Overview

Cradle to Grave research focus, specifically quality improvement initiatives related to Paediatric Orthopaedics and spinal deformity.

Publications

Gender Equity Issues in Orthopaedics: A Scoping Review
Indian Journal of Orthopaedics
Schaeffer, E.K. and Webber, D.R. and Shrestha, S. and Tidler, M.G. and Ahmed, T. and Simmonds, A.M.
DOI: 10.1007/s43465-025-01415-4
2025

Outcomes of Growth-Friendly Surgical Treatment of Early Onset Scoliosis in Children With Prune Belly Syndrome: A Preliminary Report
Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics
Ashebo, L. and Sponseller, P. and Hedequist, D. and Ramirez, N. and Oetgen, M. and Li, Y. and Accousti, W. and Ahn, E. and Akbarnia, B. and Akoto, H. and Albanese, S. and Anari, J. and Anderson, R. and Anderson, J. and Andras, L. and Aubin, C.-E. and Balsara, K. and Bauer, D. and Bauer, J. and Beauchamp, E. and Bellaire, L. and Bennett, J. and Betz, R. and Birch, C. and Blakemore, L. and Boachie-Adjei, O. and Bonfield, C. and Borden, T. and Bouton, D. and Braga, B. and Brassard, F. and Brockmeyer, D. and Brooks, J. and Buckland, A. and Bumpass, D. and Burke, R. and Cahill, P. and Camp, M. and Carry, P. and Catanzano, A. and Chemaly, O. and Cheung, K. and Cheung, J. and Cho, R. and Christman, T. and Clement, C. and Couture, D. and Crawford, H. and Crawford, A. and Dahl, J. and Dahl, B. and Demirkiran, G. and Devito, D. and Diab, M. and Drake, L. and Drake, D. and El-Bromboly, Y. and El-Hawary, R. and Emans, J. and Erickson, M. and Fehnel, K. and Field, A. and Roberto, R.F. and Fitzgerald, R. and Floccari, L. and Flynn, J. and Gabos, P. and Peirogarcia, A. and Gardner, A. and Garg, S. and George, S. and Gerow, F. and Ghazi, J. and Glotzbecker, M. and Gomez, J. and Gonda, D. and Groves, M. and Guillaume, T. and Gupta, P. and Haber, L. and Hammerberg, K. and Hardesty, C. and Heffernan, M. and Helenius, I. and Herrera, J. and Hogue, G. and Holt, J. and Howard, J. and Hresko, T. and Hughes, M. and Hwang, S. and Ihnow, S. and Illingworth, K. and Iqbal, O. and Iyer, R. and Jain, V. and Jea, A. and Johnson, M. and Johnston, C. and Jones, M. and Kadado, A. and Karlen, J. and Karlin, L. and Kawakami, N. and Kelly, B. and Kelly, D. and Kelly, M. and Klatt, J. and Koljonen, P. and Kwan, K. and Labelle, H. and Landrum, M. and Lark, R. and Larson, N. and Lavelle, W. and Le, H. and Lebel, D. and Lenke, L. and Lew, S. and Li, Y. and Louer, C. and Luhmann, S. and Lullo, B. and Thiong, J.-M. and MacKenzie, S. and MacKintosh, E. and Mangano, F. and Marks, D. and Marquez-Lara, A.J. and Martin, J. and Martus, J. and Mathew, S. and Matsumoto, H. and Mayer, O. and McCarthy, R. and McIntosh, A. and McQuerry, J. and Mehta, J. and Menapace, B. and Metz, L. and Miller, K. and Miller, D. and Miller, N. and Mitchell, S. and Miyanji, F. and Montgomery, B. and Morash, K. and Mundis, G. and Murphy, J. and Murphy, R. and Nelson, S. and Newton, P. and Ede, M. and Nguyen, C. and Niazi, T. and Pereira, S.N. and Oh, T. and Orland, K. and Ouellet, J. and Pahys, J. and Parent, S. and Pellise, F. and Perez-Grueso, F. and Perra, J. and Pizones, J. and Plachta, S. and Poon, S. and Price, N. and Puryear, A. and Ramchandran, S. and Ramo, B. and Redding, G. and Ritzman, T. and Rodriguez, L. and Rodriguez-Olaverri, J. and Roye, D. and Roye, B. and Rushton, P. and Samdani, A. and Marquez, J.M. and Sanders, J. and Sawyer, J. and Sayama, C. and Schmitz, M. and Schulz, J. and Schwend, R. and Segar, A. and Shah, S. and Shannon, B. and Shaw, A. and Shea, G. and Shirley, O. and Shufflebarger, H. and Simmonds, A. and Skaggs, D. and Skalak, T. and Smit, K. and Smith, J. and Snyder, B. and Speirs, J. and Sponseller, P. and Stone, J. and Sturm, P. and Sukkarieh, H. and Swarup, I. and Szczodry, M. and Tanaka, T. and Tetreault, T. and Thometz, J. and Thompson, G. and Tice, A. and Truong, W. and Tuason, D. and Turtle, J. and Upasani, V. and Nortwick, S. and Vialle, R. and Vitale, M. and Vorhies, J. and Wang, S. and Warner, B. and Weinstein, S. and Welborn, M. and White, K. and White, R. and Wilson, N. and Wrubel, D. and Wu, N. and Yang, S. and Yankey, K. and Yaszay, B. and Yazici, M. and Jianguozhang, T.
DOI: 10.1097/BPO.0000000000002885
2025

