Dear colleagues,

Talking about Research is talking about progress and about practicing medicine with the highest scientific quality and the highest standards regarding medical evidence. Research has proven to be one of the fastest-growing sectors globally in recent years. Latin America was no exception.

At the educational level, different AO PEER courses have been developed, whose goal, from an international standpoint, is to offer the greatest variety of tools for the doctor who wants to navigate the research networks, with the best structure in terms of teaching quality. Sao Paulo, Guatemala and Buenos Aires bore witness to these high-attendance events. Taking an AO PEER course allows our physicians to expand their knowledge, from a research question to the formulation of a hypothesis and the knowledge of the sample size, which may culminate in a publication project.

Also on the topic of education, there was the Continuing Education Program in Research. This is an online platform with tutors and three continuous modules called Search in Database, Interpreting the Evidence and Writing a Manuscript.

Another educational leap was the development of the first hospital based seminar on research, held in Buenos Aires for the first time in Latin America. These seminars allow young doctors to discover their passion for research through the use of workshops, critical reading of scientific articles, among others.

One of the key points is presenting ourselves to the world through research projects. To do this, it is necessary to consolidate all this educational effort. Latin America is seeing the results via young doctors who are highly involved in our AO Spine courses, which manifests in the multicenter studies, two of which are being published in high-impact journals. It is from this idea that the organization moved towards the needs of its members. On one hand, by providing academic counselling to doctors who need to conduct research, but lack such skills, they are taught how to develop a project and how to carry it out.

Not satisfied with that, the recent creation of new study groups was devised. These groups, comprised of a coordinator and young surgeons, advised by statistics professionals, will carry out multicenter projects to increase the number of studies in our region and granting them greater impact. It will undoubtedly be a major breakthrough in showing the world the research potential that Latin America can have when the right tools are applied to our medical members’ passion for research. This is AO Spine Research: a tireless advance from the educational frontlines through multicenter projects. All with a common goal: having the latest medical evidence so we can better treat patients.

Let’s go forward!