The Story
At the German Spine Conference in Munich in 2009 during an industrial workshop, chaired by Prof. W. Pförringer and Prof. Hans Tieltscher, an SIJ surgical procedure was introduced which was completely unknown until that date. The Distraction Interference Arthrodeses developed by Dr. John Stark, Minneapolis, USA rose great interest among the majority of the audience - among them the later founders of our association. The discussions about ‚Failed Back Surgery Syndrom‘, chronic low back pain, diagnosis of a painful degeneration of the SIJ, imaging, anatomy and treatment options including surgical methods was led from a different point of view. The chance that an obviously revisable and - in relation to the risk of neurovascular injuries safe procedure -was at hand, opened new treatment perspectives for low back pain patients.
The conceptor insisted in controlled application by appropriately trained surgeons. The distributing company - SIGNUS Medizintechnik GmbH - accepted and supported these directives and founded a medical tutor group, who developed an educational concept. In combination with a multicentric observational study this served to control outcome quality of this new procedure. On annual user meetings promotors and offenders of SIJ surgery were invited to speak and discuss these new concepts.
The presentations of international acknowledged experts in diagnosis, biomechanics, manual and surgical therapy (e.g. Prof. A. Vleeming, Dr. Mark Laslett, Prof. M. Amling, Dr. J. Stark, Dr. T. Kibsgard) revealed the relatively poor knwoledge about this underserved field. Increasing reports about revision cases, uncertainty about the surgical technique, development and introduction of several new SIJ fusion systems led to propose the founding of an international expert society allowing independent research. Finally the user group decided to establish this society, which was realized in September 2013 under the name 'Sacroiliac Medical Expert Group (SIMEG)'.
We thank SIGNUS GmbH for their financial and scientific support during the development of our association, which was stopped completely with the official founding meeting in order to avoid any future conflict of interest and enable SIMEG to independently follow their scientific targets. No industrial sponsor is supporting our association.
In December 2014 SIMEG was introduced during the annual meeting of the German Spine Society. The breakfast symposium attracted more than 100 attendants and confirmed the demand for a special independant SIJ-discussion.
The first international special conference on SIJ surgery 'ICSJS 2015' was held in September 2015, which lifted the number of members at that time up to 42.
Chronology
December 2009 - introduction of the distraction interference arthrodesis by J. Stark in Munich, supported by SIGNUS Medizintechnik GmbH
June 2010 – Founding of a user group and work out of a study design
April 2011 - 1st user meeting and 'SI-Update' summit at the SIGNUS training center
June 2011 – Starting of a multicenter observational study including 22 centers
Sept 2011 – user meeting and ‚2nd SI-Update Summit‘
Sept 2012 – 1st international user meeting and '3rd SI-Update summit' at the SIGNUS training center
Decision to establish the user group as independant medical association
Sept 2013 – 2nd international user meeting and '4th SI-Update summit'
Sept. 20th, 2013 – constitutional meeting and separating from SIGNUS sponsorship
Dec 2013 – Internet presentation of SIMEG
Jan. 20th, 2014 – acknowledged as non profit organization
Nov. 2014 – relaunch of the website
Nov. 5th, 2014 - the association is registered at the federal association register in Cologne, 11 members
Dec. 12th, 2014 – 1st symposium and public introduction of 'SIMEG' at the annual confence of the German Spine Society, 1st general members meeting, 22 members
Sept. 18th - 19th, 2015 - 1st international conference on sacroiliac joint surgical treatment (ICSJS) in Hamburg, Germany, 42 members, re-election of the board members and president
Sept. 15th - 17th, 2016 - 3rd international conference on sacroiliac joint surgical treatment (ICSJS) in Hamburg, Germany, 49 members
June 2017 - re-election of the treasurer, decision for ICSJS 2018 to be held in Tampa, Florida, USA