AOA/AOS. The future of academic orthopaedics.

Abstract

At the Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) in June 2003, the Executive Committee of the Academic Orthopaedic Society (AOS) met and voted to formally dissolve the AOS at the end of this fiscal year. This decision came at a time when program directors face substantial changes. These changes, mandated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), specified resident work-hour requirements, as well as resident evaluations based upon performance in the six core competencies. Traditionally, these topics would consume much of the Annual Fall Meeting of the AOS. In the organization's early years, these mandates would have been subjected to the scrutiny of a midyear Delphi panel. Chairpersons and program directors would have had an opportunity to carefully review these required changes, reach a consensus, and, hopefully, come to an agreement with regard to the best method of implementation. In fact, chairpersons and program directors in all specialties have felt the need for frequent collaboration and, as such, virtually every specialty has an association of program directors and, in turn, a national association of program directors. The history of this organization in orthopaedics is as follows: The Association of Orthopaedic Chairmen (AOC) was originally founded in 1971 under the leadership of Kay Clawson, MD, and Fred Reynolds, MD. The purpose was to discuss issues that were not currently addressed by the AOA, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), or the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. These issues included the recruitment of new faculty members, development of an orthopaedic residency curriculum, and providing orthopaedic instruction in undergraduate medical education. The founders recognized the necessity to speak in a unified voice to medical school deans with regard to the problems confronting academic departments and/or divisions of orthopaedic surgery. The organization began with fifty-six members and, by 1990, …