PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL MESSAGE
August 1, 2021

Dear APOA Members,

It is truly a great honour and privilege for me to be President of APOA, a big orthopaedic association comprising 24 member countries and representing more than half of the world’s population.

APOA is quite unique in its membership structure. In addition to Chapters, it has Specialty Sections and Federation Members (National Orthopaedic Associations or Societies), the latter of which was introduced in 2015. We currently have about 700 individual members from 16 Chapters, 12 Specialty Sections and 21 Federation Members with more than 60,000 Federation fellows in total.

APOA introduced the Presidency specialized in administration in 2014, that is, 7 years ago. Meanwhile, it has developed step by step. Because of the Constitution 2021, that came into effect this past March, the membership of the Executive Committee has increased to 11 including Chair of the Congress Committee and 3 members at large. The standing Committees (STCs) have been reduced in number from 8 to 6 for better function. The Young Surgeons’ Forum (YSF) for orthopaedic doctors 45 years of age or younger has been stipulated in the Constitution.

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Shoichi Kokubun, MD, PhD
Professor Emeritus, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
APOA President 2021-2022