The 2nd FICEBO summer workshop was arranged in Ellivuori Resort on June 7-8. Ellivuori Resort is located on large island of Salonsaari by the shore of the Rautavesi lake. The island is famous for its small mountain, Pirunvuori (Devil’s mountain), and Pirunluola (Devil’s cave), later believed by ancient Finns to be lair of the Devil himself. Maybe because of this grim heritage, only six of us were able to participate.
But the small number of participants had an obvious advantage – it gave us a possibility to concentrate on a few specific projects. Our group arrived just in time for lunch and then it was time to work. We dedicated our first day to the 1-year results of our FISH Trial, a prospective randomized trial comparing surgery to functional bracing in the treatment of humeral shaft fractures. The PI Lasse Rämö had done his due diligence and we had a pleasure of just word-smitting a draft that was already “almost there”. After an intense 7-hour writing session, late dinner was surely deserved. Later, midnight sun was admired by the lake Rautavesi with some single malt Islay whiskey.
Jarkko Jokihaara, the co-PI of the FICEBO-Hand, joined us for the dinner and brought with him some amazing news: He and his team were awarded almost 500,000€ by the Academy of Finland to study thumb OA! This certainly called for a minor celebration, but we were conscious that there was a lot to be done on the second day, so it was just after midnight that we called it a day and got to our rooms to prepare for the second round of the Workshop!
We dedicated the second day to finalizing the 5-year follow-up data of the FIMPACT trial. We had just received the statistical analyses of the trial from prof. Jonas Ranstam and Kari Kanto was keen to share the first draft of the manuscript to our team. The successful work on the first day with the FISH manuscript gave us a huge momentum and some new perspectives to the writing – we truly made a good push towards finalizing the manuscript by the time it was time to call it a day, enjoy a nice lunch and head back home.
Although so few of us were able to participate, we are thrilled with the progress made on the projects. On our way back home, it occurred to us that it would have been nice to have more time, for example to explore the surroundings of Ellivuori resort. Maybe next time, since we liked the venue so much that we made a reservation for the next year’s summer workshop to be arranged at the same place.
Now it is time to enjoy the summer and finalize the manuscripts. Hopefully, you will hear from us regarding these and other projects in the late fall!