The Lifetime Achievement Award occupies a singular place among the honors conferred by the Scoliosis Research Society. Founded to advance the science and treatment of scoliosis and related spinal deformities, the society reserves this distinction for members whose entire careers have produced a lasting impact on the field through clinical care, research, education, and leadership. It is not an award for a single discovery or a single operation, but for a body of work that reshapes how a discipline cares for its patients. In selecting Dr. Polly, the society recognized a surgeon whose influence has been felt simultaneously in the operating room, in the research literature, in military medicine, and in the classrooms and clinics where young physicians learn the craft of spine surgery.

For Dr. Polly, the recognition carries a deeply personal resonance. In remarks accompanying the announcement, he described the honor in terms of lineage and gratitude, saying that he stands on the shoulders of giants and that the people who were his professional heroes were themselves members of the Scoliosis Research Society. To now be recognized by his peers and included among those who came before him, he said, is incredibly meaningful, calling it the ultimate professional honor and adding that he is deeply humbled to receive it. That framing reflects a career built less on individual celebrity than on participation in a collective, international effort to improve outcomes for patients with some of the most technically demanding conditions in orthopedics.

Dr. Polly’s path to this distinction began with his graduation from medical school in 1985, launching a career in medicine that has now stretched across more than forty years. A defining chapter of that career unfolded in the United States military, where he served for twenty-five years. Among his most consequential assignments was a decade at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, one of the nation’s flagship military medical institutions, where he served as Chief of Spine Surgery and Chair of Orthopedic Surgery. In those roles he was responsible not only for the surgical care of service members with severe spinal injuries but also for the organization and leadership of an entire orthopedic department, experience that would shape his later emphasis on systems-level thinking in patient care and research.

In 2003, Dr. Polly joined the University of Minnesota, adding an academic dimension to a career already distinguished by military service. Three years later, in 2006, he began his work with Shriners Children’s Twin Cities, the pediatric specialty hospital that would become the center of his clinical identity for nearly two decades. There he devoted his practice to children with complex spinal conditions, including severe scoliosis and other deformities that demand meticulous planning, advanced surgical technique, and long-term follow-up through a child’s growth. He officially retired from his clinical practice at Shriners Children’s in 2023, leaving behind a program and a culture of care that colleagues describe as transformative for the institution and its patients.

Reflecting on his years at the hospital, Dr. Polly described the work as one of the most rewarding parts of his career. Children, he observed, are often dealt a bad hand in life, and part of the physician’s task is to help them deal with it. He recalled one patient in particular, a child with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, a rare genetic skeletal disorder that produces profound spinal and orthopedic challenges. The boy faced a series of complex medical problems, and his care was a genuine challenge, yet he carried the most positive attitude of almost anyone Dr. Polly said he had ever encountered. That child, in the surgeon’s telling, remains a vivid example of the resilience of children and the strength they can display in the face of adversity, a reminder of why pediatric spine work demands both technical mastery and profound empathy.

Beyond his individual surgical practice, Dr. Polly played a pivotal role in advancing the care of children with complex spinal conditions by building and leading research collaborations that have improved outcomes for patients around the world. Multicenter research has become the engine of progress in spinal deformity medicine, where rare and heterogeneous conditions make single-institution studies insufficient, and Dr. Polly’s career has been closely tied to this collaborative model. His work has helped establish the evidence base that guides modern surgical decision-making, from the timing of intervention in growing children to the long-term assessment of deformity correction. Colleagues note that this combination of clinical volume and research leadership is precisely the profile the Scoliosis Research Society seeks to honor with its lifetime distinction.

Education and mentorship form the third pillar of the career now being celebrated. Dr. Polly has taken great pride in training the next generation of physicians, and he speaks about teaching with the same blend of humility and ambition that characterizes his view of the award itself. The greatest honor, he has said, is to have a student exceed the teacher. He counts himself fortunate to have had several students who fall into that category, and he expects that some of them will one day receive the same Lifetime Achievement Award. Knowing that you have helped prepare the next generation of physicians, and that they may go on to accomplish even more than you did, is one of the most gratifying parts of the field, he reflected, articulating a philosophy in which a surgeon’s legacy is measured as much in successors as in operations.

