Early Management of Severe Trauma

Dr Ball has returned to instructing on the Early Management of Severe Trauma (EMST) course for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons after a 12 month break. P868 at Royal North Shore Hospital is the 868th course held in Australia. Based on the American College of Surgeons Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course, EMST trains doctors in the principles of trauma care. After completing his initial EMST training in 1999, Dr Ball was approached to become an instructor and teaches on up to 3 courses each year. EMST allows Dr Ball to share his knowledge about and experience in head and spine trauma while keeping up to date with the latest in trauma care.

Cervical Disc Replacement Presentation

Dr Ball has given a presentation on Cervical Disc Arthroplasty to the Cerebrospinal Forum (CSF) - a group of allied health staff from Royal North Shore Hospital and North Shore Private Hospital with an interest in neurosurgical care. The presentation outlined the principles behind the design of cervical disc replacements and highlighted how a new generation of prostheses will overcome some limitations of the first generation devices. Dr Ball has had specialised training in disc replacement surgery and published papers and a book chapter on this emerging technology.

Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Training

Dr Ball has attended a course in Less Invasive Technologies (LITe) for spine surgery run by Stryker Canada in Toronto. The course focussed on minimally invasive posterior surgical techniques for the cervical and thoracolumbar spines. Undertaking this course is part of Dr Ball's continuing committment to developing his skills in this emerging area of surgery and thus increasing the availability of minimally invasive spine surgery to the Australian community.

LoloWiki

LoloWiki has just recorded its 3000th visitor. LoloWiki is a unique educational site set up by Dr Ball for the sharing of information between neurosurgeons and trainees. It was awarded the Noel Newton Medal and the Johnson and Johnson Best Paper Award at the RACS NSW paper day in 2007. A subproject dedicated to spine surgery - LoloWiki Spine Surgery - is also growing fast.

Prestigious Book Chapter

Dr Ball has just completed a book chapter on 'Disc Degeneration and Regeneration for Youman's Textbook of Neurologic Surgery'. Youman's is considered one of the premier textbooks of neurosurgery. Dr Ball is honoured to contribute to this endeavour and have the opportunity to further participate in neurosurgical education regarding spine disorders.