High Preoperative Body Mass Index Is Associated With Implant Breakage in Patients Treated With Magnetically Controlled Growing Rods for Early-onset Scoliosis
Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics
Saarinen, A.J. and Andras, L. and Boachie-Adjei, O. and Cahill, P. and Guillaume, T. and Snyder, B. and Sponseller, P. and Sturm, P. and Vitale, M. and Helenius, I. and Anderson, J. and Bauer, D. and Cheung, K. and Clement, C. and Crawford, H. and Groves, M. and Hwang, S. and Kadado, A. and Karlen, J. and Kwan, K. and Lark, R. and Louer, C. and Mitchell, S. and Morash, K. and Ouellet, J. and Segar, A. and Shah, S. and Shirley, O. and Stone, J. and Weinstein, S. and Wilson, N. and Lebel, D. and Balsara, K. and Borden, T. and Braga, B. and Buckland, A. and Burke, R. and Drake, L. and Fehnel, K. and Roberto, R.F. and Ghazi, J. and Haber, L. and Hughes, M. and Iqbal, O. and Jea, A. and Landrum, M. and Le, H. and Lullo, B. and Mathew, S. and Miller, K. and Montgomery, B. and Oh, T. and Orland, K. and Rushton, P. and Shannon, B. and Shaw, A. and Shea, G. and Simmonds, A. and Tuason, D. and Van Nortwick, S. and Bauer, J. and Beauchamp, E. and Bennett, J. and Brockmeyer, D. and Bumpass, D. and El-Bromboly, Y. and Erickson, M. and Guillaume, T. and Ihnow, S. and Iyer, R. and Jain, V. and Kelly, B. and Klatt, J. and Martin, J. and Mcquerry, J. and Miller, D. and Pellise, F. and Perra, J. and Price, N. and Schmitz, M. and Snyder, B. and Szczodry, M. and Tanaka, T. and Tetreault, T. and Smith, J. and Betz, R. and Crawford, A. and Demirkiran, G. and Emans, J. and Johnston, C. and Karlin, L. and Kawakami, N. and Mccarthy, R. and Perez-Grueso, F. and Roye, D. and Shufflebarger, H. and Peter, S. and George, T. and Yazici, M. and Accousti, W. and Ahn, E. and Akoto, H. and Albanese, S. and Bellaire, L. and Birch, C. and Boachie-Adjei, O. and Bonfield, C. and Bouton, D. and Brassard, F. and Catanzano, A. and Chemaly, O. and Cheung, J. and Cho, R. and Christman, T. and Couture, D. and Dahl, B. and Devito, D. and Diab, M. and Drake, D. and Field, A. and Gabos, P. and Garcia, A.P. and Gardner, A. and George, S. and Gerow, F. and Gonda, D. and Hammerberg, K. and Hedequist, D. and Herrera, J. and Holt, J. and Howard, J. and Hresko, T. and Illingworth, K. and Jones, M. and Kelly, D. and Kelly, M. and Koljonen, P. and Labelle, H. and Lavelle, W. and Lenke, L. and Lew, S. and Mac Thiong, J.-M. and Mackenzie, S. and Mackintosh, E. and Mangano, F. and Marks, D. and Marquez-Lara, A.J. and Martus, J. and Mehta, J. and Metz, L. and Miller, N. and Miyanji, F. and Mundis, G. and Nelson, S. and Newton, P. and Ede, M.N. and Nguyen, C. and Niazi, T. and Pereira, S.N. and Parent, S. and Pizones, J. and Poon, S. and Ramchandran, S. and Ramirez, N. and Rodriguez, L. and Sanchez, M. and Jose, M. and Sanders, J. and Sayama, C. and Schulz, J. and Schwend, R. and Skalak, T. and Speirs, J. and Sukkarieh, H. and Thometz, J. and Tice, A. and Upasani, V. and Vialle, R. and Wang, S. and Warner, B. and Wrubel, D. and Wu, N. and Yankey, K. and Zhang, T.J. and Aubin, C.-E. and Carry, P. and Mayer, O. and White, R. and Akbarnia, B. and Anderson, R. and Andras, L. and Blakemore, L. and Cahill, P. and El-Hawary, R. and Flynn, J. and Glotzbecker, M. and Gomez, J. and Hardesty, C. and Hogue, G. and Larson, N. and Li, Y. and Luhmann, S. and Murphy, R. and Murphy, J. and Oetgen, M. and Pahys, J. and Samdani, A. and Sawyer, J. and Skaggs, D. and Sponseller, P. and Vitale, M. and White, K. and Yaszay, B. and Anari, J. and Brooks, J. and Fitzgerald, R. and Floccari, L. and Garg, S. and Gupta, P. and Heffernan, M. and Helenius, I. and Johnson, M. and Matsumoto, H. and Mcintosh, A. and Ramo, B. and Redding, G. and Ritzman, T. and Rodriguez-Olaverri, J. and Roye, B. and Smit, K. and Swarup, I. and Truong, W. and Vorhies, J. and Welborn, M. and Yang, S.
DOI: 10.1097/BPO.0000000000002988
2025

