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| Full name | Joseph P. O'Brien |
| Profession | Masters in Business Administration |
| Actual professional positions | President & CEO National Scoliosis Foundation www.scoliosis.org Co-Founder, Advisory Board Member & Secretary Society on Scoliosis Orthopedic & Rehabilitative Treatment www.sosort.org Co-Founder & Editorial Advisor SCOLIOSIS Journal www.scoliosisjournal.com Board Member & Patient Representative US. Bone & Joint Decade www.usbjd.org Advisory Panel - Patient Representative FDA – Center for Devices & Radiological Health www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices Honorary Fellow Member & Committee Advisor Scoliosis Research Society http://www.srs.org/ |
| Short biographical notes (300 words) | Joseph P. O’Brien is President & CEO of the National Scoliosis Foundation (NSF), an internationally recognized patient organization, whose primary mission is the early detection and treatment of scoliosis. Currently, NSF serves a community of more than twenty thousand people in North America. For more than thirty years, Mr. O’Brien has been a scoliosis patient advocate and health care educator, who has collaborated extensively with the research and medical community on a global basis for the conservative management and acute health care for chronic spinal deformities. In 1996, Mr. O’Brien was recognized in the U.S. Congressional Record for bicycling 3,800 miles across the U.S. to raise awareness about spinal deformities and the need for etiology research to find the cause, prevention and cure of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. This campaign helped to establish a new directive in the field of scoliosis and led to seed funding, NIH funding, and private investment supporting potentially new treatment approaches and biochemical methods to detect progressive scoliosis. He has educated and trained more than 3,000 school nurses, physical education teachers and other healthcare professionals for scoliosis screening. He has also given numerous oral presentations and poster displays at medical conferences throughout the world. In addition, Joe has consulted, edited or co-produced a dozen books and videos on scoliosis and he is a co-author of seven papers published in the Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Disability & Rehabilitation, and the Scoliosis Journal. In 2006, the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) recognized Mr. O’Brien’s contributions to research and the field of scoliosis and elected him as an Honorary Fellow. He is an active advisor to three SRS committees. Mr. O’Brien is also a co-founder and former Board member and Treasurer for the Society On Scoliosis Orthopedic and Rehabilitative Treatment (SOSORT) and a co-founder and editorial advisor for the peer reviewed online SCOLIOSIS Journal. In 2009, Mr. O’Brien was elected to the Board of the U.S. Bone & Joint Initiative representing all musculoskeletal patients, In 2011, Joe was appointed as a Patient Representative on the Advisory Panel for the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Joe is a scoliosis patient, who has had four spinal surgeries since 1966, and is fused from T4 to L5. Twelve out of twenty nine living O’Brien family members have scoliosis, including Joe’s two daughters and a son. |
| Award received (Year, title of the scientific work, awarding institution) | |
| Medline published papers (number) | 9 |
| Book chapters | |
| Book | |
| 5 most important Medline papers (copy and paste reference from Medline) | Living with scoliosis: an adult perspective O’Brien J Scoliosis 2010, 5(Suppl 1):O43 (10 September 2010) The International Research Society of Spinal Deformities (IRSSD) and its contribution to science Bagnall KM, Grivas TB, Alos N, Asher M, Aubin CE, Burwell GR, Dangerfield PH, Edouard T, Hill D, Lou E, Moreau A, O'Brien J, Stokes I, Weiss HR, Raso JScoliosis 2009, 4:28 (22 December 2009) Suggestions for improvement of school screening for idiopathic scoliosis. Grivas T B; Vasiliadis E S; O'Brien J P Studies in health technology and informatics 2008; 140():245-8.. A century of spine surgery: what can patients expect? Hawes Martha C; O'Brien Joseph P Disability and rehabilitation 2008;30(10):808-17. How to improve the effectiveness of school screening for idiopathic scoliosis. Grivas Theodoros B; Vasiliadis Elias S; O'Brien Joseph P Studies in health technology and informatics 2008;135():115-21. |