The Neurosurgical Society for Colorado Neurosurgeons

Our Mission is to provide quality continuing education for our members, and promote understanding of neurosurgery in the medical community and public.

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Organized Neurosurgery in Colorado

In August 1974, Bill Bryans wrote to his colleagues suggesting an organization was needed to support the goals of neurosurgery in Colorado. Neurosurgeons recommended the formation of a state society and on January 17, 1975, the first meeting of the Colorado Neurosurgery Society was called to order by Dr. Boyd, the acting president. Over the next five years, there were discussions of the many problems facing our profession including the escalating costs of malpractice insurance, the responsibility of the state society in peer review, and payment policies of local insurance companies (one insurance representative stated candidly “I expect to completely satisfy no one.”).

During the 1980s, the rise in malpractice rates prompted conversations with representatives of malpractice carriers and of a possible collaboration with COPIC Insurance, the largest state malpractice insurance company. In 1987, these interactions resulted in the formation of the Colorado Neurosurgical IPA which brought a 10% reduction in malpractice rates. Discussions led to a proposal from COPIC for risk-sharing program for the first $100,000 of malpractice defense costs and in 1994, the Colorado Neurosurgeons Risk Management, LLC was formed. During the next several years members saw a significant decrease in malpractice premiums. Then, because the real possibility of a class-action suit against one member, this innovative and successful program had to be terminated.

Over the years, the state society has tackled many issues:

The “epidemic” of craniosynostosis in Colorado in the 1980s;

The obligation of the Society in disputes among its members, including the difficult issues of member “jousting” and member participation in malpractice cases;

The position of the Society on member responsibilities during second surgical opinions (the recommendation was to only render an opinion unless requested otherwise, a change in practice pattern);

The response to the distressing statewide variability in the incidence and type of spinal procedures;

Society support of multiple public safety issues, including a state mandatory motorcycle helmet law (never passed) and a national program initiated by Stuart Levy for the use of helmets while skiing (“It Ain’t Brain Surgery”);

The position of neurosurgery and the Society regarding integrated healthcare delivery and during the health-care reform debate;

Support of public information with the recent announcement of a Colorado Neurosurgery Society website for both member and public communication.

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The quarterly meetings of the Colorado Neurosurgery Society have been highlighted by educational programs delivered by many national, local, and member leaders on topics important to neurosurgeons. Of particular interest were the descriptions by Dr. Bolles of his experiences in “Medicine in the Third World” and as “the only neurosurgeon at the Landestuhl Regional Medical Center (Germany) – responsible for all of the neurosurgery done throughout the European Command, Afghanistan, and the Middle East area.”

Finally, the 35-year Society archive includes ongoing reports of difficulties in obtaining physician consensus on almost any subject and in obtaining financial compliance by its members (including one remarkable exchange in the form of poetry between the society’s treasurer and a member who was delinquent in paying his dues).

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