1) REGISTRATION RATES INCREASE APRIL 1
The early bird registration deadline for the Edmonton Annual Meeting is April 1.  Take advantage of our optimized rates and register NOW!  A preliminary program and complete info about the CORA and CORS meetings, social event descriptions and our secure online registration can all be found right here: www.coaannualmeeting.org

2) ACCESS YOUR OWN DATA
Access to your data has never been this easy! Starting in Spring 2010, surgeons, or their authorized designates, who have signed up for the new CJRR Web-based Data Submission and Reporting Tool can download their own data.  Other benefits of the CJRR Web-based Tool include:

• Secure, and instantaneous data submissions to the CJRR
• Downloadable statistical reports in real time
• Set surgeon-specific defaults making data submission faster

  For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

3) ABC FELLOWSHIP DEADLINE = MAY 1
The COA's travelling fellowships have been described as 'the experience of a lifetime' by many former fellows.  If you're interested in applying for the American-British-Canadian (ABC Fellowship), click here to obtain the history, eligibility criteria and application form for this opportunity.  The deadline to apply for the ABC Fellowship is May 1, 2010. 

4) CONFERENCES OF INTEREST
The annual Bethune Round Table on International Surgery will be held from May 14-15, 2010 in Calgary, Alberta.  Complete course information can be found here: www.ucalgary.ca/ois.  Registration is now open for this event.  Click here  to download the registration form. 

The preliminary program for the upcoming Meeting of the Combined Orthopaedic Associations can be found under the "Programme" tab at: http://www.comoc2010.org/.  See which Canadian members are participating in the program! 

Of note, the Pope will be visiting Glasgow at the same time as the Combined Meeting.  It is recommended that you book your accommodations as soon as possible.  Hotel options can be found here.  This meeting brings together members from the Australian, American, AAOS, British, Canadian, New Zealand and South African orthopaedic associations.

5)  NAMES IN THE NEWS
Congratulations are extended to Dr. Mohit Bhandari (Hamilton, ON) and his co-authors for receiving the 2010 OREF Clinical Research Award.  The winning study, "Setting a New Benchmark for Collaborative Trials in Trauma: The Rationale, Design, and Execution of the Study to Prospectively Evaluate Intramedullary Nails in Tibial Shaft Fractures (S.P.R.I.N.T.)," eventually involved more than 200 orthopaedic surgeons from three countries and was conducted at 29 clinical sites.

Member in the Spotlight

Brian K. Kwon, MD, PhD, FRCSC, Associate Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of British Columbia, was awarded the 2010 Young Investigator Award at the recent AAOS meeting in New Orleans for his paper, "Cerebrospinal Fluid Pressure Monitoring and Biochemical Analysis in Acute Spinal Cord Injury - A Translational Approach."  Given to outstanding authors who are under 40 years of age or no more than seven years beyond training, this research award is presented annually by the Kappa Delta Sorority and the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF).  Dr. Kwon began these studies in hopes of contributing to improvements in the lives of patients who suffer from acute traumatic spinal cord injuries. According to his paper, this research has shed new insights into changes in spinal cord perfusion pressure after acute spinal cord injury, and established, for the first time, a biological classification system of injury severity which may be used to predict neurological outcome.

Dr. Kwon specializes in the surgical management of adult spinal disorders.  As a Canadian Institutes for Health Research New Investigator and Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar, he divides his time between patient-care at Vancouver General Hospital and research in spinal cord repair at his laboratory in the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD).

A different member of the COA will be highlighted in each edition of the Dispatch.  Would you like to be featured?  Contact Cynthia Vezina for details.