Full Speed Ahead

The National Action Network (NAN) for the Bone & Joint Decade is moving full speed ahead in terms of planning for the meeting being held in Toronto from October 29-30, 2005. This meeting is taking on an added dimension as we attempt to partner with the US National Action Network for the Bone & Joint Decade in holding a joint meeting for young investigators. The first meeting of this group will be held under the auspices of the American Bone & Joint Decade in April of 2005 and a subsequent meeting we hope will be held in conjunction with the NAN world-wide meeting in Toronto. This collaborative effort between the two National Action Networks involving young investigators from all fields of musculoskeletal health will hopefully bring a new dimension to collaboration in research between the NIH and the CIHR as well as universities and individual researchers.

The funding for this meeting is on a much more secure footing. The NAN has received a financial guarantee from the Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation and the Canadian Orthopaedic Association (COA) which will be of tremendous value in our approach to industry for support. The current plan is for the Bone & Joint Decade and ACAP (Alliance for Canadian Arthritis Programme) to pool their resources and approach industry jointly for support of this meeting. The focus of the meeting will be on outcomes; by definition outcomes include access to care, quality of care, funding issues and determining the effectiveness of interventions. This broad spectrum of topics should permit active participation by virtually all of our constituent organizations - both patient-oriented and provider-oriented.

Things continue to move ahead in terms of our communication strategy. Dot Brown from Calgary has been actively soliciting submissions for our next newsletter and we continue to work hard on content and relevance of our web site. We continue to hope that members of the COA will find the newsletter and web site informative. We would ask that all members consider submitting relevant material and topics that they think would be of interest to not only the orthopaedic community, but also to the wider field of musculoskeletal health and disease.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the COA and the local arrangements committee in Calgary for providing exhibit space for the Bone & Joint Decade booth at our most recent Annual Meeting. I am sure it gave many of the meeting attendees a chance to put a “face to a name” and hopefully will encourage further interest in our efforts.