Dear friends,
First of all I would like to welcome all the individual members of EFOST, present here for this general assembly. I would also like to welcome the national delegates and of course the board members of EFOST.
It is with great pleasure that I have been working together since the early years of Efost, back in the early nineties, with prominent orthopaedic surgeons as Hans Päessler, Jean-Claude Imbert, G. Cerulli, MD. Doral, F. Benazzo, P. Biosca, F. Kelberine, and R.Smigielski. I’ am sure I’m forgetting many more.
Of course I am very proud to be here and to have been elected as your new President for the next few years.
Particularly I would like to thank the previous president, Prof. Benazzo who has proven to be a great organizer, a very pleasant man to work with and particularly he will be remembered as the president of EFOST who started the immense work of the changes of the by-laws. Il will talk a little bit more about that later on.
Today the general assembly will vote for new board members but I can assure you that I will work with the new board to develop some new initiatives, new education programs and better information channels.
You will allow me to give you some more details about a few of my new proposals for the near future.
EFOST is a recognized professional organization that demonstrates advanced competences in orthopaedic sports traumatology, the promotion of prevention of sports injuries, provision of advice and adaptation of rehabilitation and training interventions in our athletes.
The main purpose of the work of all the team physicians, sports traumatologists, orthopaedic surgeons and researchers who belong to EFOST, is to prevent injury, to restore the best possible function post-injury and in general to contribute to the enhancement of sports performances.
We are not only focusing our attention to the professional athletes but we try to ensure a high standard of professional and ethical practice for athletes of all ages and abilities.
EFOST represents many national sports medicine-orthopaedic societies and that at an international level.
EFOST is a recognized subgroup of EFORT, the European Federation For Orthopaedics.
In the upcoming years, EFOST will demonstrate a high professional standard of sports traumatology, orthopaedic surgery, preventive medicine and research in these fields. In order to make that plan possible, it is necessary to reorganize the daily work of the board.
For legal reasons, we have centralized the seat of the society in Brussels, the so-called capital of Europe.
The treasurer is Prof. Doral, Turkey, who also takes care of the secretarial duties, assisted by Mario Mosconi, of Prof. Benazzo’s office.
New by-laws and revision of the old by-laws have been studied and finalized by 2 prominent lawyers, specialists of the European law: Prof. Paolo Benazzo and Maître Eddy Glaude (Brussels).
As soon as possible the by-laws will be deposed by the ‘Belgian Moniteur’: that will officiallize the new by-laws. I will keep you informed about the progress and changes in these by-laws, either by mail either through the newsletter.
I would like to emphasize a few new projects I will work on during my presidency.
Faster and more extensive communication, particularly with the national delegates and the members themselves in the different countries is an important topic. We have asked Prof. Doral to work on the updating and organization of the official EFOST website: www.EFOST.org
We all invite you to follow the updated information on that website.
An important project is the newsletter.
The board is planning to send a newsletter 3 to 4 times a year; either by mail either by regular post. That newsletter will be an active tool and for the board and for the national delegates of EFOST and for the individual members. Everybody will have easy access to publish about local organizations, interesting pearls, rare complications, practical tips, interesting sports and sports medicine events, etc.
The new board members will be asked to work on the updating of the lists of national federations, including the lists of the individual members. New countries and sports medicine societies will be invited to become a member. If a country has no such organization, on request, EFOST will help to create a sportsmedicine-orthopaedic society.
I propose to divide Europe in 4 parts: each part will have 2 or 3” responsible” board members, working closely together with the national delegates of that part of Europe. The individual sports medicine societies are invited to let us know about their regional or national organizations, about specific teaching conferences, educational courses and new initiatives. We will try to develop a European competency and standards for sports traumatology. I will definitely try to make EFOST as an audit tool, evaluated in a European context, an adult sparring partner or discussion group with our sister societies: ESSKA, SLARD, WPOA, AOSSM, etc.
We are already working closely together with the big “umbrella-organization”, ISAKOS and with the world congress for sports medicine – sports traumatology. FIMS, The Olympic Medical Committee, FIFA and UEFA will follow.
Not only in the pure traumatology field we will try to give you information. We also would like to publish guidelines for ethical behavior in relation to athletes returning to full competition, in relation to doping, in relation to the use of new technical or pharmaceutical tools. So our website can be an interface between research, practice, education and information resources.
We are not yet in the possibility to edit a new or specific journal of EFOST. In the near future, we will try to work it out and continue the work of Doctor Smigielski.
As I consider EFOST as a very important source of professional education, the EFOST board will help and eventually send experienced speakers, experts in their fields, when smaller, regional or national meetings are organized somewhere in Europe.
We also have a duty to the public: EFOST has information resources and EFOST should create possibilities to discuss topics with the public and answer questions: “FAQ” (Frequently Asked Questions) by the public or by the athlete.
Every meeting, organized by EFOST or organized under the umbrella of EFOST, will have to demonstrate the highest standards of practice, including case studies, discussion of complications, injury preventions, acute intervention, performance enhancement.
Particularly all the members of EFOST are asked to promote a save and active lifestyle.
I will do my best to review and to accentuate our relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, particularly with the major providers of surgical tools, devices and instruments.
Specific rules per country will be studied and the board will help local societies in the organization of a normal relationship with the pharmaceutical companies.
I will try to build on a professional “partnership” with the major companies.
I will keep you informed about the progress.
As said before, education is very important: instructional courses, national and international fellowships will be organized by EFOST. We have asked Doctor Kelberine to work on a basic document about the organization of the fellowship, to be presented at the next EFOST congress in Antalya, November 2008.
A special committee of the board, together with the national societies will study future fellowships, in and outside Europe.
Already today, we would like to announce 3 future meetings.
As during every EFORT meeting, we are invited to organize an EFOST Specialty meeting, during the European congress: Nice is the location of the March 2008 meeting. Dr G. Mann and Dr F. Kelberine are the program chairmen.
November 2008, the Antalya Congress organized by Prof. Doral.
Please look at the congress website: www.EFOST2008.org
November 2010, the Brussels meeting organized by myself.
Finally, I would like to thank you all for the confidence you have proven to me.
I have given you some taughts, many new projects, but I have particularly a good feeling to start an exciting presidency, together with a new and ambitious board, friends together. That’s what it’s all about.
We promise to keep you informed on a regular base either by a newsletter either on the website.
But especially, I hope to meet you regularly, to discuss in a positive way the future of Sports medicine, of EFOST.
See you very soon,
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