This project came about because I was concerned about the impairment on the immune system by corticosteroids in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, I set out to follow up a large cohort of our population to show that we did not increase their risk for COVID infection. Turns out, they had lower risk than the general population – probably because we carefully screened patients, masked, and used vigorous social distancing and cleaning techniques. I was happy and relieved that we can continue to safely help patients with their pain!

This is a topic that continues to fascinate me. We learned so much from doing this analysis, and inter-institutional collaborations are fun and productive!

Other topics we have explored:

• Is there a similar microbiology yield from inflamed paravertebral soft tissues as the disc/endplate (Answer: yes)
• How long should you wait before repeating the biopsy if there is negative microbiology (Answer: 3 days)
• Does gas in the intervertebral disc indicate a noninfectious etiology of the imaging findings (Answer: yes, especially if the gas foci are small and few in number)

This study was humbling. I learned how difficult it is to teach a DCNN how to do what I consider a “simple” task! AI will play an increasing role in our clinical practice, but it will take a while to get there. I believe it is important for radiologists to play a key role in this development – it is OUR future after all!