Beginning in November 2001 with Dr. Stanley A. Herring’s NASS presidency, NASS has taken an aggressive role in ensuring that its members are fully informed of their ethical obligations, the definition and pitfalls of potential conflicts of interest, and the need for full disclosure. In October 2002, the NASS Board of Directors adopted a new Code of Ethics, along with Expert Witness Guidelines and a comprehensive procedure with which the Professional Conduct & Ethics Committee could handle members’ complaints of violations of standards of professional conduct. In 2005, the NASS Board of Directors formed a Disclosure Task Force to discuss conflicts of interest between NASS members and the spine industry, and to develop a policy that would raise the bar for disclosures in every NASS-affiliated publication, research project, board or committee meeting, or educational program, developing a policy for Conflict of Interest Disclosure that was adopted by the Board of Directors and implemented in January 2006. Since then NASS has shared its program with other medical societies, encouraging them to adopt similar rules. The NASS Board of Directors is committed to the highest level of ethics for its members and has created an environment in which full disclosure is not only encouraged but mandatory. We continue to strive to “raise the bar” for ethics not only within NASS but in the entire field of spine care; to that end, our policies are constantly being reviewed and strengthened. The current policies are among the documents listed below.