American Association of Neurological Surgeons

Last updated
American Association of Neurological Surgeons
AbbreviationAANS
Formation1931
Type Professional association
Headquarters Rolling Meadows, Illinois
Region served
Worldwide
Membership12,000
CEO
Katie O. Orrico [1]
Website www.aans.org

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a professional organization focused on advancing the specialty of neurological surgery. Founded in 1931, the AANS serves a membership of over 12,000 professionals worldwide, including neurosurgeons, medical students and allied health professionals. It is one of the five Continental Associations of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS), the other four being the AASNS, CAANS, EANS and FLANC. [2]

Contents

History

Attendees at the first meeting of the Harvey Cushing Society in Boston, 1932. 1932harveycushingsocietymeeting.gif
Attendees at the first meeting of the Harvey Cushing Society in Boston, 1932.

Founded in 1931, the AANS was originally known as the Harvey Cushing Society, named for the brain surgery pioneer Harvey Cushing. The creation of the society was spurred initially by R. Glen Spurling and William P. Van Wagenen [3] who, with Cushing, acknowledged the need for a venue in which younger neurosurgeons could exchange ideas on the specialty. Membership to the Society of Neurological Surgeons, the specialty's key organization during this period, was closed to younger men at this time. Spurling and Van Wagenen enlisted the help of Temple Fay and R. Eustace Semmes in the creation of the group, and on May 6, 1932, the Harvey Cushing Society held its first meeting in Boston. [3] Twenty-three people attended, many of whom were Cushing's colleagues and neurosurgical trainees.

Other charter members of the society were Gilbert Anderson, Paul C. Bucy, W. Edward Chamberlain, Leo M. Davidoff, Louise Eisenhardt, Edgar Fincher, John F. Fulton, W. James Gardner, William J. German, Franc D. Ingraham, Franklin Jelsma, Edgar Kahn, Roland Klemme, James G. Lyerly Sr., Eric Oldberg, Tracy Putnam, Frederic Schreiber, Merril C. Sosman, and Frank R. Teachenor.

The association was later renamed what it remains today: “The American Association of Neurological Surgeons,” to reflect its broader membership and mission.

Significant dates

Membership

The AANS is composed of board-certified neurosurgeons from around the world as well as medical students, neurosurgical support staff, and physicians in associated fields of practice.

Legislative advocacy

Throughout its history, the AANS has taken stances on legislative issues affecting neurosurgical professionals and their patients. Efforts include patient safety and quality improvement, tort reform, and issues relating to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. In addition to a professional staff office in Washington, D.C., the AANS maintains a member-driven Washington Committee to advocate for a number of causes. Washington staff maintains the Neurosurgery Blog which highlights the latest legislative activities affecting health care and the neurosurgical specialty.

Publications

Since 1944, the AANS has published the Journal of Neurosurgery. In addition, the quarterly AANS Neurosurgeon focuses on "issues related to legislation, workforce and practice management." [5] Each issue is centered on different themes, and past themes include humanitarian neurosurgery, neurosurgeons as patients, stereotactic radiosurgery, and neurovascular neurosurgery.

Patient information and public outreach

The AANS offers resources on its website to education patients about neurosurgical conditions and treatments. Every August, the AANS organizes Neurosurgery Awareness Month, this initiative aims to promote neurological safety and increase public understanding of critical neurosurgical conditions, including stroke prevention and treatment.

Education

The AANS offers its members a number of educational opportunities, mostly through courses held around the country at various times of the year. Topics include practice management, oral board preparation, maintenance of certification, and resident education. Course offerings also extend to mid-level practitioners such as nurses and physician assistants.

Annual meeting

The AANS has held an Annual Scientific Meeting every year since its 1932 inception except twice; in 1945 due to World War II, and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 meeting was exclusively virtual, also due to the pandemic.

Programming includes presentations of neurological studies, seminars, workshops for practitioners at all levels, and keynote speeches. Past speakers [6] include H. Ross Perot (1987), Colin Powell (1995), George H. W. Bush (1999), Tom Brokaw (2001), Benazir Bhutto (2002), Henry Kissinger (2003), Ken Burns (2004), Walter Isaacson (2013), and Chesley Sullenberger (2013).

