SICOT e-Newsletter

Issue No. 3 - December 2008

Editorial

Prof Cody Bünger, SICOT President

SICOT’s mission is clearly described in our constitution and bylaws. Nevertheless, it is imperative that SICOT strengthen its position in relevant scientific, political and public forums. The highly regarded SICOT profile with its outreach activities, training programmes, diploma examinations and scholarships must work even better and be more visible.

I have identified a number of strategic areas to concentrate our forces:

1. Expansion of cooperative ventures with large international societies, such as AAOS, the Chinese Orthopaedic Association and EFORT, but also with the individual national societies.
2. Improvement of SICOT’s global image in relation to industry and international health organisations such as WHO.
3. Redefinition of our membership in relation to subspecialty SICOT Chapters to be laid out in the Newsletter and on the website. Many of our members are world leaders in their orthopaedic subspecialties. We need to show that not only to our young members, but also to our industrial collaborators so that SICOT can be a trustworthy partner in promoting their products.
4. Providing agreeable relationships with the subspecialty societies SIROT, IFPOS, SRS, Hip Society, etc., which have a vital position in SICOT and in our congresses. Our mutual goals are to disseminate and teach globally cutting edge orthopaedics.
5. Create a smoother and more cost-effective business structure in the SICOT Head Office with sufficient use of our new financial tools to create more resources for core activities such as membership, national delegates and outreach programmes. Most of the work of committees shall be done through the website before the annual business meetings.
6. Continuous input to the strategic plan is essential from committee members and national delegates through the website.

The SICOT Strategic Plan will cover the next two trienniums since we have already set our plans for the SICOT 2014 congress in Brazil. The Strategic Plan shall serve as a fixed agenda at our meetings governed by our new Secretary General, Prof Dr Jochen Eulert.

Our last two meetings in Marrakech and Hong Kong have been successful from both a scientific and a commercial point of view. We are greatly indebted to the Congress Presidents Thami Benzakour and Keith Luk and to all participants.

I wish Good Health to all of you. Thank you for sharing the challenging and promising future of SICOT.