Episode 22 - SOSORT 2026 Congress Takeaways from Turin (Season 1 Finale)

In this season finale, Dr. Beth and Dr. Laura reflect on the first season and share expert takeaways from the SOSORT 2026 Congress in Turin, Italy.

This episode highlights emerging research in scoliosis care, including early onset scoliosis, bracing, scoliosis-specific exercise, adult bracing, quality of life, AI-assisted prediction tools, and conservative care for curves traditionally considered surgical.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why Season 1 matters and how listener feedback will help shape Season 2
• Key updates from the SOSORT pre-conference on early onset and juvenile scoliosis
• How bracing and scoliosis-specific exercise may help reduce progression and avoid surgery in some cases
• New research on adult bracing for pain, alignment, and stability
• How physical activity can be protective for pain in adults with scoliosis
• Emerging AI and imaging research aimed at improving prediction and reducing radiation exposure
• Current conversations around brace type, brace wear schedules, and brace weaning
• Why conservative scoliosis care continues to be an important and evolving field

In summary:
Scoliosis care is moving toward more individualized, evidence-informed conservative treatment. Bracing, scoliosis-specific exercise, physical activity, and interdisciplinary care continue to play a major role in helping people with scoliosis improve function, quality of life, and long-term outcomes.

Resources & Next Steps:

• SOSORT: International Society on Scoliosis Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Treatment
• SOSORT 2026 Congress Abstracts
• SOSORT Membership Information
• SOSORT Donation Site

Connect with us:
Send us your questions, topic ideas, and feedback for Season 2. Your voice helps shape the future of our podcast! Email us at scolipodcast@gmail.com

If you’re curious about working virtually with a scoliosis-trained pro, connect with Dr. Laura or Dr. Beth: 

• Dr. Laura's website
• Dr. Beth’s website

Join the conversation:

Have questions about scoliosis-specific PT or want help finding a trained therapist? Reach out to Dr. Laura or Dr. Beth.

And don’t forget to follow, rate, and share ScoliPod to help more people discover evidence-based scoliosis care.

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to ScoliPod on your favorite pod catcher so you never miss an episode!

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Support the show:
If this podcast has helped you, please leave a review, share the episode, or support the show through the website homepage.

**Disclaimer: Although Dr. Laura and Dr. Beth are SOSORT members, the opinions expressed are their own and do not represent the official views, positions, or endorsements of SOSORT. SOSORT® is referenced for identification only. This content is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or officially affiliated with SOSORT. This podcast reflects their independent interpretation of the conference.**

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Scolypod, the show that's rewriting the rules about living with a curved spine. I'm Dr. Beth Taranova, and I'm Dr. Laura Glazebrook.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

As experts in the field of scoliosis and scoliosis superheroes ourselves, we're bringing you research-backed solutions, expert interviews, and real success stories that prove one thing.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

