| Hello WOCUK members, It’s nearly a year since I took over the role of WOCUK chairman and I just wanted to give you all an update on all that’s been going on. I will start by thanking my predecessor, Alberto Gregori for all the amazing work he’s done before me and really for setting the scene for a smooth transition. Thank you to Deepa Bose as well, past chairperson who has been instrumental in raising the profile of WOCUK across the BOA and entire surgical spectrum. So where do I start? I guess I’ll start with the question of communication and updates for the membership which has been something that has been fed back to me personally and via our website before. I suppose this email is a bit of a response to that. But in addition to this, we have also strived to revive our membership mail-outs about main events and developments as they happen. This has taken quite a while to achieve and is still very much a work in progress. The process is intricately linked with membership database management and IT and website maintenance. For someone whose previous knowledge of IT was limited to word processing and emailing, that’s been a steep learning curve indeed. We are getting there though and expect more and more positive changes in the course of the year. Another thing members and interested parties have often accosted me about is “how do we get involved”? The answer is unfortunately not that simple. WOCUK as an organisation run entirely by volunteers simply doesn’t have the logistical capabilities to run a “job centre” type service, even though in an ideal world we’d love to. There is an abundance of goodwill out there which I hate to see wasted just because the opportunities were not there to be turned into something useful at the right time. However, we have looked at other ways of facilitating this and we launched a trial of expressions of interest for both aspiring volunteers and potential recruiters last year. This gave us an idea of how to respond better to members looking for opportunities to do valuable work abroad. The expression of interest form is now available online and anyone can fill it in. This form will be visible to our partners who run projects abroad. This will allow them to approach someone on the EOI list if they need anyone to join them. Likewise, we will also post a list of partners with projects abroad so interested volunteers can approach them directly for any queries. The volunteer EOI form to be found here: https://forms.gle/pgrCaFRmFJp6CyfWA The recruiter EOI code to be found here: https://forms.gle/Nt7ePv4fNXZkpsn9A In terms of WOCUK’s events this year, I am excited about the imminent annual conference (Saturday 7th of June) where we are expecting a truly amazing line up of speakers. The theme has been chosen as “Widening Perspectives” to try and tap into the insights and experiences of our colleagues from different specialties and walks of life in regard to relief and development work. Inspired by Matthew Syed’s vision in his seminal book “Rebel Ideas”, I thought we’d have much to gain from moving beyond the silos of orthopaedic surgery to learn how others are doing their work and hopefully cross pollinate those ideas into a more productive and rewarding experience (“recombinant innovation” as he calls it). We will of course also hear about all the good work that is being done by our partners in different parts of the world. There is still plenty of time to sign up and we are being treated to a fantastic venue and hospitality at our sponsors’ conference centre in Keele. I would like to thank Biocomposites for their kind support with this. https://wocuk.org/conference-registration/ Our next big agenda item on the calendar follows soon after at the BOA annual conference in Liverpool. The WOCUK session is on the Tuesday 16th September (10:30-12:00). We already have our programme sorted for the session and it promises to be nothing but great! I will be joined our BOTA link person Alex Schade to chair this session as we look forward to more and more trainee engagement. A special kudos goes out to James Berwin, Dan Yeomans and Alice Campion in getting this great momentum going with our next generation of WOCUK leaders. At the BOA conference also this year we will be treated to a very special guest appearance with our own Alberto Gregori delivering the Sir Walter Mercer lecture from 17:50 to 18:10 on the same day. Be sure to be there! Lastly, this year we are expecting a very productive and invigorating presence at BOTA’s annual congress in Leeds from 25-28 November. Our dedicated session will be on the Thursday (27th) and we are planning another Lion’s Den style programme for our trainees to pitch their ideas on the best ways to develop orthopaedics in LMICs. We will be putting together some material to help guide trainees in their planning of visits to LMICs. Other things have been happening in the background such as an update of the constitution. Some minor changes have been made namely to the terms of office (from 3 to 2 years) and trustee appointment. The new constitution will be shared prior to the AGM at the conference and voted on. WOC has also been approached by Mr Nick Moody to share a trial he is running in sub-Saharan Africa called the RAMPS study. Anyone with experience in amputation surgery in that region is invited to respond and there is even an option of collaborative authorship for contributors. This kind of dedicated research in LMIC settings is crucial to further our understanding of surgery in this environment. Details can be found here: https://ramps-study.org/ A second research contribution opportunity is being led by WOCUK’s research lead Simon Graham and is a Delphi Study by the Global Injury Group to look at the challenges and barriers to conducting research in Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa. This project also comes with the offer of collaborative authorship. Details can be found here: https://globalinjury.ndorms.ox.ac.uk/collection/surveys/?s=AFMAT3NNKMTXCAYL I will end this first newsletter by bringing to your attention the latest WOCUK activity that’s happening. We are fundraising to help us continue with the essential work we support around the globe. This includes awarding fellowships to trainees and consultants, supporting travel to exams such as WACS and COSECSA, funding of a yearly Future Leaders Programme candidate and funding multiple projects and courses worldwide. We are proposing a collective challenge of travelling virtually overland between Keele (conference venue) and Bujumbura (COSECSA exam venue) over the next few weeks. We will cover a total distance of 6500miles and you can follow our progress on the Challenge Hound website here: https://www.challengehound.com/challenge/3d25a2e0-2530-11f0-aa0e-8385b9d4ba03 We have a GoFundMe page where you can donate towards this effort and we are as ever grateful for your generous contribution. https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-wocuk-on-our-epic-journey I look forward to meeting many of you at our meetings soon and thank you again for your continued engagement with WOCUK. Best wishes, Ashtin Doorgakant Warrington May 2025 |
     Photos from top to bottom:1. Chairman handover at WOCUK conference 2024 (Alberto and myself) 2. Immediate past and 2nd past chairpersons (Aberto and Deepa) 3. WOCUK conference research session (Simon Graham and Alice Campion) 4. BOA conference Sep 2024 (James and Sara Shelton) 5. Strong WOCUK presence at COSECSA exams in Harare (Steve Mannion, Deepa Bose, Alan Norrish, Ashtin Doorgakant, Noel Peters and Rick Brown)  |
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