Friendship Nations
Although SICOT is a global Society with an individual membership, we see an absolute need for a closer relationship with National Orthopaedic Societies on the one hand and International Subspecialty Societies on the other. For the latter, we want to establish cooperation as easily as possible to encourage common projects and to support joint meetings.
Combined meetings seem to be the key to fruitful partnerships between us and other scientific societies. To this end, we had an annual meeting together with the Royal College of Orthopaedic Surgeons of Thailand (RCOST) in 2009 and the Swedish Orthopaedic Society (SOF) in 2010. An annual meeting was also organised with the Brazilian Orthopaedic Society (SBOT) in 2014.
The SICOT Officers regularly attend the annual meetings of selected national societies and invite Presidents of national and subspecialty societies to SICOT meetings. These personal contacts seem to us an important step towards a lively and successful communication to begin the planning of common projects.
The partnership campaign, “Friendship Nations”, honours specific nations at our annual meetings. The Officers of the National Society have a place of honour during the meetings. A number of privileges are arranged for them and for the participants of the selected Nation.
We hope that this continuous close communication will help all of us reach some of our common goals, for example, providing the best possible care to our patients, assuring a sound, continuing education during the entire professional life of a surgeon and increasing global awareness of and support for research programmes in the musculoskeletal field.
Friendship Nations per year:
2009 India
2010 Japan
2011 China and Russian-speaking countries
2012 Pan Arab Orthopaedic Association (PAOA) member countries
2013 APOA and SAARC member countries
2014 Latin American Society of Orthopaedics & Traumatology (SLAOT) member countries
2015 Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association (APOA) member countries
2016 Italy
2017 African nations
2018 Latin American nations
2019 Pan Arab Orthopaedic Association (PAOA) member countries
2021 Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia
2022 Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association (APOA) member countries
2023 Pan Arab Orthopaedic Association (PAOA) member countries
2024 Balkan Region
