The Debbie Scarlett Award is a $1,000 prize that is awarded at the Canadian Spine Society’s Annual Scientific Conference for Best Paper annually since 2008.

Funding for this award is through a bequest of a former patient of a CSS member. Debbie Scarlett faced her illness and multiple surgeries with great courage and dignity, touching the lives of all she came in contact with. Her family is grateful for the opportunity to remember her through this award.

2026 Debbie Scarlett Award Winner

Mr. Daniel Kurtz
Machine Learning Classification of Patients with Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy into Clinically Relevant Clusters and Development of an Adoptable Clinical Algorithm

Daniel Kurtz is an MD-PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa with a background in biomedical engineering from Queen’s University. Under the supervision of Dr. Philippe Phan and Dr. Christopher Sun, he develops machine learning models to predict post-surgical outcomes for patients with spinal pathologies, in collaboration with CSORN and Praxis Spinal Cord Institute. His work bridges medicine, technology, and biomedical engineering, with a focus on translating scientific discovery into meaningful improvements in patient care.

His models are available for free use by clinicians and patients at https://ml.spinecanada.ca/.

Those interested in collaborating on machine learning applications in spinal surgery can reach him at daniel.kurtz@uottawa.ca.

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Past Winners:

2025 – Abdul Al-Shawwa
Advanced Imaging Markers of Spinal Cord Demyelination Enhance the Prediction of Neurological Outcomes in Mild Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy
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2024 – Dr. Brian Kwon
The association between mean arterial blood pressure augmentation and intraparenchymal hemorrhage after acute spinal cord injury
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2023 – Dr. Michael Bond
Wait Times for Degenerative Lumbar spine consultation and surgery: A repeated cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network
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2022 – Lukas Grassner
Motor Recovery Depends on Timing of Surgery in Patients WIth Lumbar Disc Herniation
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2021 – Dr. Jean Marc Mac-Thiong
Does participating in a national spinal cord injury registry improve actual patient outcomes?
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2020 – Dr. Stefan Parent & Dr. Jesse Shen
Ovine Model of Congenital Chest Wall and Spine Deformity With Alterations of Respiratory Mechanics: Follow-Up From Birth to Three Months
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2019 – Dr. Daniel Banaszek
Efficacy and Cost-Effectiveness of Photodynamic Therapy in Prevention of Surgical Site Infection
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2018 – Neil Manson et al
Pre-operative psychological factors significantly add to the predictability of chronic narcotic use: A 2 year Prospective Study
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2017 – Dr. Y. Raja Rampersaud
Predictors of failure to achieve minimal clinical important improvement following a stratified education and non-surgical self-management program for low back pain (LBP)
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2016 – Dr. Brian Kwon
Classifying Injury Severity and Predicting Neurologic Outcome after Acute Human Spinal Cord Injury with Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers
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2014 – Bruce Hodgson
Surgical Correction of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Without Fusion: An Animal Model.
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2013 – Jerome Paquet
Implementing the Ideal Model of Care for Patients who Sustain an Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: What Could we Expect?
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2012 – Dr. Alain Moreau
Brace versus no brace for the treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures without neurologic injury: A Multicenter Prospective Randomized Control Trial
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2011 – Dr. Alain Moreau
Role of Osteopontin biological pathway in AIS pathogenesis: How these findings could be useful for spine surgeons?
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2010 – Dr. Daryl Fourney
A Revised Spinal Instability Neoplastic Score (SINS): Final Results of a Validity and Reliability Analysis
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2009 – Dr. Samuel Bederman
Understanding Patient and Physician Preferences for Surgery on the Degenerative Lumbar Spine

2008 – Dr. Raj Rampersaud
Direct Cost Effectiveness Assessment of Surgical Intervention for Focal Spinal Stenosis Compared to Primary Hip and Knee Replacement for Osteoarthritis
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