Presented at SOSORT 2026 — Turin, Italy — May 1, 2026

Dear SOSORT 2026 ANNUAL MEETING colleagues, thank you for you enthusiastic response to my talk on May 1 here in Turin, Italy. As requested by many of you, I am sharing the video of my talk.. Hagit then texted me and said that the slides were hard to read due to the angle. As a result, there are button links above so you can actually toggle through my Google Slides, or download the PDF of the slides. There is also a link there for a Google Doc Transcript which you can then use to copy/paste and translate into your language. A PDF version Button Link of the transcript is also provided. Please do not hesitate to email or WhatsApp me if you have further questions or suggestions on how we can all create a “Paradigm Shift” within our local communities to improve care for precious patients and families with earlier effective conservative methods such as exercise and better bracing. You are also all most welcome to come and visit our Hey Clinic scoliosis center here in Raleigh, NC USA!

If you would also like to see the Boston vs. Rigo SOSORT talk given by my apprentice colleague Jonathan Fasciana, this link will take you there. If there is interest, I can possibly share the slides and transcript separately when time allows!

— Sincerely, Lloyd Hey, MD MS hey@heyclinic.com

INTRODUCTION FOR OTHERS WHO DID NOT ATTEND MY TALK HERE IN TURIN ITALY MAY 1 2026

Teams change lives forever. It did for me.”

Fifty years ago, a car hit me as a teenager riding my bicycle. A team of caregivers — trauma surgeons, nurses, and a physical therapist named Barbara — saved my leg, my life, and my future. That experience set me on the path to becoming a spine surgeon.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of presenting at SOSORT 2026 in Turin, Italy, what my own team at Hey Clinic has done with that gift: a paradigm shift that has helped thousands of children and adolescents with scoliosis avoid surgery they once would have needed.

Key Results: 2,102 Patients, 2010–2024

Across 2,102 patients treated at Hey Clinic over 14 years, comparing pre-implementation outcomes to post-implementation outcomes, we documented:

• Surgery rate dropped from 24.7% to 6.2% — a 75% relative reduction
• “Green zone” achievement (final curve under 30°): 60.3% → 79.5%
• Number Needed to Treat: 5.4 — one surgery prevented for every 5–6 patients treated
• An estimated 234 children avoided spinal fusion
• Approximately $26 million in healthcare savings to families and the system

What changed

After 20 years practicing the traditional Observation-Boston Brace Method I’d been taught at Harvard, I had to honestly face what my European colleagues were achieving with a different approach. Hey Clinic’s transformation centered on four changes:

• Schroth PSSE — Physiotherapeutic Scoliosis-Specific Exercises taught by certified Schroth physical therapists
• Rigo-Chêneau 3D CAD/CAM bracing — modern, individualized bracing replacing the Boston Brace
• Earlier intervention — beginning treatment at 10–20° curves rather than waiting for progression
• A multidisciplinary team under one roof — surgeon, PAs, Schroth-certified PTs, and orthotist working together at every visit

The takeaway, in six words: Conservative excellence first. Surgical excellence when needed.

Acknowledgments

I thank God for sparing my life 48 years ago, and being with me through the valley like the Good Shepherd every since. I next thank God for my wife who has been my team-mate helping empower me to serve all the patients and families I’ve cared for now for over 30 years.

Next, I would not be alive today or able to walk, nor chosen the career of orthopedic surgery without the wonderful treatment and inspiration I received from Dr. Mark Pittman as a teenager who saved my leg and life and inspired me to help others likewise. Barbara Bader, my physical therapist helped my leg to to heal, and got my soul through a very dark valley and taught me how to walk again.

I’ve stayed in touch with Dr. Pittman for many years since my accident, always expressing my thanks for his care and mentorship. However, it was only within the last 5 years that I tracked down my physical therapist Barbara Bader, and talked several times on the phone. This past February 14, 2026, Barbara and I finally got our BIG REUNION abour 48 years from when she first started to care for me as an inpatient at Glen Cove Hospital, with my severe 3B Tibia fracture wth a large open wound. She did my Hubbard tank and wound care treatments in the hospital, taught me how to walk safely with crutches with my external fixator, and almost 2 years later taught me how to walk again after I got out of my cast and my leg looked like a toothpick!!! What a joy it was to give her a big hug and express my thanksgiving for her role in my life. I shared with all of caregivers in the huge conference center yesterday that ALL OF YOU have that same opportunity to make a LIFE LONG IMPACT on the children, adolescents and adults you treat — who may indeed come back and thank you in person almost 50 years later for changing their lives — by stopping scoliosis in its tracks, and giving hope and inspiration. If you are a physical therapist, or even considering physical therapy as a career, you can truly CHANGE LIVES FOREVER as a future Schroth physical therapist. You are welcome to come and shadow with us. THERE IS A DESPERATE NEED for Schroth physical therapists and training is possible and doable.

I am also so thankful for my top mentor, Dr. John Hall, from Boston Children’s — the surgeon I someday dreamed to become.

This paradigm shift transformation of our clinic would never had occurred without the very hard work of many Hey Clinic team members, including Kristina Stanson, PAC, KC Wheeler Orthotist, Mariah Cybator, PT, DPT, Jessie Giddings PT, DPT, our wonderful practice manager Erin Martinez, and admin staff Monica, Shay & Keyla, and wonderful current Pre-PA, PreMed MA Apprentices including Jonathan Fasicana, Luke Ward, Hana Kabir, Tobi Oluwatobi, and Auston Parsons who make up our great Hey Clinic current team. We are also thankful for many team members over the years including our Aqueduct System developers Jimmie Davies and Austin Neeley who build and maintained our incredible platform which allowed us to not just take great care of patients but improve quality and safety. Many thanks for all of our previous MA’s and other staff as well.

This actual research was completed over the last year by our “Dream Team” of Jonathan Fasciana, Nick Ratnesar, and Peter Sells who did the bulk of the work with help from some other student and Hey Clinic team members including Nate Metcalf.

I also want to thank the SOSORT community who helped inspire the change, and gave us the opportunity to present this paper yesterday, and were so enthusiastic about the paper!

But there is still much to do to improve the processes and systems and teams to improve conservative as well as surgical scoliosis care, especially partnering with our primary care and pediatric providers to ensure that we can indeed “catch the curve in the green zone” and get these precious kids into the best scoliosis exercise and possibly high tech comfortable and practically invisible brace so we can stop and even reverse the curve!

Our Current Hey Clinic Team, missing Luke Ward who was out of town this Monday just before SOSORT!!