Characterizing the Representation of Different Global Regions and National Income-Levels Amongst Invited Speakers and Committee Members at Major International Spine Surgery Conferences.

Study DesignObservational study.ObjectiveTo evaluate representation of countries and gross national income (GNI) at major international spine conferences.MethodsThe 50 most attended spine conferences were identified via ChatGPT. Conferences were excluded if they (1) reference/are held in a single country, (2) emphasize one technique, (3) emphasize neurosurgery or orthopaedic spine, (4) have <2 years of conference programs available. Programs were reviewed (2022-2024) to identify invited speakers/award recipients, executive board members, and committee members and their country of practice. Countries were assigned GNI/capita from World Bank data.ResultsEurospine, GSC, IMAST, ISASS, NASS, and SRS met inclusion criteria (1462 unique invited speakers/awardees). Other than Eurospine, board members were predominantly from Northern America. Speakers were most commonly from Northern America (56.2%), with no representation from Southern Africa and Central Asia. Speakers were overwhelmingly from high-income countries (89.7%) with none from low-income countries. Speakers at GSC were the most globally representative, with 68.8% from countries diverse from GSC's executive board. GSC and NASS had the greatest representation from lower-middle (9.7%) and upper-middle income countries (30.4%), respectively. USA and Germany had 867 (59.4%) invitees, while all of Africa had four. Committee members followed similar trends compared to invited speakers for region, country, and GNI/capita representation.ConclusionsAmongst major international conferences, a preponderance of invited speakers and committee members were from a small number of regions, particularly Northern America and Western Europe. Most speakers and committee members practice in high-income countries, with no representation from low-income countries.