Surgical spine research is a growing field involving both surgeons and scientists. There are many surgeons who look to high quality research to improve their quality of care. Although scientists in the field of the spine may also have other scientific motives, most would agree that they are also driven by similar aims. On the one hand, spine surgeons are most intimately involved in the care of these patients and have the broadest surgical and clinical knowledge pertaining to spine ailments. However, most do not have the time, knowledge or training to conduct laboratory-based spine research. The situation is reversed for spine scientists, who in some cases have little contact with clinicians and little understanding of clinical demands. Thus, scientists may provide the innovative key but have less understanding of the problem, while surgeons are constantly faced by the problems, but are frustrated by lack of sufficient "tools". Both professions require extensive educational training and have extensive time demands. The obvious solution is that they should combine forces to more comprehensively understand spine ailments and to develop surgical/medical methods to better care for patients from the bench to the bedside. This was in fact one of the principles on which this journal was founded [1]. As it was back then, it remains today that spine surgery needs help from other disciplines to arrive at better solutions.
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