin and continued to build upon the exceptional foundation laid under his supervision. An executive group was elected to assist Dr. Raslan whereby Dr. Rany Abdallah was elected Vice-Chairman, Dr. Alaa Abd-Elsayed as Secretary, and Dr. Mark Malinowski as Treasurer. The members worked diligently to develop a clear mission statement as a beacon for future committee work. Membership rules were agreed upon to encourage member contribution and infusion of new membership on a consistent basis.

Curriculum development has been a major focus of the committee. Dr. Eric Lee worked with a working group of committee members to create an educational video series highlighting both the NACC and PACC updated guidelines. These supplement the existing learning modules developed in 2017. Simultaneously, several other committee members congregated in Chicago to last summer to generate the new neuromodulation curriculum aimed at providing a framework for all practitioners to matriculate through a three-tiered certification process and earn the distinction of expert neuromodulator spinal cord stimulation. Other educational outreach projects included Dr. Fishman and Dr. Burkey’s work with the American Academy of Neurology, which displays the commitment of the education committee to spread the word about neuromodulation in other societies and communities.

At the behest of Dr. Raslan, Drs. Abd-Elsayed and Dr. Abdallah are coordinating an effort to upgrade the committee’s presence on the website to reflect the activities of the committee. We plan to keep the website up to date and welcome any suggestions from NANS members.

Based off the work achieved in 2018, the education committee plans to create a manuscript to publish the NANS SCS milestone curriculum. The committee also plans to create a similar milestone curriculum for intrathecal drug delivery systems. One of the new initiatives for 2019 is a series of educational webinars. Trigeminal neuralgia will be the subject of the first webinar series.