About Us

What is SOSORT?

SOSORT is the International Society On Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment.

SOSORT is a non-profit organization formed in 2005 to meet specific unmet needs within the professional and patient communities.

SOSORT

Believes that prevention and conservative management can be effective, efficient, and valuable tools for the management of scoliosis and other spine structural changes.
Promotes an open forum for the exchange of knowledge and ideas in the field of conservative management of spine structural changes.
Stimulates research and clinical studies to determine the value and appropriate use of prevention, early detection, observation, and non-operative treatment of spine structural changes.
Disseminates evidence-based information and guidelines among the scientific community and the general population concerning the conservative management of spine structural changes.
Provides specific education and training to healthcare professionals in order to build a geographically- and professionally- diverse community of specialists to provide high-quality, non-operative patient care.
Our primary venue for education is the SOSORT Annual Meeting which combines Scientific, Education and Consensus sessions.
Primary to our practice and educational goals is the production and continuous updating of a number of treatment guidelines and consensus papers (Example: 2016 SOSORT guidelines: Orthopaedic and rehabilitation treatment of idiopathic scoliosis during growth)

Our Mission

To advance the most appropriate care for people with scoliosis and spine structural changes with an emphasis on non-operative management

Our Vision

A world where multidisciplinary collaboration among people with scoliosis and spine structural changes, their families, healthcare professionals, and scientists, exist to ensure optimal outcomes.

BOARD MEMBERS

James Wynne

President (2022-2023)

Jim is Vice President - Director of Education/Resident Director for Boston Orthotics and Prosthetics. Jim has been a certified orthotist/prosthetist since 1991 and has specialized in pediatric orthotic/prosthetics, since 1993 primarily at Boston O&P’s Boston Children’s Hospital clinic. He lectures both nationally and internationally on the non-operative management of scoliosis and has authored several book chapters and peer review articles on the non-operative treatment of scoliosis. He is a past president of the American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics and Pedorthics and is the current President of the International Society on Scoliosis Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Treatment (SOSORT). Jim enjoys spending time with his family skiing and at the beach.

Angelo Aulisa

Past - President (2021-2022)

Angelo Gabriele Aulisa, MD, has been a member of SOSORT since 2007, currently serving as President Elect, a Board member since 2015 and served as member at large, treasurer and Scientific Meeting Chair since. He served as Managing Doctor for U.O.C. of Orthopaedics and Traumatology at the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Rome, Italy. He is a pediatric orthopedicsurgeon with a specialty in spinal diseases and biomechanics. He is adjunct professor at University of Cassino teaching Techniques of Preventive and Adaptive Motor Activities. He authored book chapters and several peer-reviewed papers on the scoliosis focused on the conservative treatment.

Sabrina Donzelli

President Elect (2023-2024)

Sabrina Donzelli, MD, is an active member of SOSORT since 2011, part of the Membership Committee, Educational and the Consensus committee, and she is a member at large on the SOSORT Board. She is an expert clinician in scoliosis conservative treatment at ISICO Institute in Italy since 2010, a course co-coordinator of the first international online course for Scoliosis Treatment provided by ISICO (www.ppsct.org), is currently the Research coordinator at ISICO, since 2015, a Teaching Assistant at Harvard Public Health department online course on Clinical Research (www.ppcr.org), and she authored book chapters and various publication available in Pubmed in the field of scoliosis.

Sunčica Bulat Würsching

President Elect 2 (2024-2025)

Dr Sunčica Bulat Würsching, MD, works with patients with scoliosis since 2002, and is part of SOSORT since 2016. In 2018 she chaired the organization committee for the SOSORT meeting in Dubrovnik, and won SOSORT award for the article "Parental role in scliosis treatment". She served on the SOSORT Board as member at large since 2018, and as of 2019 holds the role of treasurer. Her interests in SOSORT include strengthening the Society, strategic planning and event organization.

Sanja Schreiber

Secretary

Dr. Sanja Schreiber is a clinician, researcher and an international ISST Schroth Instructor, appointed as an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at University of Alberta and the owner/director of Curvy Spine – Scoliosis and Kyphosis Specialty Centre in Canada. She has been a member of SOSORT since 2011, a Consensus committee member in 2015/16, a co-chair of the Education Committee since 2016, a Scientific Committee member since 2018, and a Board member since 2019. She authored 3 SOSORT award publications focusing on the effect the Schroth exercises and co-authored the 2016 SOSORT Guidelines. Dr. Schreiber’s goal is to raise awareness about scoliosis through SOSORT education and strengthening collaborative initiative among scoliosis practitioners.

Larry Cohen

Treasurer

Larry Cohen is the founder and principal physiotherapist at UprightCare in Sydney, Australia. He has an MSc in Exercise Physiology, is a graduate of Harvard’s PPCR clinical research course and has worked as gymnastics coach and physiotherapist at the Special Olympics and physiotherapist at the Olympics. He is on the education committee and board of SOSORT, and is in the latter stages of his PhD at Sydney University researching sagittal balance.

Lori Dolan

Member at Large

Dr. Lori Ann Dolan has been involved in pediatric orthopaedic research at the University of Iowa since 1990 and co-lead the BrAIST project. She has been a member of SOSORT since 2007, a Board member since 2017, and served as the Scientific Meeting Chair in 2018 and 2019. Dr. Dolan’s goal is to increase high-quality collaborative research among SOSORT members.

