Meet The Experts - Vol. 5

Mr. Michael Dierks - SIMEG Manager

At ICSJSRR 2024, we presented Mr. Michael Dierks with a Lifetime Recognition Award to honor his many years of contributions. He played a key role in founding Sacroiliac Medical Expert Group (SIMEG) and supported our activities for 11 years. Without him, we, sacroiliac joint experts, would never have come together to form this group.

With Michael, we have been on an amazing journey to discuss how to diagnose and treat sacroiliac disorders, a condition that was previously unknown. On September 23, 2024, after the conference in Graz, I visited his home, which also serves as the SIMEG office (Fig.1).

SIMEG OfficeDue to his illness, he has stepped down and was unable to attend the conference. It felt strange to be at the event without him, but even during this difficult time in his life, he continued to give so much to our group. I presented him with the award certificate (Fig. 2) as a symbol of our deep appreciation.

Lifetime Achievement Reward Recognition

Michael is also a Blues- and Rock musician (Fig. 3), and he never led an "ordinary" life.

M Dierks 1969 - 2024 - 1975After leaving high school, he toured with his band, met his wife and they became 4 children. He searched for a job and eventually joined a company that dealt with surgical instruments and total joint  implants. He improved his English skills and got involved in the early introduction of pedicle screws with Dr. Patrick Kluger (✝ 2021)  in Germany and founded his own company Allocon GmbH to develop spinal implants. Always looking for something new, he had a life-changing encounter with the sacroiliac joint device, DIANA.

When Dr. John Stark’s surgical technique was introduced to Germany, no one knew much about the sacroiliac joint or if DIANA would be effective. There were different surgical methods—lateral, anterior, and others—and it wasn’t clear which one was best for different types of sacroiliac joint problems. This showed the need for a global platform where experts could meet and discuss these issues, leading to the creation of SIMEG.

Constitutional meeting of SIMEG Sept. 23rd, 2013

Fig 4: SIMEG constitutional meeting, Sept. 23rd, 2013.
Founding members
left (front to rear): Dr. Pascal Militzer, Dr. Ulrike Laupichler, Dr. Jens Mechler
right (rear to front): Dr. Michael Kammal, Dr. Volker Fuchs, Dipl. Ing. P. Dreißig, Prof. Engelbert Seeber, Michael Dierks, Dr. Uwe Dott

SIMEG is not a group that pushes one treatment and excludes others. Instead, it’s a forum where experts share their knowledge about the unknown field of sacroiliac joint disorders.

At this visiting, I first heard from him that the SIMEG was founded with a great vision of creating a “Global Standard” for classifying, diagnosing, and treating sacroiliac joint disorders, much like AO (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Osteosynthesefragen) has done for orthopedic trauma.

My conversation with Michael strengthened my commitment to develop SIMEG toward this great mission further. We must stay neutral and not become too closely tied to any one company. Instead, we will maintain fair and equal relationships with many industrial companies and organizations involved in both conservative and surgical treatments for the sacroiliac joint. Like AO, our goal is to gather the world’s best knowledge and share it globally at the highest level.

Together with our new President, Dr. William Cross, I look forward to moving toward this goal.

Dankeschön, Michael! We will never forget you.

Daisuke Kurosawa

 

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Comment by Michael Dierks |

It was a great pleasure to meet with Dr. Daisuke Kurosawa on his way back from the ICSJS RR 2024 at my home. I am impressed by his excerpt from our conversation in which I briefly summarized my CV.
My particular interest for the SIJ started back in 2009 when I was asked by Uwe Siedler from SIGNUS Medizintechnik GmbH to introduce John Stark’s idea and concept of safe sacroiliac joint fusion. We presented this - until then completely unknown concept - during the annual meeting of the German Spine Society (DWG) in Munich 2009 to a surprisingly large audience of >100 attendees in a workshop session. Renowned spine, neuro- and trauma surgeons confirmed, that there might be a need for SIJ fusion in few cases, that no proven fusion technology existed at that time and that this obviously safe, and, if needed, easy revisable surgicalconcept could have a chance for acceptance in the medical community.
From there, the pioneering work of Dr. John Stark was put on solid ground by a founding group of German clinicians, who committed themselves to conduct a 2-year observational study in Germany (Fuchs, Ruhl 2011). This revealed a wide lack of knowledge about many aspects described in this book. At that time I was responsible for the surgical training and international launching of the “Distraction Interference Arthrodesis” technology. Realizing the poor knowledge among the potential surgical users I encouraged the group to found an unbiased scientific association to find the answers to the many unanswered questions.
In 2013, the “Sacroiliac Medical Expert Group (SIMEG) e.v.” was established to pool international medical experts dedicated to explore this “last frontier in orthopedic diseases” (John Stark) by means of publications, teaching seminars and annual meetings.
Now, in 2024, Dr. Stark asked me to help him with the layout, editorial and production of his book “Solving the Enigma of the Safe Sacroiliac Fusion”. The book author is a board member of SIMEG and this book is a further cornerstone of solid scientific fundamentals on which future generations of surgeons, pain clinicians, physiotherapists and patients can built their practice to solve this widely underestimated problem.
I am proud to having been a part of this project and also to support SIMEG up to this point. I am sure that SIMEG will have a significant impact on the development of SIJ pain diagnosis and treatment.
Michael Dierks

Comment by Daisuke Kurosawa |

Michael, I was honored to work with you!
Believe that I will see you again.

Kind regards,
Daisuke Kurosawa

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