Latest News

BOA-funded Nottingham University Clinical Trials Unit course

As part of BOA’s partnership with Nottingham University Clinical Trials Unit (NCTU), new opportunities are offered for BOA members to undertake courses about clinical trials, systematic reviews and developing your own trial ideas.

Developing your research ideas for trials in trauma and orthopaedics

A free, online, half-day course from Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit (NCTU), to help develop research ideas into fundable research applications is taking place between 9am and 1pm on 17th March 2023. To apply for a place on this course and for more information on other BOA- funded NCTU short courses, visit the NCTU website at: www.nctu.ac.uk/other-research/trauma-orthopaedics.aspx

BOA Educational Courses

The BOA runs a wide range of courses under the Education Committee. These courses cater to the educational needs of a wide range of members (and nonmembers in some cases) at all stages of their careers. Upcoming Courses include:

Training Orthopaedic Education Supervisors (TOES)

The BOA Training Orthopaedic Educational Supervisors (TOES) course is now running entirely online. We have fully updated our training for educational supervisors to help you prepare for the new curriculum in 2023. Full details of the 2023 course dates can be found on the website at www.boa.ac.uk/toes

Training Orthopaedic Trainers (TOTs)

The underlying premise of TOTs is that if T&O trainers understand how people learn and how the T&O curriculum works, by translating that understanding into action, they should be able to improve their teaching. Much of the work can be done at a time, place and pace convenient to participants, with attendance at live virtual meetings to supplement personal learning. V-TOTs course will last for approximately six weeks. All of the 2023 course dates can be found at www.boa.ac.uk/tots

Spinal cord injury BOAST published

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new Trauma BOAST (BOA Standard) on the Management of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury. This BOAST was jointly developed by the BOA and the British Association of Spine Surgeons (BASS) and the British Association of Spinal Cord Injury Specialists (BASCIS). BOASTs are short standards documents that are produced by the BOA Trauma and Orthopaedic Committees. They are downloadable from our website and can be printed for display in hospitals. You can find a full list of BOASTs on the BOA website at www.boa.ac.uk/BOASTs.

Committee Appointments

Following a successful round of applications, the BOA would like to congratulate all those who have been appointed onto the BOA Committees:

Education and Careers Committee:

Julie Craig – SAS representative

Niel Kang – Lead for Medical Student Engagement

Rajesh Nanda – Lead for Fellowships and Courses

Medico-legal Committee:

Shyam Kumar (reappointed)

Orthopaedic Committee:

Alex Dodds

Research Committee:

Michael Whitehouse (reappointed)

Jeya Palan

Stephen McDonnell

Trauma Committee:

Aatif Mahmood – SAS representative

Alex Trompeter – BOAST Lead (reappointed)

Benjamin Ollivere

Clinical Impact Awards (ACCIA) 2023 process

The 2023 Clinical Impact Awards (successor of the Clinical Excellence Awards) will open for applications towards the end of March for an eight-week period.

For the 2023 process the ACCIA have decided to remove the role of National Nominating Organisations (NNO) such as the BOA and the RCS. The decision is based on a review of the 2022 scheme which concluded that the citation and ranking from NNOS made little difference to the overall decision making process and removing it would reduce bureaucracy, allow applicants more time to work on and submit their applications and hopefully increase the number and diversity of applications.

More information on the new process is available on the ACCIA web pages here: www.gov.uk/government/ organisations/advisory-committee-on-clinical-impact-awards

2023 Council and Presidential Nominations

Attention Home Fellows – Council Trustee and Presidential nominations open on 15th March!

The BOA believes that Trauma and Orthopaedics should be an inclusive surgical profession that inspires, attracts and retains the best talent from a wide variety of backgrounds. One of the ways we believe we can best make that a reality is by ensuring we elect a Council that fully represents all our members and better reflects the broad and diverse population we serve.

You have the opportunity to bring your skills and expertise to help us grow and develop the BOA and Trauma and Orthopaedics as a whole. A more diverse BOA, and a broader range of voices, better serves our patients and best supports our colleagues and we welcome applications from across our membership.

Please be sure to submit your nominations for Council before the deadline of 15th April and for BOA President by 1st June.

More information and how to apply is available after 15th March on the BOA nominations website at www.mi-nomination.com/BOA

Battlefield trauma resources

The BOA and BAPRAS have created a series of videos on battlefield trauma to support surgeons who are working in military conflicts throughout the world. This project has brought together recognised experts with deployment experience, covering a wide range of topics relevant to the management of battlefield trauma. This content will be relevant to the provision of assistance in areas of conflict, independent of geo-political considerations.

You can view them on the BOA website here: www.boa.ac.uk/battlefield-trauma

UKITE 2022

We had an excellent turnout of 796 trainees for UKITE in December 2022 from across the UK and Ireland joined by 179 candidates from Malta and South Africa. This year for the first time, candidates received question-level feedback on their responses to better support their learning, albeit after some technical delay.

Congratulations to West Midlands (Birmingham), who were the highest scoring training programme in 2022 with an average score of 58% for the 24 trainees who took part.

We couldn’t put UKITE together without our excellent team of editors and subspecialty leads who write and select the questions. Thank you all for your contributions. If you’re interested in getting involved for this year, you can find out more information at www.boa.ac.uk/ukite or email ukite@boa.ac.uk.

James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership – First Time Soft Tissue Knee Injury

The BOA are pleased to announce that BASK & BOSTAA have recently identified the top 10 priorities for future research on the topic of First Time Soft Tissue Knee Injury for a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership.

You can read more about the project and the priorities here at www.jla.nihr.ac.uk/priority-settingpartnerships/first-time-soft-tissue-knee-injuries