RealHealth on 'Global Spine Congress 2026'

The ‘Global Spine Congress 2026’ has taken place in May 2026 in Istanbul, Turkey. This is the world’s largest congress, bringing together 2,500 spinal surgeons from over 80 countries to share the latest developments in their field.

We are proud that our colleague Evelien Hoevenaars has been invited to this congress to share the positive results of the RealHealth programme for people with scoliosis.

Many people with scoliosis suffer from back pain. To date, there is little evidence that non-surgical treatment is effective for this condition. Many treatments focus on correcting the curvature or directly on reducing pain symptoms.

In her research, Evelien investigated whether people with scoliosis can benefit from the RealHealth treatment. She compared 95 RealHealth participants with scoliosis to a group that received standard non-surgical care for this condition.

One year after treatment, the group that underwent RealHealth treatment is doing significantly better than the group that received standard care. In addition, the use of pain medication has decreased, including the use of strong painkillers (opioids). This group also reports that their pain feels milder and that they experience a higher quality of life in physical terms.

Although this is an exploratory study, it shows that the claim that non-surgical treatments for scoliosis are ineffective needs to be reconsidered.