News - Fellowship updates

The American British Canadian (ABC) travelling fellowship

The ABC fellowship is an ‘American/British/ Canadian’ tour of North America and Canada. This prestigious five-week fellowship is open each year to applicants from the BOA who have been an appointed consultant for less than 10 complete years. Four BOA-nominated fellows participate alongside one each from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cohort due to travel in 2020 have had their plans significantly disrupted. After discussions with the American and Canadian Associations, the 2020 cohort were finally able to tour Canada and the United States in June 2022 for four weeks. The BOA Fellows were joined in London by their counterparts from New Zealand and Australia for the convening dinner hosted by the Bone and Joint Journal. From there, they travelled to Vancouver to start their tour, taking in the Canadian Orthopaedic Association Annual Meeting in Quebec City, the AOA Congress in Rhode Island and more than 10 centres of surgical excellence, meeting counterparts and making friends along the way. The Fellows wrote a blog of their travel, which can be found at www.boa.ac.uk/ abc-travelling-fellowship-blog.

We look forward to hosting the equally-delayed return leg this September when the five American and two Canadian Fellows originally due to travel in 2021 will arrive in the UK, after two weeks in South Africa. The North Americans will be welcomed by the BJJ in London, starting a whirlwind tour of centres across England and Scotland. Catch up with them at the BOA Congress in Birmingham! •

BOA sponsored travelling fellowship to Lyon 2022

I was awarded £1,500 to visit a centre of excellence in France, in primary and revision arthroplasty and Prosthetic Joint Infection. My placement was based at L’Hopital de la Croix Rousse in Lyon, observing the work of Professor Sebastien Lustig (Orthopaedic Surgeon) and Professor Tristan Ferry (Professor of Infectious disease) over a period of two weeks. I observed a number of clinics and operating lists run by Professor Lustig and his ‘Chefs’ as well as two infection MDTs during my time. Highlights included the impressive theatre set-up and theatre efficiency, revision techniques, the high-volume use of robotic surgery in primary arthroplasty, the infection MDTs and the novel use of Bacteriophages in the treatment of refractory prosthetic joint infection (PJI).

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my fellowship and would like to express my gratitude to the British Orthopaedic Association for sponsoring me for this. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and time in the Lyon Arthroplasty Unit. Professor Lustig was an excellent surgeon to observe and keen to teach despite maintaining an impressive case load of over 1,100 primary joints a year alone with Lyon itself being the highest volume knee centre in France. I was most impressed with the theatre set-up and efficiency as well as the organisation and care of the prosthetic joint infection patients. We will be establishing links with Lyon to be included in the current randomised controlled trial regarding the use of Bacteriophages in PJI relevant to my current role as a Bone Infection fellow to hopefully bring this novel treatment to the United Kingdom. •