That legacy is visible in the testimony of those who trained and operated alongside him. Dr. Christopher Vara, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Shriners Children’s Twin Cities, performed numerous spine surgeries with Dr. Polly and said he greatly values the knowledge and experience he gained through their work together. Working with Dr. Polly, Dr. Vara explained, has been one of the highlights of his career, describing his colleague as always generous with his time and committed to helping everyone around him become better physicians. In Dr. Vara’s assessment, the Lifetime Achievement Award could not go to a more deserving individual, one who has changed the lives of countless patients and whose mentorship and friendship have left a permanent mark on the surgeons who worked beside him.

The 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award thus arrives as both a capstone and a passing of the torch. From Walter Reed to the University of Minnesota to the operating rooms of Shriners Children’s Twin Cities, Dr. Polly’s career has traced the modern arc of spine surgery itself: the rise of evidence-based multicenter research, the refinement of surgical techniques for the most severe pediatric deformities, and the professionalization of mentorship as a deliberate discipline. As the Scoliosis Research Society gathers in Sydney this October to honor him, the recognition affirms a simple but demanding standard, that the highest achievement in medicine lies in the combination of skilled hands, rigorous science, generous teaching, and an abiding commitment to children whose conditions would once have left them without hope. For the patients, students, and colleagues who filled those four decades, the award confirms what many have long believed about the man they call their teacher, their partner, and their friend.

Subject of Research: Lifetime Achievement Award for pediatric spine surgeon Dr. David Polly Jr. from the Scoliosis Research Society

Article Title: Shriners Children’s Twin Cities Dr. David Polly Jr. earns prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award

Article References: Shriners Children’s Twin Cities Dr. David Polly Jr. earns prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: David Polly Jr, Scoliosis Research Society, Lifetime Achievement Award, spine surgery, pediatric orthopedics, scoliosis, Shriners Children's Twin Cities, spinal deformity, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, medical mentorship, spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, orthopedic surgery

Tomà’s path into medicine began in Genoa, where he earned his medical degree from the University of Genoa in 1976. Even at that early stage, he demonstrated an unusually clear sense of direction. Rather than choosing between the two disciplines that fascinated him most, he completed dual training in both radiology and paediatrics, a combination that would become the foundation of his entire professional identity. Understanding children as patients, not merely as small adults, and understanding imaging as a tool to serve their specific clinical needs, allowed him to approach diagnostic problems with a perspective that many colleagues spent careers trying to emulate.

In 1980, he joined the Department of Imaging at the G. Gaslini Institute in Genoa, one of Italy’s most prestigious paediatric hospitals. There he advanced steadily from registrar to senior roles, eventually serving as Director of the Ultrasound Division from 1992 to 1994. Ultrasound was, during those years, transforming paediatric imaging: it offered a radiation-free window into the bodies of infants and children, and Tomà became one of its most articulate champions. His leadership of the division coincided with the rapid maturation of paediatric sonographic techniques, and he was widely regarded as a clinician who insisted that technological capability must always be matched by clinical judgement.

His exceptional leadership capabilities led to his appointment as Director of Radiology at the G. Gaslini Institute, a position he held from 1995 to 2009. His responsibilities expanded further when he took on the role of Director of the Department of Imaging between 2005 and 2009, overseeing a broad portfolio of diagnostic services at one of Europe’s leading children’s hospitals. In 2010, Tomà relocated to Rome to assume the directorship of the Imaging Department at the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, the Vatican-affiliated paediatric institution that ranks among Italy’s foremost centres for children’s medicine. The move cemented a legacy that spanned the country’s two great paediatric institutions, and under his guidance the Rome department continued to develop as a national reference point for advanced paediatric diagnostics.

