Mitchel B. Harris, MD, is an orthopedic spine surgeon and the chief of orthopedic trauma service at Brigham and Women's Hospital's department of orthopedic surgery in Boston. He is also a professor at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass.

Ronald Childs, MD, is an orthopedic spine surgeon in northern Virginia, and he has been practicing at the Fairfax-based Commonwealth Orthopaedics since 1994. He has an interest in minimally invasive spine surgery and has several related patents pending.

Here are five orthopedic- or spine-driven ambulatory surgery centers that were opened or will open in 2012.

The Parkway Professional Center in Hagerstown, Md., had its grand opening this week, according to the Herald-Mail.

Many orthopedic physician practices are looking at possible mergers with other practices or integration with hospital or other healthcare business operations to survive in the market and increase growth and patient resources.

The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons' office of government relations will now enable AAOS members to easily send messages to Congressional representatives.

Atlantic Spine Center is opening a new office in West Orange, N.J., expanding its network to four locations.

Thus far minimally invasive spinal procedures have promised better results for patients and healthcare providers. Two spine device industry experts take a look at the future of minimally invasive markets and technology. Eric Major is the president and CEO of K2M in Leesburg, Va., and Chad Neely is the CEO of Austin, Texas-based Wenzel Spine.

Kenneth Pettine, MD, founder of The Spine Institute and Loveland (Colo.) Surgery Center is hosting an event with Paradigm Spine to support spine surgery in ASCs and help further educate surgery center owners.

Jeffrey Garrett, MD, will be joining the staff of North Fulton Hospital in Roswell, Ga., as an orthopedic traumatologist, according to Patch.com.