CSF Medical Research Board Strategic Plan Meeting

Corporate Funding

Dr. Ed Benzel, Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery and Director, Center for Spine Health, at the Cleveland Clinic, led a discussion on partnering with corporate sponsors.

A corporate funding committee of the Medical Research Board was formed. Committee members include Dr. Benzel, Committee Chair, Dr. Paolo Bolognese, Deputy Director of The Chiari Institute, Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington, and Dr. Barth Green, Professor and Chairman, Department of the Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine.

Conference/Webinars

Dr. Richard Ellenbogen led a wide-ranging discussion of the benefits of annual, regional, and web-based conferences. The group discussed the need to broaden its reach to family practice and other physicians through the use of webinars and/or podcasts allowing many more people to participate.

A committee will be formed consisting of members of the CSF Medical Research Board Executive Committee along with Dorothy Poppe, CSF Executive Director, Paul Farrell, CSF Board of Directors Chair, and Michael Mikula, CSF Board of Trustees Chair.

Research Endowment

Dr. Bermans Iskandar, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals, led the discussion on a proposal for a target endowment fund of $5 million. Discussion centered on a focus for funding research. It was agreed that funding should be for research and education; a proposal was made that the fund should be called the Marcy Speer Research and Education Fund. Marcia Carlson, Dr. Marcy Speer's mother, will be the family representative to sit on the Research Committee.

A Research Committee of the Medical Research Board was formed. Committee members include Dr. John Heiss, Head, Clinical Unit, in the Surgical Neurology Branch, NINDS, at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Bermans Iskandar and Dr. Frank Loth, F. Theodore Harrington Endowed Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Akron. The committee is being Chaired by Dr. Allison Ashley-Koch, Associate Professor in the Section of Medical Genetics, Department of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center.

Educational Materials

Dr. Ulrich Batzdorf, Professor and Director of Spinal Neurosurgery and Director of the Spine Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, led the discussion of materials for the CSF website. Dr. Roger Kula, Neurologist and Medical Director of The Chiari Institute, underscored the need to educate other specialists including neurologists and pediatricians. The group agreed that it was important that the information we provide be comprehensive to best serve patients, caregivers, doctors and the medical community, and possibly insurance carriers. Plans are being made to include a fact sheet as well as separate areas covering basic/standard information and treatments, controversial information and treatments, new articles, a physicians area, a patient/caregivers area, and possibly an allied disorders area.

In addition, a veterinary/pet owner's section is being written by Dr. Dominic Marino, Chairman of the Department of Surgery and Chief of Staff of Long Island Veterinary Specialists, in collaboration with Dr. Curtis Dewey, Chief of Neurology/Neurosurgery at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

A committee was formed to certify the quality and accuracy of the information on the CSF website. The committee is being chaired by Dr. Bermans Iskandar and is comprised of all members of the CSF Medical Research Board.