Latest News
BOA Virtual Training Orthopaedic Trainers (V-TOTs) With the cancellation of face-to-face educational courses, the BOA have developed a Virtual Training Orthopaedic Trainers (V-TOTs) course facilitated by the BOA Educational Advisor Lisa Hadfield-Law. The V-TOTs course is currently being delivered primarily for those concerned about meeting CCT requirements, but anyone who wishes to register their interest should email policy@boa.ac.uk to be added to a waiting list. Please see further information, along with detail on the structure, assessment and cost of the V-TOTs course here: www.boa.ac.uk/vtots.
BOASTs • New ACL BOAST The BOA has recently published a Specialty BOAST, led by BASK and BOSTAA on the Best Practice for Management of ACL injuries, as well as an accompanying guideline. The BOA is pleased to be able to publish this Specialty BOAST as part of a development of the wellknown BOAST ‘branding’, to enable a wider range of standards documents to be created in collaboration with Specialist Societies. • Supracondylar Fractures BOAST Updated The BOA Trauma Committee has also recently published an updated BOAST ‘Supracondylar Fractures in the Humerus in Children’. This BOAST will be the next to feature in Injury, so keep an eye out for this too! All new Specialty BOASTs, as well as Trauma BOASTs, can be found on the BOA website at www.boa.ac.uk/boasts.
BOA Virtual Training Orthopaedic Education Supervisors (V-TOES) V-TOES will be offered through two routes: you can join a small cohort on a paid-for course (‘Regular V-TOES’) or in many regions we are holding a ‘regional V-TOES’ at the request of the TPD: • Regular V-TOES courses will have lower numbers of participants compared to regional courses and will be given greater moderation by faculty, and tailored interactions between faculty and participants based on the needs of the cohort. • Regional courses will cover high numbers of participants on each programme, with TPDs and College tutors joining as faculty. The new curriculum will require more collaboration between departments within deaneries and the BOA Regional V-TOES courses will be supporting this. These courses are being delivered as part of a BOA-led national strategy to support implementation of the new curriculum – this commenced in December 2019 and will be delivered in those regions where requested and organised by the TPD (check with the TPD for your region if you aren’t sure).
BOA ‘Coping with COVID’ webinar series
2021 Medical Student Essay Prize
At the end of October we held a webinar entitled ‘Coping with COVID: Elective operating and the second wave of COVID-19’, in partnership with BODS, BHS and BASK, which provided several different perspectives on how elective surgery was going and what data was available. We’ve had great feedback from this, with one participant describing it as “a sobering, pragmatic and informative session with erudite speakers offering guidance and support for our local challenges.” Further webinars in our ‘Coping with COVID’ series are due to be announced shortly, so keep an eye on our website and news emails.
The 2021 Medical Student Essay Prize title is ‘As a medical student, what would encourage you to consider a career in T&O and what are the perceived barriers to such a career?’ Applications for the 2021 Medical Student Essay Prize are scheduled to open 1st April 2021 and essays should be no longer than 1,000 words. Further information on the 2021 Medical Student Essay Prize can be found here: www.boa.ac.uk/medical-student-essay.
Latest BOA guidance
Further information on V-TOES is available here: www.boa.ac.uk/v-toes. If you are interested in V-TOES please email policy@boa.ac.uk to be added to the V-TOES waiting list.
New edition of ‘Standards for the Management of Open Fractures’ published The BOA and BAPRAS collaborated on this publication, which includes 21 fully updated chapters as well as the latest version of the associated BOAST. The book is available both online and in print, and can be found for free on Oxford Medicine Online thanks to funding from BAPRAS, the BOA and the OTS. We are very grateful to all who helped with this publication.
06 | JTO | Volume 08 | Issue 04 | December 2020 | boa.ac.uk
The BOA continues to support our members with guidance and support on COVID-19 related issues. At the time of going to press with this JTO issue, we have just launched with BESS and BSSH a document called ‘Information for patients having steroid injections in the upper limb or hand during the Coronavirus pandemic’, available at: www.boa.ac.uk/steroid-injections.
