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Looking Ahead
Brendan D. Lewis, M.D., FRCSC
President, Canadian Orthopaedic Association
Dolores and I have finally been able to put the Christmas decorations away and move into a new season. We hope that everyone had a great holiday break and are rejuvenated for another year of work.
The Canadian Orthopaedic Association (COA) is continuing to develop the Annual Meeting that will be held in Halifax from June 1st to 3rd this year. A review of the preliminary schedule confirms that a fantastic scientific programme will be offered to the membership. Combining this with an outstanding social programme - the event will certainly be memorable for everyone. Please take advantage of the Annual Meeting sneak peek we're offering in a special feature beginning on page 12 of this issue.
Dr. Brendan D. Lewis
We held our Mid Winter Meeting in Montreal in early December and it was well attended by members of various COA committees, your Executive and Board of Directors. In order to reduce costs, a number of committee meetings were held by teleconference with their respective reports submitted to the Board prior to the Mid Winter Meeting. We believe that this has been an effective mode of communication for a number of our committees.
We are setting the stages for developing a new strategic plan for the Association for the next five years (see page 9 of this Bulletin). The COA's Board and its committees were redeveloped in the past and we are hoping to move forward into the future with new ideas.
Members have recently received a survey by e-mail requesting input and guidance as we move forward into the next five years. We strongly encourage you to take a moment to complete the survey. The success of the development of our new strategic plan is dependant on your feedback.
We are continuing on with the initiatives that are already underway, namely the orthopaedic surgeon/physician assistant working model. This continues to be developed with the National Standards Committee and will be part of a Symposium that will be presented at the COA Annual Meeting in June.
Governments are looking for guidance in a quest to provide timely care to our patients in the most efficient way possible. We believe that having the orthopaedic surgeon/physician assistant working model in place would be effective in achieving this. It continues to be developed.
We are developing a programme with the help of Dr. Earl R. Bogoch (Toronto, ON) with regards to identification and treatment of our osteoporotic patients in Canada. We are working at provincial levels encouraging the Ministries of Health to fund programmes that would allow a coordinator in orthopaedic clinics to identify these patients. We hope to receive our members' support in promoting this endeavor and bringing it to fulfillment.
As we continue with our busy schedules, I would once again like to wish everyone and their families' good health. We hope that you will be able to mark your calendars for our Annual Meeting in Halifax. It truly will be an unforgettable event.
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