Neurosurgical Research and Education Foundation

Established by the AANS in 1981, the Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation provides funding for training in the neurosciences and support for career neurosurgeons. Through grants and awards, it supports medical students, residents and young neurosurgical faculty in conducting basic science, patient-oriented, clinical and outcomes research, as well as outcomes studies that protect and support neurosurgical procedures for all practicing neurosurgeons. It also funds North American and international fellowships in all neurosurgical subspecialties. [7] [8]

Neuropoint Alliance

As an effort led by the AANS with cooperation of other organized neurological associations, the Neuropoint Alliance was founded in 2008 to collect, analyze, and report clinical data from neurosurgical practices. Services include clinical trial management, study design, and survey facilitation. [9] Its first nationwide effort was the National Neurosurgery Quality and Outcomes Database. [10] [11]

AANS Award Winners

The AANS presents several major awards each year during the AANS Annual Scientific Meeting, honoring the lifetime contribution of members for their surgical, scientific and humanitarian accomplishments. [12]

Cushing Medal

AANS Distinguished Service Award

AANS Humanitarian Award

AANS Cushing Award for Technical Excellence and Innovation in Neurosurgery

AANS International Lifetime Recognition Award

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neurosurgery</span> Medical specialty of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system

Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nervous system, and cerebrovascular system. Neurosurgery as a medical specialty also includes non-surgical management of some neurological conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Dandy</span> American neurosurgeon (1886–1946)

Walter Edward Dandy was an American neurosurgeon and scientist. He is considered one of the founding fathers of neurosurgery, along with Victor Horsley (1857–1916) and Harvey Cushing (1869–1939). Dandy is credited with numerous neurosurgical discoveries and innovations, including the description of the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, surgical treatment of hydrocephalus, the invention of air ventriculography and pneumoencephalography, the description of brain endoscopy, the establishment of the first intensive care unit, and the first clipping of an intracranial aneurysm, which marked the birth of cerebrovascular neurosurgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Academy of Neurology</span> American medical association

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) is a professional society representing over 40,000 neurologists and neuroscientists. As a medical specialty society it was established in 1948 by A.B. Baker of the University of Minnesota to advance the art and science of neurology, and thereby promote the best possible care for patients with neurological disorders. It is headquartered in Minneapolis and maintains a health policy office in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gail Rosseau</span> American neurosurgeon

Gail Linskey Rosseau is Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C. Prior to this position, she was Associate Chairman of Inova Fairfax Hospital Department of Neurosciences. She previously served as director of skull base surgery of NorthShore University HealthSystem. She is board-certified and has been an examiner for the American Board of Neurological Surgery. She has been elected to the leadership of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, and the Société de Neurochirurgie de Langue Française.

Roy Glenwood "Glen" Spurling was an American neurosurgeon remembered for describing Spurling's test.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Congress of Neurological Surgeons</span> Professional organization

The Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) is a professional association representing neurosurgeons, neurosurgical residents, medical students, and allied health professionals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Olivecrona</span> Swedish professor and brain surgeon

Axel Herbert Olivecrona was a Swedish professor and brain surgeon, credited with founding the field of Swedish neurosurgery, and pioneering developments in modern neurosurgery.

Albert Loren Rhoton Jr., was an American neurosurgeon and a professor specializing in microsurgical neuroanatomy. He was on the editorial boards of six surgical journals, and worked as professor and chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Florida. He was also president of organizations such as the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, among other surgical organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael L. J. Apuzzo</span> American academic neurological surgeon

Michael L. J. Apuzzo is an American academic neurological surgeon, the Edwin M. Todd/Trent H. Wells, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Neurological Surgery and Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics at the Keck School of Medicine, of the University of Southern California. He is also editor emeritus of the peer-reviewed journals World Neurosurgery and Neurosurgery. He is distinguished adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the Yale School of Medicine, distinguished professor of advanced neurosurgery and neuroscience and senior advisor, at the Neurological Institute, Wexner Medical School, The Ohio State University, and adjunct professor of neurosurgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, Department of Neurological Surgery & Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center.