You are more than your scoliosis diagnosis. Together, we will dispel the myths and mixed information, sharing helpful insights and tips based on the most current research and knowledge of scoliosis care. If you have scoliosis, spinal fusion, or support someone who does, whether as a movement pro, family member, or anatomy enthusiast, get ready to transform your perspective on living with scoliosis. Now let's dive into today's episode. Welcome back to Scolypod, the podcast dedicated to bringing you expert insights on scoliosis, spinal fusion, and everywhere in between. Today marks the finale of our first season, and I have to say, I'm incredibly proud of what we've built together. Our goal in creating this podcast for you was to bring evidence-based conversations directly to the people who need it the most. Each time you listen, share an episode to a friend or on social media, or reach out to one of us, it reinforces the need for the space that we're creating together. Whether you're someone with scoliosis or spinal fusion, family or caregiver, or a curious healthcare provider, you are welcome and your perspective really matters. This season we've covered everything from the mechanics of spinal curvature, how scoliosis is diagnosed, to topics impacting your body from head to toe, and in every stage of life. We've tackled some tough questions and hopefully brought perspective and insight to living with scoliosis or a spinal fusion. As we close out season one, we're already deep in planning for season two because there is so much more to talk about. But we really want to hear from you. You are the reason this podcast exists. So we want season two to be shaped by what you actually want and need to hear. So reach out to us. You'll find all of our contact information in the show notes. And tell us what topics matter to you or what you need to hear. Are there topics we haven't talked about yet? What questions do you have? What have doctors not explained very well? Whatever is on your mind, we really want to know. There's no topic too specific and no question too small. And if Scolie Pod has been helpful to you, we would be so grateful if you would take just a moment to leave a review and share the show with someone who might need it. Word of mouth is really powerful and it genuinely makes a difference for our little independent podcast. If you're able, you can also help support the show financially by visiting the website homepage. That would ensure that we're able to keep prioritizing the time and space that we've made to create this content for you. So thank you truly for listening and engaging with us this season. All of your trust and listening in has made this effort so worthwhile. We'll be back for season two before you know it. Now enjoy our expert takeaways from the SoSort 2026 Congress, recorded on site in Turin, Italy.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Welcome back to Skolypod. I'm Dr. Beth. And I'm Dr. Laura. And to this is our very special episode live from the SoSort Conference in Torino. We have a special guest who is my dog Marlon. He attended some of the conference, but not a lot. I don't think he has much to say. Or maybe he does, but we would never know. We would never know. He has thoughts. He has thoughts. But we're going to give a summary of big talking points at the conference, big takeaways for you of what's really on the up-and-coming with scoliosis research. So I'll start talking a little bit about the pre-conference. So the pre-conference is usually a bit longer lectures, a little bit more of review type. So there were lectures on early onset scoliosis. So scoliosis that occurs in babies, even young kids, and also juvenile. There was some work on juvenile scoliosis. And basically showing that bracing, casting can work really well, and that there are some new technologies for actually growing surgeries where they can do a surgery that allows the baby or the young kid to keep growing and making sure that their curve is less progressing. So that's very exciting. There were some lectures that we didn't get to see because people couldn't make it here, but there was a great lecture on adult bracing and how making sure that the adult is in the most perfect alignment when bracing them can make a big difference for pain reduction and building stability around their curve, even if they've had a fusion. So actually, the case example was a person who had had a history of fusion and then used a brace to help reduce pain and improve their alignment. And then the last piece was more a practical piece where they talked about a few case studies involving bracing, involving physical therapy, specific scoliosis exercises, and how we can kind of work together with the team, including the um scoliosis therapist, the orthotist, um, to be able to make a plan and carry out that plan for that specific teen. So those were really great for the first day. So uh, well, the pre-conference, so we'll say. So then you really had the first day of the official conference.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Uh so there was a lot of discussion about scoliosis exercise and some really, really great um discussion from people all over the rehabilitation spectrum. There were some great talks from some surgeons, including a Columbia-based surgeon, a couple of surgeons from the US who actually talked a good bit about how they've incorporated bracing, different types of bracing, bracing earlier and using scoliosis exercise for their patients in order to try to prevent them from getting to the surgical levels, which I think is a really big improvement and certainly is not happening worldwide. But I'm hoping that as a profession that's where we're going because the outcomes are showing that when people are being braced appropriately and doing exercise in time, they are able to keep their curves smaller and usually avoid surgery, which is really, really awesome. There were some discussions about bracing, there the types of bracing. There are still a lot that we don't know necessarily about how long somebody should be wearing a brace, the type of brace that's uh that's optimal for someone. So there's a lot of research from around the world, different parts of the society that are looking into specifically how do we design the studies, what types of braces do we uh are we recommending, and what schedules. So just making sure that we have really good guidelines as we start researching this more and learning what exactly we need to do to help people get the help that they need. Because we do know, and we've talked about before on the podcast, the bracing is actually useful and helpful, but knowing exactly how we give that to each person can really make a difference in how their scoliosis progresses, especially if they're in a period of growth. There was also a lot of discussion on looking into what causes a scoliosis. So different groups looking at some genetic factors. Um, there were some groups who were looking at different types of treatment, including mouse models, of trying to look at creating traction and seeing how that um causes a scoliosis, because there is still a lot that we don't know about scoliosis and how it forms. Um, so that is still a big area of research. And I'm trying to think what else. There was so much, so much yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

I think those were the big ones that I can remember. I think there was a lot of talk about the mouse models because they use bipedal mice, which means they're mice that stand on two legs, but actually it's not a great model of scoliosis because they don't spend a lot of time actually standing on two legs. And because we stand on two legs, we're unique in how our spine takes loads. So even though they're looking at kind of this research, it's not really applicable to humans just yet, and partly they're doing it in mice because it wouldn't really be ethical to do to humans, they had them in traction for an hour and a half for the study. So yeah, but it is interesting that we see traction as an option for treatment. We do kind of use that in some of our scoliosis-specific methods, of course, not at that intensity. They actually do use traction pre-surgery for some bigger curves as well. So it was interesting to see those models.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Yeah, they're actually, I was looking back at the schedule, there was a lot of discussion too about quality of life, which I feel like is is an important thing. A lot of people that have scoliosis tend to have, especially if they're having pain, but there's some worries about quality of life. He's fine. Uh, there's some worries about quality of life, and so I think there are some big um that they're looking into now how we can assess and make sure that people are having a good quality of life and if there's anything that we can do as providers that can help them with their quality of life. And I think that was one thing that was a kind of a nice section to hear what people are doing to try to um advance that for us.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

