Vancouver Hospital & UBC
Canada
Dr. Fisher is Professor and the former Head of the Combined Neurosurgical & Orthopaedic Spine Program at Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia. His practice is confined to adult spine surgery with subspecialty clinical interests in trauma and oncology. He has a Masters Degree in Health Care and Epidemiology and is the former President of the Canadian Spine Society. In 2019 Dr Fisher was awarded the North American Spine Society’s Leon Wiltse Award, recognizing excellence in leadership and clinical research in spine care.
Dr. Fisher has special research interests in spine trauma, oncology and evidence-based medicine. For 8 years he was Chairman of the AO Knowledge Forum Tumour an international group of spine oncology surgeon thought leaders committed to advancing the understanding of spine oncology management through education and multi-center research. He stepped down in 2021 to become chair of the AO Spine International Research Commission for a 3-year term. Dr Fisher contributes regularly to articles regarding Deformity, Oncology, SCI, Trauma and Degenerative conditions of the spine in the Global Spine Journal; entitled AO Spine Clinical Practice Recommendations. Dr Fisher was the lead author of the SINS classification for metastatic spine disease, now broadly adopted worldwide by both spine surgical and oncology disciplines.
Dr Fisher is the past chairman of the steering committee for the Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network (CSORN); a multicenter research network and registry he initiated in 2013. He now sits on the Advisory Board of CSORN and will take over as the Executive Director of the Canadian Spine Society in 2026.
Dr. Fisher has authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications and has co-edited 4 textbooks. He has been the special guest editor for two focus issues in Spine Oncology for the journal Spine. He formally sat on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurosurgery Spine and is an Associate Editor for the journal Spine. He is a regular guest lecturer at spinal events around the world and in 2013 and 2016 was honoured as one of the top 28 spine surgeons in North America.
Dr. Fisher attended UCLA on a soccer scholarship and graduated with honours degree in Kinesiology. He attended Dalhousie University Medical School, and completed his residency at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Fisher did a Spine Fellowship at the University of Western Ontario, in London.
HSS
USA
Dr. Harvinder S. Sandhu (Hospital for Special Surgery, New York) is Co-Chief Emeritus of HSS Spine and is an Attending Surgeon at HSS specializing in minimally invasive spine surgery, robotic surgery, and the use of spinal biologics to enhance healing. He completed his spine training at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles and was subsequently Chief of the Spinal Surgery Service at UCLA until his recruitment to HSS. He is currently a Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and Medical Director and Chief of HSS Connecticut. Dr. Sandhu has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific publications in areas such as biologic enhancement of spinal surgery (including the Infuse™ Bone Graft IDE Trial) and novel minimally invasive management of spinal disorders. He has received research awards from the North American Spine Society, Orthopaedic Research Society, and International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine, including the prestigious Volvo Award in Spinal Research.
Texas Back Institution
USA
Scott Blumenthal, M.D. is a Spine Surgeon on the medical staff at the Texas Heath Center for Diagnostics & Surgery and Co-Medical Director for The Center for Disc Replacement. Dr. Blumenthal is credited with performing the first disc replacement in the United States and has participated in clinical trials for several artificial disc devices. He was the first spine surgeon in the United States to devote his practice solely to the research and application of artificial disc replacement.
Dr. Scott Blumenthal is a Board-Certified Orthopedic Surgeon who graduated from Northwestern Medical School in Chicago and completed his General Surgery internship and Orthopedic Surgery residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas, TX. His fellowships include work at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and at Midwest Regional Spinal Cord Injury Care System at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago for Spinal Trauma surgery.
Dr. Blumenthal serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, was the Deputy Editor of the European Spine Journal, and has served as the President of the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine. Dr. Blumenthal is also on the Medical and Scientific Board of the Spine Health Foundation. He has published numerous articles in professional spine journals and presents regularly on his work both nationally and internationally.
University of British Columbia
Canada
Dr. Dea is a Clinical Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of British Columbia and is the Division Head of the combined orthopaedics and neurosurgery spine division at Vancouver General Hospital. He is on the Steering Committee of the AO Knowledge Forum: Tumor, an international multi-disciplinary panel of experts pursuing innovative research into spine oncology and is the co-PI of an international study dedicated to the primary tumors of the spine. He is the Vice-Chair of the Neurosurgery Examination Committee at the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada. He also sits on the executive board of the Canadian Spine Society, is a Steering Committee member of the Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network and is the co-Principle investigator of the Canadian Prospective Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy study.
He was nominated within the top 20 spine specialist under 40 in North America by the North American Spine Society in 2020. He is the recipient of multiple national and international awards for his work in oncology and degenerative cervical myelopathy. He is a sought-after international guest speaker. He has authored more than 180 peer-reviewed publications and participated in many textbooks in the field of neurosurgery and spinal surgery.
Griffith University
Australia
Professor Forwood was appointed Foundation Professor and Chair of Anatomy at Griffith University in 2009, retiring in January 2026. He is internationally recognised for work in skeletal adaptations and bone tissue quality research, focussing on tissue microdamage and mechanical determinants of bone structure. He reported the first evidence for the role of fluid flow and a prostaglandin enzyme in skeletal adaptations, and published evidence that suppression of bone remodelling by bisphosphonates increases microdamage accumulation. This work provided key understanding for the development of atypical fractures experienced by some patients. His research was continuously funded by NHMRC between 1996 to 2023. He has over 9000 citations with an H-Index of 45 (SCOPUS) and was listed in the top 2% of scientists in his field in 2020. In 2016 he was elected as a Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2019 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. Following retirement, Griffith University Council appointed Prof Forwood as Professor Emeritus of Anatomy.
Queensland University of Technology
Australia
Jonathan Roberts is a Professor of Robotics at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Director of the Australian Cobotics Centre, and Technical Director of the ARM Hub. He is a Chief Investigator in the QUT Centre for Robotics and an Associate Investigator in the Centre for Biomedical Technologies. His research spans field robotics and human-centred systems, including medical, performance, and design robotics. He holds an Honours degree and PhD from the University of Southampton. Before joining QUT, he led major robotics programs at CSIRO, working on large-scale mining automation, and co-founded the UAV Challenge Outback Rescue, featured internationally by the BBC.