EFORT 2020 Congress re-worked: Virtual EFORT Congress to be held 28 to 30 October 2020
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No doubt the path to the “new normal” has accelerated ways to deliver education differently.
Embracing the journey to inventive solutions has convinced EFORT to create its first Virtual EFORT Congress or VEC, which will be held 28 to 30 October 2020.
Learn, network and science are the building blocks of the program placed under the main theme of “Harmonisation and Diversity.” We are working on interactive sessions, a virtual exhibition, and we are honored to welcome Prof. Gilles Walch for the Erwin Morscher Honorary Lecture.
On 10 March 2020, the EFORT Board still felt optimistic that the 21st EFORT Annual Congress could take place as planned in Vienna. The EFORT Board always considered the safety and health of all participants, sponsors, service providers and staff to be their absolute priority. However, on 6 April 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic forced EFORT to make the difficult decision to postpone what would have been the next face-to-face EFORT Annual Congress to next year and to create a new educational offer in the autumn.
The VEC will offer five simultaneous channels, two of which will be dedicated to the abstract-based program, another two to scientific sessions and the fifth channel will offer sessions with featured content, such as the regular courses (eg, Comprehensive Review Course or CRC), but also specifically designed modules to support EFORT’s voice within public policy and patient safety initiatives.
The main theme of “Harmonisation and Diversity” has been maintained and as Prof. Philippe Neyret, immediate past president and, on this occasion, VEC 2020 Congress President, likes to say, “Diversity in Europe is not only a matter of language, but also cultural and educational [...]. We therefore advocate for harmonization that respects diversity.”
Several sessions are already confirmed on this topic, such as Women in Orthopaedic and Traumatology Surgery, Harmonising the Management of Mass Injuries in Children, Global Diversity in Bearing in Primary THA, to name a few.
The session Best National Papers will be a first in EFORT’s history, supporting the idea of EFORT as a federation where every member country and orthopaedic society can participate, and they will be involved in the process. The session will stimulate the national societies to focus on good scientific quality and will create a research culture within EFORT.
More than 70% of the accepted abstracts which were planned for presentation during the face-to-face congress in Vienna 2020, will now be presented during the VEC this October.
Gilles Walch is the EFORT Honorary Lecturer during the VEC. His contribution towards the 2020 scientific program was to give the Erwin Morscher Honorary Lecture on Thursday 11 June 2020 entitled, “Reproduce the Diversity in Treatment of Anterior Shoulder Instability.” Walch, a native of Lyon, France who practices at the Centre Orthopédique Santy, will share with the orthopaedics and trauma community his broad knowledge of shoulder instability, rupture of the rotator cuff and shoulder arthroplasty, which serves as the basis of his daily medical practice.
Reformatted CRC
The CRC will also be featured in the VEC program as it has been reformatted to fit the new virtual environment. Discussion times could be extended and will take place at the end of each of the eight planned modules. The CRC takes place on Friday 30 October. Handouts with a summarizing article for each presentation will be made available in the form of the well-known CRC syllabus.
On the front of EFORT’s advocacy work, NORE, the Network of Orthopaedic Registries of Europe, will host an entire session; an EFORT-International Society of Arthroplasty Registers workshop is planned to address “How to Use Registry Data for Medical Device Evaluation;” and also a report on progress from the EFORT Implant & Patient Safety Initiative will take place through interactive modules.
The VEC educational program will be CME accredited subject to approval by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education based on EFORT’s recent program submission.
Virtual exhibition
In parallel, we are working on the development of a virtual exhibition whereby companies will have several options to interact directly with the audience and showcase their latest solutions. Today, we invite industry to work together to keep brands and products at the forefront and extend their global outreach.
We believe that EFORT initiated its debate in assessing whether the current communication means of Zoom and other virtual meeting formats are simply bridging solutions before we are all able to meet again face-to-face or, on the contrary, they will further influence formats of interaction in future educational offerings.
Consider the benefit of this first VEC format for which there are no travel restrictions, accessibility is possible throughout multiple time zones, and the global outreach will have almost no carbon footprint.
All of the above is included in the attractive registration fee of 100 euro per participant.
Visit https://vec.efort.org/ and register today.
The EFORT Board and the VEC Steering Group are looking forward to meeting you online in October.
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