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Report from two 2018 EFORT-APOA travelling fellows
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APOA was formed in 1962 as the Western Pacific Orthopaedic Association. This has grown during the years to include more countries in the Asia Pacific region and in 2000, the name was changed to Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association to reflect this. APOA has 22 member chapters, which include Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. This year, they voted to add Saudi Arabia as the latest member chapter.
Kar H. Teoh, United Kingdom, and Michiel Siebelt, Netherlands, were privileged to be selected to represent EFORT as exchange fellows to the 20th Congress of the APOA, which took place in Antalya, Turkey from 10 to 14 April 2018.
The EFORT APOA Fellowship began on 7 April 2018, and the two fellows joined nine Young Ambassadors already selected by APOA with two other fellows selected by the International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology (SICOT), for a total of 13 Young Ambassadors. It is the largest cohort of Young Ambassadors in the history of APOA. This was the first time EFORT and SICOT fellows joined this Young Ambassadors program, which has been officially running since 2007.
According to the full report on this fellowship, Kar H. Teoh and Michiel Siebelt would like to thank EFORT for choosing them to represent Europe and for giving them this opportunity which has made a positive impact on their future orthopaedics careers. Not only have they met today’s leaders of orthopaedics, but they have forged links with these leaders. The lasting friendship and the bond they developed during the week of the fellowship will carry all 13 of these Young Ambassadors through their careers. They expressed their willingness to collaborate on research projects, utilizing each other’s strengths.
Our two Young Ambassadors would also like to thank Professor Önder Aydngöz, EFORT President2017/2018, who is APOA Congress chairman and APOA vice-president, for making himself readily accessible and continuously keeping them in the loop prior to the APOA meeting and for his warm Turkish hospitality. They were left in awe of his excellent time management skills and how he can juggle amazingly well all his responsibilities on top of a busy academic and clinical practice.
They are thankful Dr. Jamal Ashraf organized the APOA 2018 Young Ambassador program and appreciated that Prof. Ted Mah and Prof. David Choon are such ardent supporters of this wonderful initiative.
Last, but not least, they would like to thank the other Young Ambassadors for the wonderful company and fond memories. They both felt it was truly an “East meet West” occasion. In their own words, they have been inspired to keep on contributing to the work and mission of EFORT in any way they can.
- For more information:
- APOA website
- 2018 EFORT APOA Fellowship
- 2018 EFORT APOA Fellowship full report from Michiel Siebelt and Kar H TEOH