The Steel Assembly (steelassembly.org), an affiliate of the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA), is an organization of health care, rehabilitation, and social service professionals with expertise in pediatric spinal cord injury/dysfunction (SCI/D) who provide education and training to professionals and establish evidence-informed standards for pediatric SCI/D research and care. The inaugural Howard H. Steel Conference on Pediatric SCI/D occurred in 1994 as a small conference designed to develop consensus statements and priorities for research in pediatric SCI. One of the primary outcomes of the 1994 consensus meeting was the need for education and training on medical management and rehabilitation of children and youth with SCI. As a direct response, every three years between 1996 and 2012, the Howard H. Steel Conference on Pediatric SCI/D was held, with the meetings drawing over 130 attendees from North and South America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. For each year that a Steel Conference was held, ASIA included a session – “The Best of Steel” – in their annual meeting during which the highest rated abstracts from the Steel Conference were presented to conference attendees. At the 2017 annual ASIA meeting, the Steel Assembly held a full day pre-course. Most recently on September 12, 2018, the Steel Assembly held a full day symposium in conjunction with the 2018 International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) meeting in Sydney with over 105 international attendees.
This issue of Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation includes five pediatric-oriented articles, including three from invited Steel Conference speakers: Dr. Bonne Lee (Stephen M. Haley Memorial Lecture), Dr. Peter New (Newton C. McCollough Lecture), and Dr. Andrea Behrman (Keynote Speaker). Dr. Behrman's second article describes activity-based therapy targeting neuromuscular capacity after pediatric-onset SCI. In addition, Cuddihy et al describes a unique surgical treatment for neuromuscular scoliosis in youth with SCI and the Schottler et al article describes research on the efficiency and biomechanics of wheelchair propulsion that Ms. Schottler conducted as a recipient of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation Allied Health Professional Research Award of ASIA.
The mission of the Steel Assembly is to advance best practice in pediatric SCI/D across the globe and to exchange and disseminate knowledge, education, and research to professionals and those affected by pediatric SCI/D. The next Steel symposium will be held in Orlando, Florida in December 2020. We hope to see you there! In the meantime please enjoy this issue.
