AAOS Kicks off 2011 Meeting With Formal Ceremony

Orthopedic physicians have been networking, socializing and furthering their professional education all week in one of the nation’s most temperate climate zones, but they waited until late Wednesday afternoon to formally kick off the 2011 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

In a ceremony that served as the swan song for outgoing AAOS President John J. Callaghan, M.D., the organization officially welcomed attendees to the event and named Turkey as this year’s Guest Nation. “This is a great honor,” Prof. Dr. Mahmut Nedim Doral said, upon learning of Turkey’s selection as Guest Nation for the 2011 AAOS Annual Meeting late last fall. “It is a great opportunity to increase awareness of Turkey, not only in the orthopaedic community, but culturally and socially as well.”

The AAOS Guest Nation Program was inaugurated in 2005 to foster greater recognition and awareness of the contributions made to the practice of orthopedics by surgeons worldwide and to enhance the international flavor and excitement of the AAOS annual meeting. Previous Guest Nation honorees have included Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Thailand, and Mexico.

Wednesday’s ceremony, which lasted more than 90 minutes, also welcomed presidents from specialty societies and those from international groups; representatives from all corners of the world greeted those attending the formal event inside a majestic ballroom within the San Diego Convention Center.

The opening ceremony, however, wasn’t all pomp and circumstance. It also gave Callaghan the opportunity to tend to some final housekeeping tasks, such as introducing the AAOS board and council chairs, recognizing industry donors (Zimmer Holdings Inc. was the organization’s top funding source) and recapping the construction of the academy’s 12th volunteer-built park that features a playground, walking and running track, a safety sign in Braille, exercise stations, and a special sensory garden. The academy has built a park every year since 2000 in the host city of its annual meeting to give children a place they can safely play. Callaghan recounted the San Diego park’s construction with a brief video set to the 1981 Hall and Oates song “You Make My Dreams Come True.”

When the video ended, Callaghan reviewed the past year from a leadership perspective and recounted some of the major events that helped shape his presidency. The most noteworthy, of course, was the historic passage of healthcare reform last March. Though the new law most likely will take some time to implement, Callaghan promised the academy will be “fully involved” in the process. Some of the notable achievements that Callaghan mentioned during his Year in Review included academy input on the way accountable care should be structured and advocating the need for an American Joint Replacement Registry.

Though it is still several years away from having enough data to report, the registry was created last year in Illinois and began collecting data from 15 hospitals in October, tracking basic details about patients, doctors, medical centers and implants. Once it is fully operational, the registry is expected to cost about $4 million annually and be funded by surgeons, implant manufacturers, payers, medical societies and industry groups. The registry already has received support from orthopedic bohemoths such as Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy Orthopaedics division, Zimmer Holdings Inc., Biomet Inc., Wright Medical Group Inc., DJO Surgical and Exactech Inc. Organizers hope to expand the registry this summer.