Dariusz Czaprowski

Member at Large

Dariusz Czaprowski, PT, PhD, associate Professor, Clinical and Scientific Director of The Center of Body Posture in Olsztyn, Poland.
Author and co-author of the publications related to idiopathic scoliosis, body posture, back pain and Evidence Based Clinical Practice. Winner of SOSORT 2011 Award for best clinical paper.
Dariusz Czaprowski is trained in e.g. Functional Individual Therapy for Scoliosis (FITS); Scientific Exercise Approach to Scoliosis and Scoliosis (SEAS); Barcelona Scoliosis Physical Therapy School (BSPTS); Physiotherapy of ApiFix; McKenzie method; Kinetic Control; Anatomy Trains concept by Thomas Myers.
Member of Society on Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment – SOSORT since 2011, member of Scientific Committee.

Elisabetta D’Agata

Member at Large

Dr Elisabetta D‘Agata is a PhD clinical psychologist, researcher, specialist in the area of idiopathic scoliosis. She has been involved with SOSORT and the scientific committee since 2010. Dr. D’Agata has published several research papers and has been a reviewer of many scientific journals. Her research interests are related to the application of the bio-psycho-social model in the treatment of the patients with scoliosis.
She is been an instructors for many international courses and programs. She has authored the book "Enjoy life with idiopathic scoliosis during adolescence: psychology for professionals of scoliosis".

Judith Sanchez Raya

Member at Large

Dr. Judith Sanchez Raya is a rehabilitation medical doctor who also trained as a physiotherapist. She currently works at the Vall D’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona. She specializes in structural spine deviations. She serves as the head of the Board of the Spanish Society of Rehabilitation . She is a reviewer for multiple medical journals. She holds 2 masters degrees in research, has a PPCR from Harvard University and one in Health Management from Autonomous Barcelona University.

COMMITTEES

Communication Committee Education Committee Membership Committee Scientific Committee

The communication committee is responsible for the website, advertising, newsletter, and member communication. The committee is also responsible for membership maintenance and collection.

Learn More

The Education Committee (EC) is an important part of SOSORT, consisting of chairs and a sub-committee. Our main goal is to promote and deliver specific education to professionals involved in the care of patients with spinal deformities and to the public. The EC is dedicated to creating up-to-date and well-grounded educational material, and as such, it is our mission to organize meaningful and effective educational courses that are presented as a prelude to the annual SOSORT meeting.

Learn More

The Membership Committee is responsible for receiving and reviewing membership applications and recommending new memberships to the board. They also maintain membership contact information and coordinate membership renewal.

Learn More

Looking to become a member?

The Scientific Committee is dedicated to ensuring the quality of the research communicated in SOSORT.

Learn More

SOSORT is a registered non-profit organization.

April 25-27, 2019

San Francisco 2019

Abstracts

SOSORT 2019 – San Francisco – Book of Abstracts

Corrections to 2019 Program Book

Organizing Committee

Local Host – Grant Wood

Organizing Chair – Grant Wood

Scientific Committee Chair: Lori Dolan

Scientific Committee – Lori Dolan, Angelo Gabriel Aulisa, Elisabetta d’Agata, Dariusz Czaprowski, Larry Cohen, Jean Claude de Mauroy, Sabrina Donzelli, Carole Fortin, Theodore Grivas, Nikos Karavidas, Patrick Knott, Tomasz Kotwicki, Jeb McAviney, Michael Mendelow, Stefano Negrini, Eric Parent, Nigel Price, Michele Romano, Judith Sanchez Raya, Sanja Schreiber, Luke Stikeleather, James Wynne, Fabio Zaina, Lukasz Stolinski

Educational Committee – Sanja Schreiber, Hagit Berdishevsky

Awards

Best Lectures

Recipients – Arnold Wong, Henry Pang, Francesca Di Felice, Stefano Negrini, Matthew Chung, Sabrina Donzelli, Fabio Zaina, Jason Cheung, Dino Samartzis
Title: Are Lung Functions Related to Spinal Deformities in Patients With Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Recipients – Alessandra Negrini, Sabrina Donzelli, Massimiliano Vanossi, Martina Poggio, Fabio Zaina, Michele Romano, Stefano Negrini
Title – Impact of Sports Activity on Full-Time Braced Patients: An Observational Study of 785 Risser 0–2 Adolescents with Idiopathic Scoliosis

Best Posters

Recipient: Michelle Dwyer, James Miller, James Wynne
Title: A One Year Review Examining the Effectiveness of a Collaborative Approach When Treating a 14 Y/O Female with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Using Scoliosis Specific Exercises and a Boston 3d Orthosis: A Case Report

Recipient: Deed Harrison, Ibrahim Moustafa, Paul Oakley
Title: Systematic Review of CBP® Method Employed in the Rehabilitation of Lumbar Lordosis

Dr. Manuel Rigo Lecture Award

Recipient: Dr. Manuel Rigo

Lifetime Achievement Award

Recipient: Dr. Elena Salvá

Recipient: Dr. Stuart Weinstein for his prolific work to advance our understanding of spinal deformity.

About Us

What is SOSORT?

SOSORT

Our Mission