2021 BOA Congress Review

Simon Hodkinson

Well, we made it. The first major face-to-face conference since the pandemic started and we would like to thank all the delegates and exhibitors for their efforts in helping keep it COVID-19 safe.

We had spent the year worrying whether we could and would be allowed to hold it and safety of delegates was always paramount against the desire to meet up once again.

The venue was in many ways perfect for such a situation being close to the airport and outside of the city. It was virtually brand new, and its size and facilities were ideal given the circumstances.

Thanks has to go to the Scottish Government in supporting Congress and awarding us ‘Gateway status’. Thanks are also due to the venue itself but primarily to Charlie Silva, BOA Head of Events. With three months to go, due to various staff changes, Charlie was The Events Team. Without her and the hastily resurrected team, Congress would not have happened.

Overall, we had just under 2,000 attendees across the three days. The Congress was packed with excellent plenary lectures and lively discussions in many of the sessions. It was very busy as there were two years’ worth of material to get through and catch up on, but hopefully those who attended managed to get to what they wanted. We were also delighted with attendance and engagement with trade the exhibition as our industry partners are a key element for the success of the event.

The theme for this year was Tackling Infection which was expertly reflected across the sessions and exhibition, alongside posters demonstrating a fascinating new genre in the art world, ‘Bug Art’.

Building on 2019 we increased the material on the web site with content going up 24 hours post session. As a delegate you have exclusive access to this material for three months post congress event before it is made more widely available.

Finally, a new addition to the Congress format was the bridge building competition. A serious team working exercise culminating in a tense final assessment of the loadbearing capacity of the bridges. The question remains who was most stressed, the teams or the venue staff seeing the volume of water used over their expensive clockwork under the stage.

By popular demand it will return for 2022 and planning for Congress 2022 in Birmingham ICC is well underway.

I hope those who attended enjoyed themselves and those who log on to access the material on the website find it worthwhile.

I look forward to seeing you all in Birmingham.

Bridge Building at the BOA

Caroline Bagley, Adeline Clement, Joanna Maggs and Lawrence Moulton

At 7.30am on Wednesday at the 2021 BOA Congress, whilst other Orthopods were enjoying a welldeserved lie-in or leisurely breakfast, teams from the Future Leaders Programme (FLP), BOTA, BHS and OTS arrived at the Aberdeen TECA to be briefed for the ‘Bob Handley Bridge Building’ challenge.

The rules were simple – build a bridge that would be tested to destruction using only a pack of A4 printer paper, two rolls of Sellotape and a customised BOA metal plate with attached hook. The bridge needed to span a gap of 80cm between two tables with a bucket hung from the hook and filled with increasing amounts of water; failure was defined as the point the plate fell beneath the level of the table surface. The prize was ultimate glory.

We had until the following day to create our structure which would be tested in the main auditorium. In the spirit of healthy and (mostly) friendly competition, each team went off to plan and build! What followed was hours of fun, teamwork and collaboration using our basic science knowledge and applying biomechanical and engineering principles to design and create the strongest possible bridge.

Thursday’s public testing was the cumulation of an enjoyable competition that tested the four teams who participated. All teams created stunning bridges. The FLP were thrilled to be victorious, winning chocolate orthopaedic tools and yellow hard hats which were worn with pride!

2021 Awards and Medals

Congratulations to our Congress prize winners! It was fantastic to be able to celebrate the brilliant achievements of our members with our Awards and Medals show case at Congress in Aberdeen.

The Best of the Best Certificate went to Fatima Rashid representing the Mersey region – for her talk on “Coronavirus infection in Hip Fractures (CHIP) Study: A case matched multi-centre study of 1,633 hip fracture patients.”

Fatima Rashid with Bob Handley

The Medical Student Podium Prize winner was Catherine James for her “Crash Course in Orthopaedics: Lessons form a 12-week Webinar Series for Medical Students”.

The quality of the medical student abstract presentations was extremely impressive this year. In addition to the winner, the panel highly commended Benjamin Rouse for “The Incidence of Major Complications following Per-Acetabular Osteotomy (PAO)”, Ciaran O’Hanlon for “Outcome comparison of Superior Capsule Reconstruction and Subacromial Balloon Spacers for the treatment of massive rotator cuff tears: A systematic review”, and Rory Teed for “Epidemiology and long-term outcomes of lateral end clavicle fractures in an adolescent population”.

Jacob Feathers was the winner of the Best Poster Prize with “Uncemented Total Hip Arthroplasty can be used safely in the elderly population”.

Thank you to all our exhibitors who supported us to help make Congress happen. The winner of the Exhibitors Cup for Best Large Stand was Stryker UK and the Exhibitors Plaque for Best Compact Stand went to Healthcare Business Solutions UK Ltd (HBSUK).