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EFORT 2014 Congress Highlights: Patient safety is the priority
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The 15th Congress of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT) takes place in 2014 in London, from June 4 to 6, with patient safety as its overarching theme. This focus addresses the growing complexity of patient safety in orthopaedic procedures.
Patient safety has become a critical issue with greater mobility in the medical profession across Europe while standards of training in orthopaedics are still not uniform. The British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) holds special sessions at the Congress on its revalidation program designed to ensure surgeons are up-to-date and which should serve as a model for Europe.
Patient safety, the theme of the 2014 EFORT Congress in London, was identified by the WHO as a serious global public health issue in 2002, after a study estimated that in developed countries as many as one in 10 patients is harmed while receiving hospital care. The President of EFORT, Dr. Manuel Cassiano-Neves, says while orthopaedics is now far more complex and effective than in the past, this has also increased the potential risks.
Recent experience with metal-on-metal hip prostheses is a good example of this, Dr. Manuel Cassiano-Neves noted. “Large-head metal-on-metal bearings initially showed promising results with earlier and faster rehabilitation, improved proprioception and range of motion.” However difficulties have emerged, says Dr. Cassiano-Neves, with early reports from several single-center studies and now also from national hip arthroplasty registries clearly showing a higher than average revision rate of these implants due to early painful loosening, particle generation and periprosthetic tissue damage.
“This shows that more and more attention needs to be paid in medical education to safety issues with new techniques and implants,” he says. Thus the various symposia and instructional lectures at the 15th EFORT Congress in London will be directed to the topic “safety.” “It is our aim to deliver the best educational sessions to improve orthopaedic health care in Europe in order to meet the increasing expectations of an ageing population that wants to maintain an active life during retirement,” says Dr. Cassiano-Neves.
BOA introduces a model training program to update surgeons
A further aspect of the focus on safety issues, says Prof. Stephen Cannon, EFORT Vice President and Chair of the Local Organizing Committee for the London Congress in 2014, has to do with the increasing mobility of the medical profession in Europe. “The emphasis on patient safety is essentially driven by the free movement of labor across Europe. Surgeons have varied surgical education and experience and many have not undergone a final examination,” he said.
It is particularly timely that the London EFORT Congress is a combined meeting with the BOA. “This is a wonderful opportunity to consolidate orthopaedics across Europe,” says Prof. Timothy Briggs, President of the BOA. “The BOA has developed a comprehensive five year rolling program in orthopaedics to keep surgeons up-to-date and assist them with revalidation.” Prof. Briggs says this revalidation program is likely to become the model on how to provide training for surgeons across Europe. “At the London meeting, participants from across Europe will have the opportunity to experience the program, and are invited to come to sessions on how revalidation is affecting U. K. surgeons.”
Evidence-based sessions focus on patient safety
The concerns for patient safety will also be reflected in London in the Evidence Based Medicine sessions which have proved successful after their introduction at recent Congresses. Local Organizing Committee Chair Prof. Cannon says: “Often patients are subjected to treatment which has not undergone a controlled randomized trial and there is considerable drive by many EFORT 2014 governments and by the European Commission to introduce evidence based therapies.” The Congress also includes the full line-up of interactive expert exchanges which have proved “very helpful in bringing out novel therapies and surgical approaches in orthopaedics,” and lectures and complex case discussions led by highly experienced surgeons and focusing on specific clinical scenarios, Prof. Cannon said.
Industry workshops and exhibition expected to be a highlight
Plans are also afoot to give industry greater prominence at the EFORT London meeting, with symposia, workshops and technical exhibits. Meanwhile London as a venue offers a vast range of extra-curricular entertainment to Congress participants which should make it a pleasurable as well as a highly valuable professional meeting.
- info
- More information on the 15th EFORT Annual Congress: https://www.efort.org/london2014.
- authors
- Manuel Cassiano-Neves is president EFORT 2013/14.
- Timothy Briggs is president BOA 2013/14.
- Stephen R. Cannon is chair local organizing, Committee London 2014.