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SICOT e-Newsletter

Issue No. 51 - December 2012

Editorial by Maurice Hinsenkamp
SICOT President - Brussels, Belgium

SICOT: steep expansion in excellence and participation

The 33rd SICOT & 17th PAOA Orthopaedic World Conference was as great as its host city, Dubai, a place of superlatives.

This year, 3,856 participants coming from 104 different countries were registered for the conference. The five most represented nations were India, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Egypt and Japan. This continuous growth confirms the interest in and the need for a comprehensive international society of orthopaedic surgery.

We thank our four plenary speakers, Freddie Fu, Gamal Hosny, Chitranjan Ranawat and C. Niek Van Dijk for their excellent presentations, which were highly appreciated by trainees and by the most experienced participants.

The 31 symposia and the 186 invited speakers investigated the most advanced topics in each subspecialty. The main subjects were covered. In our evaluation survey of the meeting, about 70% of the participants quoted the value of the information received as very high and high. Aimed at our young colleagues, 11 Instructional Courses were organized from basic topics to hands-on surgical techniques. The Educational Day was devoted to the knee, dealing with the fundamental to the TKR complications.

Thanks to the participation of AO Spine and Trauma, ARTOF, ASAMI, IFPOS, IGASS and WOC, further specialisations and topics were explored. As part of these collaborations, the SOFCOT symposium discussed the concept of double mobility initially developed in France. The WHO project, "NOTIFY", exploring vigilance notification for organs, tissue and cell transplantation was introduced to the orthopaedic community in Dubai. Further information on this programme is available on the SICOT website.

In total, 670 oral free papers and 927 electronic posters were presented. Beside this exhaustive scientific programme everyone enjoyed the social programme and exceptional architecture of Dubai.

SICOT's other accomplishments reflect the same advancement. Our scientific journal, International Orthopaedics, with our Editor Marko Pecina, is now close to being in the top 5 comprehensive journals of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology. The latest Impact Factor is 2.025 and 1,909 pages were published in 2011. Since its foundation in 1977, thanks to the initiative of Robert Merle d'Aubigné, no less than 3,851 articles have been published and all are openly accessible to our members. In addition, the time between submission and publication is very short. Our Journal offers an exceptional international vector to the most advanced research but also remains an open forum for all those orthopaedic surgeons who have no easy access to a worldwide platform.

In 2012, thanks to the improvement of our collaboration with National Orthopaedic Societies, SICOT membership has increased significantly and reached almost 12,000 members.

These recent developments will give us more support to improve our education programme.

Along with the symposium on "Triage During Natural Disasters", MSF had a booth at the scientific exhibition in Dubai and was able to recruit 47 new volunteers for its humanitarian missions. For those SICOT members who are interested, an application form is accessible on the website in the members area: Expression of interest to participate in MSF Emergency.

Today every orthopaedic surgeon in the world should be a member of SICOT and I invite you to attend our next Orthopaedic World Conference on 17-19 October 2013 in Hyderabad, India. The online abstract submission procedure, as well as registration, is now open.

Meanwhile, I would like to wish you and your family a happy and peaceful New Year.