It is a pleasure to greet you. I hope that you and your families are doing well after a year as challenging as the one that has just ended.

2020 has been an immense challenge for us all, and it has put humanity as a whole in a situation for which there were no contingency plans. It has been a year in which we have all had to learn to live with this pandemic. AO Spine, like every other organization, had its plans disrupted and we had to reschedule our activities.

Since the beginning of this situation, it was our decision to prioritize the safety of the participants, faculty and staff, so we called off our annual gathering, the Global Spine Congress, which was to be held in the city of Rio de Janeiro. This decision was made before any other scientific society, and its example was later followed by others. We had dedicated many hours to the organization of this event, and it was a difficult decision, but time proved that it was the right choice.

With the spread of the pandemic, doubts grew, and for that reason we organized, at the times of greatest uncertainty within the medical community, two webinars to address the situation of spinal surgery in the context of COVID-19, taking advantage of the unique fact that we are a global society, and could count on the experience and first-hand opinion of spinal surgeons who were in the thick of it, which undoubtedly allowed us, Latin Americans, to tap into that experience to better treat our patients.

The officers will update you on the progress and achievements in each area, but I would like to highlight some of the key points in our region:

From the beginning, we decided to apply all our experience in online education, in which we are pioneers within our region and globally, given we have been conducting online activities periodically since 2009, to make ourselves available to our members. I thank all those involved for the extra effort in carrying out these activities, which were so important in the times of greatest uncertainty.

Our in-person activity, both face-to-face courses and fellowships, had to be interrupted due to the situation at hand. We are actively working to resume our activities with the safety, quality and dedication that you all deserve, when the health situation allows it.

During these months, our research activity operated superbly, with an outstanding output. I would like to congratulate Marcelo Valacco, the leaders and members of the Study Groups, and all those who collaborated in these projects. A heartfelt thank you goes out to them.

Luiz Gustavo Dal Oglio Rocha, who has been heavily involved in education projects for several years, assumed the Education Officer position in July. We all wish him great success in his tenure and look forward to assisting him in accomplishing his goals. This position had been held for three years by Néstor Taboada, whom I would like to thank on behalf of the entire region for his outstanding work. Néstor, a great surgeon and a referent in MISS in our region, dedicated himself with full commitment during his tenure and was always willing to adapt, learn, train, and dedicate himself to his job with utter passion. We should all be deeply grateful for his service.

Our staff in the Curitiba office had to alter the region’s plans on short notice, working with diligence, dedication, and superior competence. I would like to thank and congratulate them too for the great job they did.

Finally, I hope that 2021 will allow us to meet with our colleagues, partners, friends and loved ones in person once again. 2020 was a tremendously difficult year, but also one that has surely taught us many lessons, among them, the value of the little everyday things that we took for granted and now miss.