World Orthopaedic Concern (WOC) update

Ashtin Doorgakant, WOC Chairman

This year has been a very exciting one for WOC-UK with a number of projects starting to feel established. Many of our members remain active around the globe and are supported in many ways - financially, logistically and scientifically. Our exceptionally dynamic BOTA sub-Committee ran another LMIC session at their annual conference and interest and feedback from this was extremely encouraging. We held our annual conference this year in June at the Aesculap BBraun Academy in Sheffield along the theme of ‘Evolving with the times’. This was well attended in person and virtually thanks to the excellent platform hosted by Medall. We had some truly thoughtprovoking talks. Our keynote was delivered by Professor Mahmood Bhutta who opened our eyes to environmental and labour harms from surgical products. Sarah Phillips spoke about how she and her team have been supporting orthopaedic surgery in Gaza over the years and how they are responding to the increasingly difficult situation there presently. Other speakers included John Cashman from Sheffield Children’s, Howard Davies representing BOFAS, Jonathan Jones and Martin Wood representing BSSH, Guy Morris from BOOS and Sanjay Gupta and Alwyn Abraham from WOC. We also had a trainee session chaired by Professor Simon Graham and Alice Campion and an update of the FLP Programme which we actively support. Our WOC-UK commemorative medal was awarded to Lew Zirkle for his work with the SIGN nail.

At the AGM, I took over chairmanship from Alberto Gregori, whose outstanding achievements in WOC I need to acknowledge. Alwyn Abraham was voted in as Chairman-elect and the post of treasurer is now out for expressions of interest. We have an active committee-at-large who are instrumental in helping us steer our global efforts. Our next event is at the BOA Congress in September and we already have a great list of speakers lined up.