It was a pleasure to meet so many of you at the 60^th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association (COA), held in Montreal from June 3 - 5, 2005.

 This was truly a magical meeting! I would like to start by thanking our Past President, Dr. Alain Jodoin and his wife, Ginette, for representing Canada so well during the past year, and for hosting us in Montreal. I would also like to thank Dr. Sylvain Gagnon who did such a fantastic job as Head of the Local Arrangements Committee. The scientific programme was also superb and reflected very well on the Programme Chairs’ (Pierre Guy, COA; Kevin Deluzio, CORS; and Kevin Hildebrand, CORS) hard work. Finally, we must acknowledge the incredible efforts of our CEO, Doug Thomson and his associates, Yuri Kojima and Cynthia Vezina. Access to care will dominate activities of the COA for the next several years. Our Annual Meeting reflected this focus with two Symposia being devoted to this topic. In addition, the Chaoulli decision rendered by the Supreme Court of Canada just after our meeting will encourage governments to move with even greater haste on this issue. The status quo is obviously no longer acceptable. Governments have accepted the importance of wait time targets and the use of prioritization levels to not only improve the timeliness of care, but also to assure equity. Considerable challenges are recognized in terms of capacity, manpower and resources.

The Association is committed to improving access to care for not only patients requiring total joint arthroplasty, but for all patients requiring musculoskeletal care. The COA is an important member of the Canadian Medical Association/Health Canada Wait Time Alliance. The most recent meeting of this group was held on June 16, 2005 in Ottawa. The goal is to “tame the queue” and have national benchmarks established by December 2005, starting with the five priority areas (cancer, cardiac, total hip and knee replacement, cataracts and MRI scans). Plans were discussed how to implement these changes across the scope of medical interventions.

We live in interesting times! Although many obstacles to improving access to care exist, all of these can be overcome if we remain committed to improving the “patient journey” of our patients. With commitment, problems are addressed and solved. I look forward to working with each of you to making positive things happen.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for the honour of electing me as President of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association. With my wife, Donna, and I look forward to meeting with many of you over the following year. We also look forward to hosting you at the next COA Meeting to be held in Toronto from June 2 – 4, 2006.