So day two were we started off with the awards papers. So these are the ones that were like the highest ranked abstracts to come into the conference. So there was a paper about how scoliosis-specific exercise affects the paraspinal muscles, which are the muscles that run along your spine. And actually, they did a short treatment time, it was only 12 weeks, but they did find that people got better at activating the paraspinal muscles by using the scoliosis-specific exercise. They didn't see big changes in terms of like strength or some of the other things they looked at, but I think that was because it was just a short time that they were doing the exercises, and we find even with our clients that it definitely takes like up to six months to really see the big changes in strength. Um, there was uh some papers looking at creating AI algorithms to see if it was possible to predict people who would progress with scoliosis, and they weren't really able to get that algorithm just yet. They're still working on that. There were papers looking at how can we improve the consistency of research with bracing, what terms should we look at, what should we be adding into the research? And then I think the big paper that was like very exciting because the speaker was like very motivated was there was a surgeon that came to speak on his paper, and he was really inspired by some new research that had come out many years ago that showed bracing that bracing is effective to help prevent surgery with scoliosis. And that was really like a landmark study that kind of changed a lot of the field. So he he took that back to his clinic and he changed the type of brace he was using. He started using Rigo Chineau, which is a more 3D brace. Um, he got a shrough PT on staff, and then he was putting all of his patients in bracing and shrough PT, pretty well, not all, but like as appropriate. A majority, a larger majority. A larger majority of them. And he found that across his um patients, which I think he had about 2,000 patients in a study, that he was able to prevent something like 290 surgeries. I don't remember the um the big thing the when he compared it to his before he made those changes. So I think that's a big deal, like to prevent that number of surgeries. And he was even saying that that's equivalent to um like millions of dollars in savings from those surgeries, right? Like that that and hit that was his statement to say, like, hey, we show this to the insurance company. So they start covering shroth and they start covering the brace to show that it's actually cost efficient to do conservative care. So that was really an exciting, exciting one. Um, and and even some of the kids he was able to get under 30 degrees, which is exciting because usually curves under 30 degrees don't have a high chance of progression. So that was really cool to see. Some of the other papers, also fantastic papers, were more talking about assessment and and things like that. Um, so we won't go too much into that. There was a great uh talk from one of the surgeons. Um, he is the president-elect of the SRS, and he was talking about how new research is telling us some different um ideas for when you should have scoliosis surgery because I realize there's a lot of people that they might be, as a teen or a young adult, might be in the range that they would be eligible to have a scoliosis surgery, but maybe don't want to have it at that time and want to wait. So they were talking about, you know, if there's there's more risks as you get older, um, and that, you know, of course, the decision to have surgery has to be a discussion between you and your surgeon and if it's the right time for you. Um, we had a big talk on AI and um using AI to predict medical events, and I think that it's still going way over my head. The the AI algorithms, I think, are still a little like too advanced for my brain, but basically they're figuring out ways to use AI to make predictions so that they don't have a ton of false negative results.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Yeah, there's there's a lot. There were different, we also talked um yesterday a little bit about like imaging and how to use AI and different types of things, different types of technologies to decrease people's radiation exposure from X-rays. And there's a lot of really cool stuff that's happening, but I think ultimately at the end of the day, all the research is just telling us that we need more studies. So we can't, the gold standard is still to take the X-rays, and they're just still trying to find with using AI, with using different technologies like ultrasound and um you know other modalities to try to create something that's as good as the X-ray. But I think the answer is we're not there yet.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

There was one study I forgot to mention out of China where they actually looked at teens who teens and actually young adults, they had some that were skeletally mature for bracing and physiotherapy for curves that were 40 to 60 degree range. And I think traditionally those curves would be not treated, right? Like those curves would go to surgery, but these teens decided and their families decided not to have surgery, so they treated them conservatively with bracing and scoliosis-specific exercise, and they had some fantastic results. Many of them they actually brought down out of a surgical range, which was incredible. So I think there's still a conversation to be had about these curves that are actually in surgical range. Can we treat them conservatively with a really corrective brace and the right therapy treatments? Like, we can we maybe bring those curves down out of a surgical range, which is pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

For sure. There was also a general theme so far, too, about bracing earlier, like when kids are younger and when people are more flexible, because as we've talked about before in other episodes, the more flexible the spine is, generally the better the outcome is. So it's lots of variables, lots of variety when it comes to scoliosis.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

