History

Association of Spine Surgeons of India ( ASSI )
THE JOURNEY SO FAR !

The first ever major meeting on spine held in India was in 1983, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. It was an International meeting on Spinal Trauma, organized by Major Ahluwalia, a non-medico army officer, who himself was a traumatic quadriplegic. During this meeting Dr. V T Ingalhalikar interacted with many Orthopedic surgeons from various parts of country. They all agreed that spine care and scientific deliberations were inadequately done all over

Dr. A .V. Bavdekar, Dr.K.T. Dholakia, Dr. K.V. Chaubal and Dr V T Ingalalhikar were instrumental in forming an association of spine surgeons. In September 1985, Dr. Dholakia hosted a meeting which was attended by Dr. Chaubal, Dr. Bavdekar and Dr V T Ingalalhikar. The Decision was taken to launch : ASSOCIATION OF SPINE SURGEONS OF INDIA.

On 18th December 1985, at Hotel Centaur, Mumbai during WESTERN INDIA REGIONAL ORTHOPEDIC CONFERENCE of Bombay Orthopedic Society, Dr V T Ingalhalikar gave small speech about need for a separate forum for ‘Spine’ and declared formation of ASSOCIATION OF SPINE SURGEONS OF INDIA. Within 2 hours 19 people signed in to join the membership.

It is Interesting to note that
North American Spine Society was formed in 1984. British Spine Society was formed 1986.
The members of first Executive Committee of ASSI were

  • President

    Dr. K. T. Dholakia

  • Vice President

    Dr. K. V. Chaubal

  • Vice President

    Dr. A. V. Bavdekar

  • Treasurer

    Dr. S. D. Mehta

  • Secretary

    Dr. V. T. Ingalhalikar

  • Joint Secretary

    Dr. A. N. Parelkar

    Dr. R. N. Mitra (Calcutta)

    Dr. M. N. Shahane

    Dr. P. K. Dave (Delhi)

    Dr. K. Shrinivasan (Bangalore)

    Dr. Dinubhai Patel (Ahmedabad)

  • Past Presidents

    Dr. K. T. Dholakia

    Dr. K. V. Chaubal

    Dr. A. V. Bavdekar

    Dr. P. K. Dave

    Dr. Dinubhai Patel

    Dr. V. T. Ingalhalikar

    Dr. S. M. Hardikar

    Dr. S. Y. Bhojraj

    Dr. Arvind Jayaswal

  • Past Secretaries

    Dr. V. T. Ingalhalikar

    Dr. S. Y. Bhojraj

    Dr. Arvind Jayaswal

    Dr. S. Rajasekaran

    Dr. Ram Chadda

    Dr. H. S. Chhabra

First Scientific Meeting of ASSI was held in Mumbai on 1st through 3rd May 1986 : ASSICON 1 It was attended by 82 Orthopedic and neurosurgeons. During this meeting the membership increased to 54 . The theme of the meeting was : Disorders of Lumbar Spine

The Early scientific meetings

First ASSICON : 1 to 3 May 1986, Mumbai
ASSICON 1987 : Mumbai
ASSICON 1988 : Ahmadabad
ASSICON 1989 : 10th to 13th September. Mumbai

First International Update Symposium, “ Disorders Of Lumbar Spine”

ASSICON 90 ( 8th, 9th December 90 ) Pune

The aim of ASSI was to promote scientific spine care, both surgical and non-surgical, in India through the medium of national, regional and local meetings, symposia, CMEs and workshops. The Motto was “if we are doing it, let us do it better”. ASSI promoted any spine related scientific activity, anywhere in India. ASSI also helped formation of local spine bodies.!

ASSI Annual Conferences : ASSICONs

The annual conference of ASSI is being held every uear now and has experienced growing popularity every year. ASSICONs have been held at Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Khajuraho, Jabalpur, Chennai, Chandigarh, Dibrugarh, Banglore, Nagpur, Jaipur, Ahmadabad, Kolkata, Goa and many other cities. The conference is attended by 300-400 delegates every year.

ASSI Workshops

  • 1st Cadaveric Spine Teaching Course in India was held in Sept. 1986 at Lokmanya Tilak Medical College, Mumbai. seventy one Orthopedic Surgeons Enrolled.
  • All other Orthopedic Cadaveric courses (Hip etc. ) started afterwards.
  • Since 1986, a large number of workshops were held under the auspices of ASSI or helped by ASSI.

The ASSI Textbook of Spinal Infections and Trauma

Keeping up with the Aim, ASSI has published an international quality book which is a matter of great pride to all of us! Edited by Dr. Rajasekaran and other members of ASSI this book is authored by only Indian Spinal Surgeons. The focus was on producing a book which will be helpful to India and all other developing nations. The book has been receieved well by medical community and hasreceived excellent reviews.

Formal Certification of Spinal surgeons in India

ASSI executives and members, especially Prof P.K.Dave and Dr. Prof Arvind Jaiswal, persuaded "The National Board of Examinations" to recognize "Spinal Surgery as a Subspeciality" in India. First Post - DNB certifying examination was held in 2006.

Joint scientific events

Today ASSI is a well respected organisation in India and in the world and participates and /or organises

  • Indian Orthopedic Association's Annual conference. ASSI has a place of pride in hosting subspeciality spine meeting during the IOACON
  • Instructional Lecture Series with European Spine Society annually since 2004.
  • Scoliosis Research Society meeting : Delhi 2009.
  • Dartmouth Hitchcock Travelling Fellowship since 2006.
  • International Spinal Arthroplasty Society had meeting

ASSI 's Overseas Friends

Over the last 35 years ASSI has garnered a large number of overseas friends who regularly help ASSI and enjoy being here for ASSI events. They have come to love ASSI and India. We greatly appreciate their association and their contribution to ASSI

In the last 35 years of existence, primary focus of ASSI has been "Patient's welfare first” ! It puts the patient above anything else and practices science. It is an organization of scientists with humane minds.

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