Early Magnetic Resonance Imaging Use in Clinical Care Pathways for Musculoskeletal Infections in Pediatric Patients: A Systematic Review
Journal of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America
Keenan, M. and Hsu, M. and Leveille, L. and Alvarez, C. and Simmonds, A.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jposna.2024.100096
2024

Hospital Infection Control
World Scientific Series in Global Health Economics and Public Policy
Simmonds, A. and Wong, T.
DOI: 10.1142/9789811249723_0010
2022

Safety and efficacy of anterior vertebral body tethering in the treatment of idiopathic scoliosis
Bone and Joint Journal
Miyanji, F. and Nasto, L.A. and Simmonds, A. and Pawelek, J. and Parent, S.
DOI: 10.1302/0301-620X.102B12.BJJ-2020-0426.R1
2020

Thirty-Day Reoperation and Readmission Rates After Correction of Adult Spinal Deformity via Circumferential Minimally Invasive Surgery—Analysis of a 7-Year Experience
Spine Deformity
Neel Anand and Zeeshan M. Sardar and Andrea Simmonds and Babak Khandehroo and Sheila Kahwaty and Eli M. Baron
DOI: 10.1016/j.jspd.2015.08.002
01/2016

Defining the inherent stability of degenerative spondylolisthesis: A systematic review
Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine
Simmonds, A.M. and Rampersaud, Y.R. and Dvorak, M.F. and Dea, N. and Melnyk, A.D. and Fisher, C.G.
DOI: 10.3171/2014.11.SPINE1426
2015

Onabotulinumtoxin A® injections: A safety review of children with clubfoot under 2 years of age at BC Children's Hospital
European Journal of Paediatric Neurology
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpn.2013.11.002
03/2014

Research

Paediatric OrthoSAVES Data Project
Adverse event collection was revolutionized by Canadian centres with the introduction of SAVES and OrthoSAVES AE reporting systems. Our goal is to adapt these systems to Paediatric populations and move towards a robust prospective adverse events collection strategy without bias.

Nasal Decolonization
Nasal photo-disinfection therapy has been shown to be effective at decreasing surgical site infections in adult populations undergoing instrumented spine surgery. This technology has not yet been tested in a Paediatric population, but has the potential to decrease infection risk, particularly in patients undergoing scoliosis correction. The first step will be a proof of concept study in this population, likely to be followed by a multi-centre randomized control trial aiming to show a decrease in infection rates.

AIS Lived Experiences Project
This qualitative study aims to interview patients who have recently received operative or non-operative treatment through the spine program at BCCH, and describe their lived experiences. This data will be used to make meaningful change to the program to better respond to patient’s perspectives on care.

Honours & Awards

2019: PHSA+ Award: Member of the BCCH Paediatric Spine Team

2015: Educational scholarship for academic excellence: The Spine Technology and Educational Group Organization 12th Annual Symposium

2013: Canadian Spine Society Residents’ Best Paper Award

Research Group Members

Katie Applegarth, Co-Op Student
Mehak Dhaliwal, INSPIRE Trainee
Cameron Matterson, INSPIRE Trainee
Benjamin Nazif, Summer Student
Morgan Tidler, Research Assistant
Jacob Yonathan, INSPIRE Trainee