A critical step in curriculum development is conducting a needs assessment of learners. An international needs assessment in the form of a set of 15 online questions was designed and circulated in 2017 and in 2021 to the AO Spine community of members and registered users to gather input in five main areas: educational needs in spine pathologies and techniques, required improvements in practice, preferences for types of educational offerings, and profiling information. We received and analyzed 1,204 responses in English during the main reporting period in the 2017 and 1,845 in 2021.

15 questions were delivered using SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com; Palo Alto, California, USA). An email-based communication was circulated to the AO Spine members and registered users worldwide (n=~28,000). We received 1,204 responses in English in 2017 and 1,845 in 2021. An excel table was extracted and used for analysis.