This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Clinical Orthopaedic Society reflects on 100 years of offering orthopedic education
Just two orthopedic societies in the nation can claim to have existed for a century or more, and one of them is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year: the Clinical Orthopaedic Society.
“This is a pretty exciting time for the Clinical Orthopaedic Society, reaching 100 years,” current Clinical Orthopaedic Society (COS) president Bess E. Brackett, MD, who practices at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, Vt., told Orthopedics Today.
It is “a big honor” to be the society’s first female president, Brackett said. It is also a role fraught with responsibility to “ensure the society can exist — and hopefully thrive — into the next century,” she said.
“Who knows if the people who founded this society in 1912 could ever even imagine the society would continue to exist in 2012?” Brackett said. “That is pretty incredible.”
The society’s original 38 members first met in 1912 in Chicago under the leadership of founder and president John Lincoln Porter, MD, to provide a more clinical, “show me” experience for orthopedists who lived in the area. According to Brackett, membership was originally limited to orthopedists who lived within the distance of an overnight train ride.
In 1923, the organization changed its name to the Clinical Orthopaedic Society.
|
Image: Clinical Orthopaedic Society |
Exclusive membership
Today, the society has 300 to 400 members. Brackett attributed the size of the organization to the fact that, until recently, membership was invitation-only.
“It was sort of the ultimate clinical organization to belong to,” Frederick N. Meyer, MD, told Orthopedics Today. “You had to be sponsored to get into it, and you had to be present every few years.”
Meyer has been involved with COS since the mid-1980s, serving as its president in 2010.
“If you go back and look at the list of past presidents, it is incredible,” Meyer said. “It reads like a who’s who of orthopedics … being in the same lineage as Mark Coventry (president, 1976) and Mack Clayton (president, 1978), it is a humbling honor.”
Lorence W. Trick, MD, 1995 COS president, joined the group in the late 1970s, during the invitation-only days. “My senior associate told me, ‘This is something you need to do, boy,’ so I did it,” he said. “They were good meetings and unique, especially in those days.”
In 1931, discussions within the COS and American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) touched on creation of a national orthopedic society to include Canadian members and help foster the growth of other clinical clubs. In October 1931, members of both organizations met to discuss further development of a new society and within 2 years their efforts culminated in the formation of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).
“There was a debate whether to take the COS from a regional level to a national level, and they decided at that point it would be better for their format and how they did things to stay regional,” Meyer said. “In conjunction with the AOA, they formed what is now the AAOS.”
The first AAOS meeting was held in conjunction with the 20th annual COS meeting in Chicago.
Aspects of meetings
A novel aspect of COS and its meetings is the generalized nature of the orthopedic coverage, Meyer noted.
“Orthopedics has become so fragmented it is tough to go to a meeting that covers general orthopedics well,” he said. “Our meetings do a good job. [There] is a wide range of topics, from total joint to trauma to hand and foot and ankle. Particularly for someone who is a general orthopedist, it is an outstanding meeting.”
E. Boone Brackett III, MD, who was COS president in 2000, said the general nature of the orthopedic knowledge available at the meeting is invaluable.
“Any orthopedist just starting out needs to take emergency call, so you need to be cognizant and capable of taking care of most things that come into the emergency room,” he told Orthopedics Today. “I have had a successful practice, and I have learned more at the COS than any other single entity.”
He added, “It is a small enough organization that you get a lot of interplay between the audience and the speakers, and also many times they will bring patients with them — that is how the society was founded. Physicians can walk right up and ask them questions or even examine them.”
Challenges down the road
Having opened the organization up beyond the invitation-only aspect that previously defined it, COS members now hope to attract a wider audience.
“It is hard to recruit new members,” who face many demands, especially the young physicians, Trick said. “[They] are not going to go to a meeting unless it is specific to a specialty. The result is there are not a lot of young physicians coming in.”
Another obstacle for COS is its regional nature. While much of the country is represented, most members are still located in the Midwest.
Camaraderie
That regional nature may, however, be part of what sets COS apart from other orthopedic associations, as members consider the friendships and connections within the organization to be a tremendous benefit.
“The camaraderie is important,” Meyer said. “A lot of the people who are in the COS have become close friends.”
Meyer cited the official seal of COS, which reads, “Learn by seeing, hearing, fellowship and criticism” as a summarizing the tone of the organization.
Although challenges may lie ahead, members of the COS speak highly of their shared experiences.
“It is a great organization,” Meyer said. “It is unique in this day of subspecialization. I’m a subspecialist, but for me to go to the meeting and get — in one meeting — information on spine, total joint, hand and ankle that I can share with patients [no] way I would get that information at the Academy, unless I specifically sought it out.”
According to E. Boone Brackett III, the take-home message for what COS offers lies in the wealth of information its members can provide.
“My parents told me, ‘Son, put yourself in the company of people who may be better than you, so you can learn from them,’” he said. “I think that is what the COS does. Most of the guys who are there are there not because they paid their dues in money, but because they paid their dues in blood, sweat and tears. They are people who are looked up to, whose opinions are valued by the medical community at large. It is something that just is not to be missed.” – by Robert Press
Reference:For more information:
- Bess E. Brackett, MD, can be reached at 44 S. Main St., Randolph, VT 05060; 802-728-2455; email: drbess@comcast.net.
- E. Boone Brackett III, MD, can be reached at 1125 Westgate St., Oak Park, IL 60301; 708-848-7700; email: boone8921@sbcglobal.net.
- Frederick N. Meyer, MD, can be reached at 3421 Medical Park Dr., Building 2, Mobile, AL 36693; 251-665-8200; email: freddoc937@me.com.
- Lorence W. Trick, MD, can be reached at P.O. Box 509, Elmendorf TX 78112; 210-275-2173; email: lwtret70@gmail.com.
- Disclosures: Bess Brackett, E. Boone Brackett III, Meyer and Trick have no relevant financial disclosures.