The American Spinal Injury Association has been serving its members in SCI medicine since 1973. At present, ASIA has 500 members in two major categories (full and associate), the majority of whom live and work in the Americas.

The mission of ASIA is to establish and promote standards of excellence for all aspects of healthcare of individuals with SCI; to educate members, other healthcare professionals, patients and families as well as the public on all aspects of SCI and its consequences in order to prevent injury, improve care, increase availability of services and maximize the injured individual’s potential for full participation in life; to foster research; and to facilitate communication between members and healthcare professionals, researches, and consumers.

ASIA is led by an 11 member Board of Directors. Officers are: President, Michael Kennelly, MD, a urologist from Charlotte, NC; President-Elect, Lawrence Vogel, MD, a pediatric SCI specialist from Chicago, IL; and Secretary-Treasurer, Michael Haak, MD, an orthopedist from Chicago, IL. Directors are: Suzanne Groah, MD, a physiatrist from Washington, DC; James Guest, MD, a neurosurgeon from Miami, FL; Andrei Krassioukov, MD, PhD, a basic scientist from Vancouver, BC; MJ Mulcahey, PhD, a researcher from Philadelphia, PA; John Steeves, PhD, a basic scientist from Vancouver, BC; Keith Tansey, MD, PhD, a neurologist and basic scientist from Atlanta, GA; Denise Tate, PhD, a research psychologist from Ann Arbor, MI; and William Waring, III, MD, a physiatrist from Milwaukee, WI. Alexander Vaccaro, MD, PhD, an orthopedist from Philadelphia, PA, is the immediate past-president. Lesley M. Hudson, MA from Atlanta, GA, is the Executive Director. The Board of Directors is supported by the work of committees composed of involved members.

The ASIA eLearning Center is one of several key initiatives at this time. Begun in July of 2009, the eLearning Center features InSTeP (International Standards Training eProgram) and its pediatric counterpart, WeeSTeP, designed to educate subscribers in the neurological classification of patients with spinal cord injury. By the end of 2010, ASTeP, for the classification of the autonomic system after SCI, will be added to the eLearning curriculum.

The ASIA website (www.asia-spinalinjury.org) is the single most comprehensive source of information about the association.