Nearly all orthopaedic societies sponsor large annual meetings as well as smaller specialty seminars throughout the year. What happens with the scholarship generated around those meetings and seminars?
Generally, the answer is very little. Abstracts, and possibly a few videotaped sessions, might be posted on the society’s website, in a password-protected area just for members. That limits their distribution not only to members, but also to those members who make the effort to look for the content. Articles based on presentations are typically published in journals with pay walls – in other words, a paid subscription is required to access the content.
It is very rare for meeting and seminar content to be widely and openly distributed within the orthopaedic community – which can be very frustrating for orthopaedic surgeons and musculoskeletal health professionals who would benefit from this information.
Case Example: ABJS Carl T. Brighton Workshop on Hip Preservation Surgery
The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons® (ABJS) has taken a very different approach. Although the Association’s meetings are open only to members, the scholarship presented is available to anyone who wishes to access it via OrthopaedicsOne.
Abstracts from previous ABJS annual meetings are posted in OrthopaedicsOne Proceedings, an open repository of the latest updates, abstracts, posters, and handouts from orthopaedic meetings, workshops, and symposia.
Last year, the ABJS decided to add to OrthopaedicsOne video presentations and abstracts from their other major meeting, the ABJS Carl T. Brighton Workshop, which in 2011 focused on the very important topic of hip preservation surgery.
Because OrthopaedicsOne believes in open access to orthopaedic knowledge, any health care professional with a free OrthopaedicsOne account can access these presentations from the Workshop on Hip Preservation Surgery on the current state and future of hip preservation surgery, particularly in relation to femoroacetabular impingement, hip dysplasia, and pediatric hip diseases, from an internationally renowned faculty of orthopaedic surgeons.
Manuscripts based on the presentations will be published in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® (CORR) later this year. Each article in CORR will be linked to its corresponding video on OrthopaedicsOne, which creates a synergistic multimedia package that increases exposure of CORR articles to OrthopaedicsOne users and OrthopaedicsOne content to CORR subscribers.
In addition, links to abstracts from previous ABJS Carl T. Brighton Workshops have been created on OrthopaedicsOne to expand the reach of the archived Brighton articles on topics such as metal-on-metal total hip replacement, articular cartilage repair, and health policy issues in orthopaedic surgery.
Case Example: International Congress for Joint Reconstruction
The International Congress for Joint Reconstruction (ICJR) sponsors numerous multi-day meetings orthopaedic professionals, including the Winter Hip and Knee Course, the Cleveland Arthroscopy Course, and the annual Insall Scott Kelly Institute Sports Medicine, Total Knee, and Hip Course.
To expand the reach of the presentations from these meetings, the ICJR has created a content repository in the OrthopaedicsOne Videos space. In addition, videos from ICJR’s inaugural educational meeting form the syllabus for the Joint Reconstruction section of OrthopaedicsOne.
The Center for Healthcare Education (CHE) videotaped the sessions at the ICJR meetings and at the ABJS Carl T. Brighton Workshop on Hip Preservation Surgery. OrthopaedicsOne has an exclusive partnership with CHE, which allows us to offer societies and institutions the opportunity to reach out to a global audience the same way the ICJR has done.
If you choose this service, the CHE will capture the content at your meeting; convert the videotapes to a format accessible via desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices; and then send the files to OrthopaedicsOne for uploading. After uploading the files, OrthopaedicsOne will market and distribute the content to our community of users – allowing your organization or institution to showcase your expertise in orthopaedics around the world.
For more information about sharing your meeting/conference proceedings with the OrthopaedicsOne community, please contact our Editorial Team .
