News - Specialist Societies

British Orthopaedic Research Society (BORS) update

Wasim Khan, BORS Honorary Secretary

The British Orthopaedic Research Society (BORS) is a multidisciplinary association founded over 50 years ago, in 1961, and devoted to pursuing research relevant to orthopaedic and musculoskeletal surgery. Unlike most of the 22 BOA affiliated Specialist Societies, it benefits from a more diverse membership including surgeons, scientists, engineers and vets as well as allied health care professionals. The research interests of its membership are varied and include: Biological Science, Biomechanics, Osteo-articular Pathology, Biotribology, Molecular Biology, Bioengineering, Medical Imaging, and Patient Management. After a successful virtual meeting last year, the 2021 Annual Meeting was also held virtually on 13th – 14th September with over 100 attendees.

The Presidential Lecture was delivered by Professor Brigitte Scammell (Nottingham). An OATech session saw Professor Tom Andriacchi (Stanford) talk on ‘Bridging disciplines as a pathway to finding new solutions for osteoarthritis’. A session on One Health Initiative was moderated by Professor Debbie Mason (Cardiff) and Professor Chris Little (Sydney). Another session of the meeting focused on in-silico and invitro models and modelling. There were also free paper sessions on biomechanics and biology. The programme has become more clinically orientated in the last few years, reflected by an increasing number of surgeons attending. This year saw a joint session with the British Hip Society (BHS) as well as free paper sessions on the Hip and a keynote lecture by Professor Vikas Khanduja (Cambridge) entitled ‘Navigating the Cam: Collaboration is the Key’. The poster session themes included implants and arthroplasty, trauma and soft tissue injuries, perioperative analgesia, and optimising surgical practice and surgical guidelines.

The next International Combined Orthopaedic Research Societies (ICORS) Meeting is being held in Edinburgh from 7th – 10th September 2022, and we look forward to hopefully meeting more of you face-to-face then. n

British Limb Reconstruction Society (BLRS) update

Om Lahoti, BLRS President, on behalf of the Executive Committee

BLRS conducted its annual scientific meeting BLRS 2021 as a virtual event, due to COVID-19 restrictions. We launched the event on 15th April 2021 and the content was accessible to the registered members until 6th July 2021. Virtual format allowed us to reach out to the orthopaedic limb reconstruction community all over the world and we received a brilliant response. We have put together an excellent programme including Major Incidents Masterclass, Topics in Focus included 3D printing, Knee and Foot and Ankle Deformities. The Keynote Lecture was on basic science of fracture healing. The Nurses and Allied Health Professionals section focussed on pre-operative preparation, care during COVID-19 and patients’ experience of treatment using a frame. Free paper sessions included a very popular ‘Best of the Best’ free paper webinar. Industry also supported the event by hosting webinars, and we appreciate it. At the BOA Annual Congress 2021, BLRS hosted two sessions. Our first session was on Osteomyelitis, in keeping with this year’s theme of ‘Tackling Infection’. The second session included a round-up of Recent Advances in Limb Reconstruction, and free paper presentations. Our Secretary, Simon Britten, presented planning and delivering BLRS’ diversity and inclusion survey in the education section of the BOA programme.

This year BLRS has started a Modified Delphi process - BLRS-RPS – British Limb Reconstruction Society Research Priorities Study - to achieve consensus on research priorities amongst limb reconstruction surgeons and health care practitioners. Response is encouraging and I urge those who haven’t contributed to respond to the email from the society or directly at http://bit.ly/blrsdelphistudy.

BLRS continues to support educational activities. We have started awarding financial support to the courses that meet certain criteria, details of which are available on our website (https://blrs.org.uk). Courses receiving support will display our logo on their flyer. We encourage course organisers to apply. BLRS has been sponsoring one candidate for the Future Leaders Programme for several years and this year we have increased it to two and hope to continue. I am pleased to announce that the BLRS 2022 Annual Meeting will be in Brighton from 24th – 25th March 2022.

British Association for Surgery of the Knee (BASK) update

Alexander Dodds, BASK Honorary Secretary

The BASK Spring Congress was held as a hybrid event from Ashton Gate, Bristol in May. BASK members were able to join virtually over two days with live faculty including international faculty from the US and Canada. The meeting was interactive allowing for questions to be put directly to the faculty. BASK also organised three revalidation sessions at the BOA Congress in Aberdeen. An excellent Adrian Henry lecture was delivered by Daniël Saris of the Mayo Clinic on the management of osteochondral lesions. Revalidation sessions on fragility fractures of the knee, unicompartmental knee replacement and management of the young arthritic knee were delivered. Earlier in the year a successful registrars teaching day had also been organised by BASK.

There has also been a strong focus over the last year on developing research strategy for the organisation. This has involved the input of the membership via a survey to guide further areas of research. The BASK research fellow program continues to be successful. A number of working groups are also at present developing best practice guidance following the success of the revision knee working group in publishing guidance including BOASTs. The ACL injury prevention group and the Primary Knee Arthroplasty working group are active at present.

BASK is committed to incorporating equality within its core objectives and developing good working relationships to eliminate discrimination within our organisation. An equality and strategy framework has been developed, and a diversity questionnaire will be circulated to members by the end of the year.

The BASK Spring Congress is being planned for May 2022 in the ICC Wales – further details to be released soon.

Applications for the exec posts of Honorary Secretary, Education Lead and Early Years will be advertised by the end of the year.