Specialty Society updates

British Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (BOFAS) update

Paul Halliwell, BOFAS President

During the last 20 years, BOFAS has grown enormously in membership and activity. The BOFAS Principles of Foot and Ankle Surgery course has evolved to become required attendance by many Deaneries and has been delivered in countries including India and Africa. BOFAS was honoured to be Invited Society in 2022 by the European Foot & Ankle Society in Edinburgh and the American Foot & Ankle Society in Quebec. Educational resources offered through the BOFAS website are increasingly expansive and we have further developed the webinars necessitated by COVID-19 including a successful Master Techniques series.

BOFAS’ Scientific Committee has engaged with the National Societies Research Leads forum and is running the UK-Foot Ankle ThromboEmbolism project (UK-FATE) as well as continuing work with the NICE and the James Lind Alliance.

The BOFAS Registry continues to grow not only in size, but also in national significance. In June, NICE recommended input of any first MTPJ replacement onto the BOFAS Foot and Ankle Registry. Discussions with the BOA, GIRFT and NHS Digital regarding development of an implant registry continue. BOFAS meets with Beyond Compliance / ODEP, and our Ankle Arthritis Networks Steering Group helps colleagues offer the most appropriate management to each ankle arthritis patient even if they themselves choose not to develop an ankle replacement practice. Networked care is increasingly important in other fields of care, especially that of the diabetic foot, so will figure highly during our March 2023 Congress in Liverpool.

These intense fields of work could be regarded as an impenetrable inner circle by the next generation, especially those who could be forgiven for believing there is a ‘typical’ Committee person. To understand this better and enhance accessibility we have created the role of BOFAS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead.

BOFAS takes a pride in keeping patients’ interests at the centre of everything, whether directly by providing information through our website for example, or indirectly by training and mentoring the next generation, collecting clinical outcome data, raising the standards of research, or supporting colleagues to deliver their very best in a fulfilling and career-sustaining manner despite such challenging times. None of it is easy, but as you can see, BOFAS is up for it!

Society for Back Pain Research (SBPR) update

Last summer the Society for Back Pain Research was finally able to meet and celebrate having reached 50 years, this had been delayed for two years by the pandemic, but we were thrilled to have the chance to see each other face-to-face and pick up discussions which had been on hold for a while.

There was an amazing session by some of our Honorary Members who reminded us of the task ahead of us and suggested ways that we may be able to make an impact on the problem we faced.

Our guest speakers were Frances Williams with her work with twin studies, Annina Schmid interrogating the concept of sciatica, Manuela Ferreira sharing her experience of the Surgery for Spinal Stenosis (SUcceSS) Study.

The breadth of the society was demonstrated in the scientific content. The papers picking up awards were as follows:

President’s Award (2022): Adam WA Geraghty – Supporting self-management of low back pain with an internet intervention in primary care: Preliminary findings from the SupportBack 2 randomised controlled trial.

Secretaries Award (2022): Tamanna Rahman – Comparing three nuclectomy techniques: A high-resolution MRI study.

Honorary Members Award (2022): J Bell – X-ray scattering imaging of intervertebral discs under load.

New Investigator Award (2022): David Hohenschurz-Schmidt - Recommendations for the development, implementation, and reporting of (Sham) Control Interventions in efficacy trials of physical, psychological, and self-management therapies - The CoPPS statement.

Backcare Award (2022): B Saunders - Patients’ and general practitioners’ views and experiences of stratified primary care for patients with musculoskeletal pain: qualitative findings from the STarT MSK feasibility and pilot trial (paper presented to SBPR 2019 Sheffield, UK).

This year our SBPR meeting will be part of BritSpine 2023 – Glasgow SEC –18th – 20th April 2022. This will be a multi-disciplinary scientific conference and exhibition, which will bring together experts in spinal conditions, research, and treatment from across the world to expand knowledge and promote networking. Full details at: www.sbpr.info/meetings

SBPR welcomes new members, check out our website at www.sbpr.info.

British Orthopaedic Sports Trauma & Arthroscopy Association (BOSTAA) update

Nick Nicolaou and Fazal Ali

This will be a busy year for the British Sports Trauma and Arthroscopy Association (www.bostaa.ac.uk) as we focus our efforts on advancing clinical practice and improving care for Orthopaedic sports injuries.

Our 2023 annual meeting will be held at the home of cricket, Lord’s, on 9th November. We look forward to presenting a high quality programme following on from our successful 2022 annual meeting focused on the Veteran Athlete.

Our involvement in the James Lind Alliance priority setting partnership for knee injuries reflects our aims in enhancing research and we look forward to the top 10 research priorities being decided this year.

The new BOSTAA Trainee committee has been active in organising the cadaveric lower limb surgical approaches course which will become a regular teaching event aimed at early stage surgeons by providing a subsidised course with experienced faculty. In addition, we look forward to producing regular podcasts to encourage engagement with our younger members to complement the existing advanced arthroscopy course held every January.

Look out for the BOSTAA session at the BOA this autumn; in 2022 we were able to discuss sustainability in orthopaedics, a theme that will be key at the annual meeting this year.