We, the SIMEG-Board of directors, ananimously choose to recognize Mr Michael Dierks as our second recipient of this award.
Vielen Dank, Michael, for all you have done in your lifetime to organize and manage SIMEG. You brought all of us SIJ experts together. This group is the only one in world that is academically connected to the sacroiliac joint.
Yop have devoted your life to create and grow this group, keep it alive. We will vorever remember you as the soul of this group.
Graz, Sept. 20th, 2024 - President Daisuke Curosawa

Daisuke Kurosawa SIMEG President

Dear Daisuke,
Dear SIMEG Board members

I thank you for the acknowledgement of my contribution to SIMEG and particularly to the – as I would call it – Sacroiliac Joint Community:  Surgeons, Physicians, Scientists who are dedicated to explore this “Terra Incognita”.

Our first International Conferences on Sacroiliac Joint Surgery (ICSJS) in 2015 and 2016 under the presidencies of Volker Fuchs and Thomas Kibsgard were each attended by close to 100 people and up to 20 companies and since then SIMEG is working on answering the many open questions, for example the establishment of a diagnostic guideline or an international case registry.

The attempt to introduce SIMEG to the United States in 2017 and 2018 had not really been very successful, the pandemic added more insecurity, and many early members from Germany seemed to loose their interest. President Jeff Donner launched a successful series of educational webinars in that period which can all be downloaded from our website, and now, thanks to our president, Dr. Daisuke Kurosawa, supported by the former and actual board members, the scientific work of SIMEG developed and slowly starts to be acknowledged by larger orthopedic and spine associations.

So I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to

  • First my wife Anne and my kids, who had to spend many hours and days without me
  • to Dr. John Stark who impressed me by his deep understanding and care for his patients back in 2009, and
  • Volker Fuchs, with whom I founded SIMEG in 2013 after some years of teaching and educating surgeons all over the world to understand the subject of Sacroiliac Joint disease and treatment.

It was my great pleasure to host the SIMEG’s 10th anniversary and ICSJS 2023 last year at my hometown, which is the residence of our association. During that and moreover during this meeting in Graz the need for an unbiased association dealing with the SI topic becomes obvious and I am glad that I have been able to contribute to SIMEG’s development.

I really regret that I cannot join you today in Graz and join your conference dinner tonight. Enjoy it! Thank you and don’t stop your important commitment!

Wermelskiirchen, Sept. 21st, 2024
Michael Dierks

 

Award