Alongside his institutional responsibilities, Tomà was a deeply committed educator. In 1990 he was appointed Professor of Paediatric Radiology at Genoa University’s Postgraduate Schools, and for more than three decades, across both Genoa and Rome, he mentored, inspired, and led generations of talented young Italian paediatric radiologists. Former trainees describe an environment in which rigor was expected but never at the expense of encouragement, and in which the intellectual excitement of the field was communicated with characteristic warmth. Many of the radiologists now leading paediatric imaging services throughout Italy trace their professional formation directly to his teaching, a measure of mentorship that few in any subspecialty can claim.

As a researcher, Tomà was prolific and influential. He published more than 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals, alongside numerous book chapters and textbooks that became standard references for trainees and practitioners alike. His major scientific contributions advanced three areas in particular: radiation protection in children, early screening protocols for neonatal hip dysplasia, and advanced paediatric chest imaging. Each of these fields carries enormous practical weight. Radiation protection addresses one of the central ethical tensions in paediatric medicine, since children’s developing tissues are more sensitive to ionizing radiation and their longer lifespans amplify cumulative exposure risks. Tomà’s work helped embed the principle of keeping paediatric doses as low as reasonably achievable into everyday clinical practice.

His contributions to neonatal hip dysplasia screening were similarly consequential. Developmental dysplasia of the hip affects a meaningful proportion of newborns, and ultrasound-based screening protocols, refined and validated by researchers across Europe, have allowed clinicians to identify and treat the condition early, often avoiding the need for invasive interventions later in childhood. Tomà’s work in this area helped establish the evidence base and the practical screening frameworks that many European services adopted. In paediatric chest imaging, meanwhile, his research pushed the field toward techniques that maximized diagnostic yield while minimizing the burden on young patients, an approach that anticipated the modern emphasis on patient-centred imaging.

Tomà’s expertise made him a cornerstone of radiological societies in Italy and far beyond its borders. At home, he served as President of the Italian Society of Paediatric Radiology from 1996 to 2000 and acted as a long-term delegate for the Italian Society of Medical and Interventional Radiology, known as SIRM, representing Italian paediatric imaging on the international stage. In Europe, his influence was even more visible. He served as Vice-President of the European Society of Paediatric Radiology from 1999 to 2002 and then as President from 2002 to 2003, guiding the society through a period of growing collaboration among national paediatric imaging communities. He later served as a Trustee and elder statesman, a role known within the ESPR Board as that of a Wise Man, offering counsel drawn from decades of institutional experience.

In recognition of his outstanding lifelong service, the European Society of Paediatric Radiology awarded him its prestigious Gold Medal in 2016, one of the highest honours the subspecialty can bestow. He was also a member of numerous editorial boards, including that of the journal Pediatric Radiology, where he served for many years and helped shape the scientific record of the field he loved. Colleagues across these organizations consistently described him as a figure whose opinion carried weight precisely because it was offered with such care and generosity, never as a reflex but always as a considered contribution to a shared enterprise.

Beyond his immense academic accolades, Professor Tomà was widely recognized for his wisdom, patience, and perspective. Colleagues frequently noted his gentle ability to differentiate between the truly important and the merely urgent, a philosophy that made him a calming and authoritative guide for young doctors and international boards alike. In a medical culture often driven by haste and metrics, he modelled a different kind of leadership, one grounded in listening, reflection, and long-term thinking. He leaves behind a legacy of scientific excellence and profound kindness. As a true polymath, his knowledge of the arts, literature, and history was profound, and those who worked with him recall an understated, brilliant mind that he shared with humour and sensitivity. He is survived by a global community of colleagues, students, and friends who will miss him deeply, and by a field that stands, in large part, on the foundations he helped to build.

Subject of Research: The life and scientific legacy of paediatric radiology pioneer Professor Paolo Tomà

Article Title: Professor Paolo Tomà

Article References: Rosendahl, K., & M. Owens, C. (2026). Professor Paolo Tomà. Pediatric Radiology, 56(10), 2092-2093. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00247-026-06723-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s00247-026-06723-x

Keywords: Paolo Tomà, paediatric radiology, obituary, ultrasound, radiation protection, hip dysplasia screening, chest imaging, G. Gaslini Institute, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, European Society of Paediatric Radiology, medical mentorship, Italy