Thorngren: 10th Congress is busy but celebratory

Orthopaedics Today Europe: What are your impressions of the 2009 meeting?

Karl-Göran Thorngren, MD: We are extremely happy with all of the positive feedback that we have received. I have only received positive feedback. And attendance is doing very well with more than 5,000 attendees.

Orthopaedics Today Europe: What have you heard from the attendees of the meeting?

Thorngren: The attendees I have spoken to are satisfied with the high quality of the science that is being presented. The auditoriums that I have attended have all been full – almost overfilled – and the new training course has been very well attended.

In terms of the board, we have been very busy conducting all of our meetings.

Orthopaedics Today Europe: This congress has been the occasion to celebrate your 10-year anniversary. Can you tell us about some of the special events you hosted?

Thorngren: We celebrate our 10th Congress here in Vienna, a city of culture. This has been audible throughout the Congress, with an element of music in all social events, such as the ballet performance at the opening ceremony and the orchestra performance during Vienna Night.

Orthopaedics Today Europe: After the meeting is over, what do you see for EFORT in the coming year?

Thorngren: For the remainder of 2009, we will continue with the outlined projects that we have already started. On the educational plane, we are holding instructional courses and for next year we have already decided on more ExMEx sessions for the 2010 meeting.

Also, we have established the EFORT Foundation that is intended to give grants for researchers who want to do projects or who want to have visiting fellowships to learn more skills. We will also have more campaigns linked to the Foundation to raise the awareness of our specialty to achieve grants that will be a challenge for the coming year.