He became the first American surgeon trained to provide this procedure after traveling to Germany in 2006 to learn the technique and perfect his skills. Dr. Laich is still the only spine surgeon in Illinois consistently performing the surgery, and he trains other spine surgeons from across the United States and the world. Dr. Laich is one of five surgeons chosen to collect data for a national clinical study measuring the effectiveness of minimally invasive spine surgery. Surgeons from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and South America recently attended an educational symposium about this procedure hosted at the Chicago Brain & Spine Institute.