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EFORT Academy promotes musculoskeletal education, practice, research excellence
The EFORT Academy is a novel concept brought forward by the Executive Committee of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology. Its purpose is to promote excellence in musculoskeletal education, clinical practice and research that is either basic or translational.
The EFORT Academy was launched with the approval of the General Assembly at the EFORT Congress in Berlin in 2012. This subsection of EFORT is intended to distinguish individual members. EFORT, as a federation of national societies, is composed of institutional members, i.e., the Societies, and does not allow for individual memberships. The EFORT Executive Committee is aware that it is the individual surgeons and allied health providers who are heavily involved in the management of diseases and trauma of the musculoskeletal system, who act as lecturers, reviewers and organizers of the educational events that are the main source of the enduring success EFORT has had. The EFORT structure as such left no place for the individual contributor and so the thought was that the creation of an EFORT Academy would fill this gap and provide the ability to recognize individuals who are members of the EFORT national societies.
Membership in the EFORT Academy is open to specialists worldwide who fulfill the criteria for admission and express an interest in EFORT.
The EFORT Academy’s mission is to promote clinical, educational, translational and basic research issues that are of interest to the musculoskeletal health community within and outside of Europe. Another mission of the EFORT Academy is to disseminate validated knowledge that pertains to musculoskeletal health matters.
The EFORT Academy is responsible for the scientific content of all EFORT activities (Congresses, Fora, publications, etc.) and will initiate, pilot and promote educational and research actions throughout the European and extra-European orthopaedic and trauma community. Furthermore, the Academy recommends the attribution of EFORT stipends and fellowships and evaluates scientific or educational activity when EFORT approval is needed.
Under the guidance of the EFORT Executive Committee, the chairs of the EFORT Scientific, Educational and Publications committees constitute the leadership of the Academy. The chairpersons of these three committees also constitute the jury that attributes the level of Academy fellowship, such as full, associate or corresponding, on candidates based on the candidate’s scientific, educational and clinical activities.
Academy membership is open to all interested individuals regardless of country of origin. However, to be eligible a candidate must be a member in good standing of a recognized European or non-European national orthopaedic or musculoskeletal society with impeccable credentials. Full and junior levels of membership in the Academy are available, which largely depend on the candidate’s involvement in EFORT, scientific activity, level of training and specialty area. Full fellowship is awarded on the basis of scientific, educational and publication activity criteria. Members of the Academy carry the title, “Fellow of the European Federation of National Societies of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT),” and are awarded a certificate.
Members of the EFORT Academy carry the title ‘fellow’ and are awarded a certificate of recognition.
Image: EFORT
All the representatives of the member national societies to the EFORT General Assembly, as well as all members of the Executive Board and Executive Committee, are ex-officio members of the Academy.
As a recognized member of the Academy, the fellows, depending on the level of fellowship, are entitled to privileges such as fee waivers for the annual congress fee and access to EFORT publications and educational material at the EFORT website. Most importantly, the fellows are asked preferentially to participate actively in the elaboration of the scientific program of the Congress, to organize symposia and to participate in the abstract review process. The Academy dinner, an event held during the annual EFORT Congress, serves to reunite all the EFORT Academy members.
Fellows of the Academy are expected to show an active interest in EFORT activities. They are asked to participate at varying levels in the educational activities of EFORT and must pay dues, for their level of membership.
Applications for the EFORT Academy should be sent to the EFORT Head Office. All applications are examined by the Academy’s Nominating Committee.
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- Details about the EFORT Academy can be found at www.efort.org.
- For more information
- Pierre Hoffmeyer, MD, is EFORT Immediate Past President and a member of the Orthopaedics Today Europe Editorial Board. He can be reached at Hospital of the University of Geneva, 25 Avenue de Champel, 1211 Genève 14, Switzerland; email: pierre.hoffmeyer@hcuge.ch.
Disclosure: Hoffmeyer has no relevant financial disclosures.