Toshifumi Ozaki, MD, PhD
Congress President
The 96th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association
It is my pleasure to announce that the 96th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association will be held at PACIFICO Yokohama, Japan, from Thursday, May 11 to Sunday, May 14, 2023.
The main theme of this year’s Annual Meeting is “Quest for Science, Spirit and Skills.” Over the past two years, people and nations across the globe have been at the mercy of the unprecedented crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid this uncertainty, it is my dire hope that this meeting will serve as a platform to help us navigate through the coming years and contribute to the further advancement of orthopaedics.
In this new post-COVID-19 era, the challenges faced by Japan’s super-aged society are becoming progressively grave, and the social responsibility of orthopaedic surgeons to drive the extension of healthy life expectancy from the perspective of the musculoskeletal system is becoming ever more significant. To date, the Annual Meeting of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association has fulfilled its mission to promote cutting-edge basic research and its application to clinical practice, as well as to present evidence and innovative techniques drawn from clinical research both in Japan and overseas. We elected to set the theme of this Annual Meeting as “Quest for Science, Spirit and Skills” with the aim of revisiting the fundamentals and reviewing all aspects of orthopaedic medicine. I believe that “science” represents the ability to think and judge matters from a scientific perspective; “spirit” represents the integrity and kindness of those involved in medicine; and “skills” represents the scientific and technological advancements and progress in techniques. Furthermore, it is my belief that the “quest” to master the combination of these elements is the basic principle that underpins well-balanced musculoskeletal medicine and is also fundamental to the further development of orthopaedics.
At this Annual Meeting, while focusing on the essential aspects of musculoskeletal medicine, we hope there will be active discussions not only on the latest knowledge and techniques but also on the future prospects of orthopaedics.
The format of the meeting will be determined according to the status of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, we are currently planning to hold the meeting in a hybrid format, mainly on site (face-to-face) along with a virtual aspect. We at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Okayama University look forward to welcoming many of you to the meeting and hope that it will be a fruitful and productive one for all.
