2024 BOA Congress Review

Hiro Tanaka, Honorary Secretary

The BOA Annual Congress is a special event in the calendar year for three reasons. Firstly, it is the one time where surgeons across all the specialties can professionally network and share their latest research and innovation. Secondly, it brings together the entire trauma and orthopaedic community, which includes the SAS/LED surgeons, residents and medical students. Finally, it is a celebration of the dedication and life-long achievements of our colleagues.

This year’s theme of ‘Recruit, Sustain and Retain’ was both a poignant reminder of the challenges facing the NHS as well as a call to arms to lead the changes necessary to protect the future of our profession and those who serve within it.

Between 17th – 20th September, over 3,000 delegates attended the Congress at the vibrant Birmingham ICC supported by 59 industry partners. The opening address by our President, Simon Hodkinson, set an inspiring, forward-looking tone, focusing upon the need to embrace changes in our professional practice as well as supporting our future colleagues through training and mentorship.

The superb speakers at the plenary sessions were a reminder that we have the support of our partners in the Royal College of Surgeons, Health Education England and the NHS England. The invited carousel presidents shared the opportunities and challenges of their training systems internationally. The comparison of the US vs UK training systems outlined by the Presidential guest lecturer, Anne van Heist (Past President of the American Orthopaedic Association), leaves us with the question of whether we have the optimal training system for our residents.

The Howard Steel lecturer, John McFall, an orthopaedic surgeon, athlete and astronaut, reminds us that despite adversity, we can all achieve great things by pursuing our passion. The Robert Jones lecturer, Deborah Eastwood (Past President) gave a reflective and personal account of how our profession is changing.

There was a wealth of clinical updates in the revalidation sessions organised by the specialist societies and BOA Committees. As always, we were left with the burden of choice. The quality and number of free paper submissions continues to improve. Congratulations to Richard Holleyman who won Best of the Best, Sharan Sambhwani for E-poster, Kai Nie for the Robert Jones Essay prize and Andreas Conte for the Medical Student prize.

There were excellent opportunities for networking in the well-attended EDI, SAS/LED and leadership sessions. The medical students and BOTA sessions showcased the talents of the next generation and were as energetic as usual.

No one can predict the future but change is certain and there was a healthy discussion in the ‘Question Time’ session about Physician’s Associates, an update on registries including MDOR/NCIP/PHIN, development of day surgery (BADS) and innovative treatments in cell therapies.

Our Friday sessions once again proved popular and included the Extended Clinical Team (ECT) meeting for the second time. The ECT sessions are catered for a wide variety of health care professionals including ACPs, SCPs and trauma co-ordinators and had an audience of over 90 delegates attending. The programme content was much stronger this year and included breakout sessions in the afternoon. Topics covered included clarifying roles and responsibilities of advanced roles within the ECT, logistics of setting up a new fracture clinic review service and upskilling SCPs and ACPs.

The BOA Congress is a testament to the collaboration of all the specialist and affiliated societies, the exceptional organisational skills of the BOA events team, the community spirit of our membership and the support of our industry partners to whom we are grateful.

Please join us next year in Liverpool and make British orthopaedics great.

Session recordings are available to all Congress registrants via the App or the BOA website (using the below QR code).