Frank Henderson Mayfield, was an American neurosurgeon and founder of the Mayfield Clinic and Spine Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio. A pioneer in brain and spine surgery, he invented the spring aneurysm clip and the Mayfield skull clamp. Mayfield is best known for his clinical interests in peripheral nerve and spine injuries, development of neurosurgical instruments, and medical politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Cohen-Gadol</span> American neurosurgeon

Aaron A. Cohen-Gadol is a professor of clinical neurological surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Council of State Neurosurgical Societies</span> Surgical society

The Council of State Neurosurgical Societies is a professional body and an American surgical society created in 1976 to provide a national forum for the State Neurosurgical Societies of the United States of America. As a forum for practicing neurosurgeons, it focuses primarily on discussion, consideration, and proposals of action regarding socioeconomic issues concerning neurological surgery. The CSNS is composed of active neurosurgeons which are members of the various state neurosurgical societies in the ratio of 1 representative per 50 state society neurosurgeon members. The Presidents of the AANS and CNS appoint members/delegates to the CSNS in addition to the state designated delegates and 13 neurosurgery residents are elected as delegates from the four Quadrants with one selected from the Armed Services. The Council meets twice a year just before the annual meetings of the AANS and the CNS during which it considers resolutions submitted by delegates or its committees and receives reports from those committees as well as the AANS and CNS. Resolutions that are adopted by assembly vote are sent to the AANS/CNS for consideration and potential implementation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Rutka</span> Canadian neurosurgeon

James Rutka is a Canadian neurosurgeon from Toronto, Canada. Rutka served as RS McLaughlin Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto from 2011 – 2022. He subspecializes in pediatric neurosurgery at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), and is a Senior Scientist in the Research Institute at SickKids. His main clinical interests include the neurosurgical treatment of children with brain tumours and epilepsy. His research interests lie in the molecular biology of human brain tumours – specifically in the determination of the mechanisms by which brain tumours grow and invade. He is the Director of the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at SickKids, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurosurgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies</span>

The World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS), founded in 1955, in Switzerland, as a professional, scientific, non governmental organization, is composed of 130 member societies: consisting of 5 Continental Associations, 6 Affiliate Societies, and 119 National Neurosurgical Societies, representing some 50,000 neurosurgeons worldwide. It has a consultative status in the United Nations. The official Journal of the Organization is World Neurosurgery.

The Society of Neurological Surgeons (SNS) was founded in 1920 and is composed of neurosurgical department chairs, residency program directors and other senior educational leaders in America. It is the oldest neurosurgical professional organization in the world. The president of the SNS is E. Sander Connolly, Jr., MD.

Robert Wheeler Rand, was an American neurosurgeon, inventor, and Professor of Neurosurgery in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1953 to 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Couldwell</span>

William T. Couldwell is a Canadian neurosurgeon who is professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Utah, a position he assumed in 2001.

Stewart Dunsker M.D., a neurosurgeon, is Professor and Director of Spinal Neurosurgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and Director of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Temple Sedgwick Fay, M.D. was an American neurologist and neurosurgeon. He is known for experimental use of extreme cold to treat patients with malignant tumors or head injuries.

Linda M. Liau is an American neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, and the W. Eugene Stern Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Liau was elected to the Society of Neurological Surgeons in 2013 and the National Academy of Medicine in 2018. She has published over 230 research articles and a textbook, Brain Tumor Immunotherapy. She served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neuro-Oncology from 2007 to 2017.

References

  1. "AANS Leadership and Governance". aans.org. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
  2. "About the Foundation | World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies".
  3. 1 2 Mathews, Marlon S.; Linskey, Mark E.; Binder, Devin K. (2008-02-29). "William P. van Wagenen and the first corpus callosotomies for epilepsy". Journal of Neurosurgery. 108 (3): 608–613. doi:10.3171/JNS/2008/108/3/0608. ISSN   0022-3085. PMID   18312112.
  4. "1988 45c Harvey Cushing, M.D. – Catalog # 2188 For Sale at Mystic Stamp Company". Mysticstamp.com. 1988-06-17. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  5. "AANS Neurosurgeon – About". Aansneurosurgeon.org. Archived from the original on 2014-05-31. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  6. "2009 AANS Annual Meeting – Housing". Aans.org. Archived from the original on 2013-09-14. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  7. "Medical Student Summer Research Fellowships". Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation. NREF. Retrieved 2024-01-21.
  8. "Research Fellowship Grants & Young Clinician Investigator Awards". Neurosurgery Research & Education Foundation. NREF. Retrieved 2024-01-21.
  9. "NPA N²QOD". Neuropoint.org. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  10. "NPA Home". Neuropoint.org. Archived from the original on 2014-06-30. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  11. "Spine Patient Data Gathering of the Future: Q&A With Drs. Anthony Asher and Matthew McGirt of N2QOD". Beckersspine.com. 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  12. "AANS Award Winners".