2020 Happy Hour with a Scholar Recap

Scott Kozin, MD, the AHTF’s 2020 Honored Scholar, delivered an outstanding and inspirational lecture, When You Have Nothing, A Little is A lot- Nerve Transfers in Distressed Patient Populations. His lecture included 13 videos that helped to illustrate his message. Dr. Kozin said,

“This is a talk I’ve never given before with a focus on nerve transfers and nerve surgeries in distressed patient populations with a different kind of diagnosis than we see at Shriner’s Hospital on a routine basis. There is no doubt that spinal cord injury (SCI) is terribly distressing. It’s distressing to families, it’s distressing to the children who are affected, and impacting the entire home. A lot of times it leads to ugly situations such as divorce, guilt, etc. This lecture is to share with you much of what spinal cord injury involves. It’s not just from the injury itself is treated, but also about the people we treat and how we need to support these people in a variety of ways, including emotional support, public awareness and educating people and their response so that people with SCI are just people who had an unfortunate event and they should still be treated as normal people in reference to their daily activities.”

The AHTF BOD has posted Dr. Kozin’s lecture for your pleasure. We invite you to view and listen to a description of the pathophysiology of acute flaccid myelitis, the common deficits after acute flaccid myelitis and the role of nerve transfers. Dr. Kozin also discussed the common levels of SCI, the functional deficits according to the level of SCI and the potential for nerve transfers in these patients.

The AHTF Board of Directors is grateful to Dr. Scott Kozin for sharing his expertise and wisdom with all of us. His lecture was particularly meaningful in light of such a difficult pandemic year. The American Hand Therapy Foundation, presented Dr. Kozin with a crystal plaque as a special “thank you”.

The Foundation is grateful to all who participate by donating to fund AHTF grants and volunteer their time to support the Foundation’s mission and our collective professional future.

Finally, we want to thank the Board and management of the American Society of Hand Therapists (ASHT) and Falcon Events. ASHT has been a great partner since the inception of this event – providing support and underwriting for the cost of production for your benefit this evening.