That actually brings up a really good poster that I saw. So at this conference, there are platforms and posters, and I was going through the poster section, and there was a poster that actually looked at adults with scoliosis and how much pain they had. And it it actually pain was not correlated with the severity of the curve, but they did find that people who were more physically active had less pain. So that's I think that's going along with what you're saying. That like, yes, you can have a more severe curve, but being physically active can really help you with pain, even at that high curve level, or even at minor curve level, any range really. Um, when they they they equilibrated it by the the cob, the age, the BMI of the person, still physical activity was showing to be protective for pain.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

And I think we've both seen that. Like I in myself, I see it certainly, and I see it in the people I work with. I'm sure similar for you. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

So how about today? Because we're kind of in the midst of day three, so you've been in some of the lectures this morning.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

So day three, um, day three is always a half day, and so far today, there's been a lot of discussion about bracing, again, looking at whether we um how we best do bracing, because there's a wide variety, even within the same city, like where I live, there are some doctors who are doing it very differently. So, as a society, we're trying to look at how can we make best practice, how can we determine what is going to be the most effective, what's going to give someone the best quality of life, how do we not over brace. So, some of the um some of the studies so far today have been looking at how much um like so there's something if you've heard of, if you've worn a brace, there's something called a weaning, like weaning out of the brace instead of stopping the brace completely all at once, you start to wear it less and less. So, one of my favorites so far this morning has been looking at outcomes. So people they did like just this analysis of studies where people kind of weaned out and stopped wearing the brace in like a gradual manner versus if they did just kind of stopped wearing it completely. And actually, there is a difference in just degrees of how much a cob angle or how much their curve comes back by by a couple of degrees. People who choose to wean um they tend to have a little bit less regression of that curve, a little bit less um of the curve coming back than if you just stop wearing the brace completely. Of course, it's still a small study, it's like a, you know, there's always research is always needed, more research is always needed. But that was that was an interesting thing that I know I can take back to the people that I work with and tell them, especially if it's a child that's been wearing a brace, maybe we wean instead of you know just go straight into not wearing it. There were also some good discussions about, excuse me, the the type of brace and how we make sure that we are using the right type of brace, using the right amount of hours, and so lots of discussion into that. There were a lot of reviews on what's been done already. Again, just sort of trying to find what's going to be the best for everyone moving forward as far as making it standard for people. Then there's also some talks later today from some of our favorite um people on exercise, scoliosis exercise, um, how we make sure what we're doing is effective and how we make sure that we're trying to standardize. Um, and so most of today is really about bracing and exercise, which I think as physios or as PTs, that's sort of our wheelhouse. Um, but I think that the overall theme of today is we know these things work. We want to nail down how to how do we make it most effective, how do we create an environment where we're doing something similar so that people are getting better outcomes and so that we can we can say as a society we are advancing and pushing forward a better care for people with scoliosis. And I think that's the goal is everyone has come here and spent their money and spending their time to try to figure out how we can best serve the people that we work with. Um and I I think that every year I just leave a little more inspired.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Absolutely, and it's great to see a lot of the research aligning with what we already see in practice, right? It's just confirming what we're already doing with scholars specific exercise, bracing, um, and it's really exciting to see that all coming together. So yeah. Um, I'll say too, just because like this is like our summary of the research and what we've learned. Of course, we are members of SoSort, but we don't represent SoSort. This is, you know, if you want to learn more about SoSort, you can go on their website, you can download the abstracts from there as well. So you can read the the articles, and I'll leave that information in, we'll leave that information in the show notes. Um, but yeah, so a really exciting conference, a good, a good session.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Um yeah, well, and I'll just end or kind of add on to that. You also don't even have to be a provider to be a member of SoSort, you can just be somebody living with scoliosis, you can be a non-medical member and you can be um, you can come to the conferences and you can listen in. So you don't even have to be a PT or you don't have to be an orthodist, you can just be someone who really is interested if you're if you're a parent of somebody with scoliosis or if you have scoliosis, because we do have people that do that. So, and it really is a great way to just be surrounded by a bunch of people who are just passionate about the things that you are. Um, and it's it's just a it's a great way to to give your money and your time to an association that's really trying to move things forward in a good direction.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Yeah, and if you're really inspired by SoSort's goals and what we do, like you can donate to SoSort, and that can help to give grants for research or do other things where we're working with Scoliosis conservative care. So if that's a um thing, a goal or a thing that you're interested in, then you can also make donations to SoSort as well. Yeah, cool. Well, thank you for tuning in this episode of Scolopod. I hope you got a lot out of this episode, and we'll see you on the next one. Bye. Bye.