Come November and it is traditionally time for the annual meeting of the Finnish Orthopaedic Association. For the past few years, the meeting has been held at Wanha Satama (Old Harbour) in Helsinki. FICEBO members were again actively involved in the congress as both attendees and lecturers.
Teija Lund –– The Orthopaedic Surgeon of the Year 2022
But this year, the real FICEBO highlight was somewhat non-academic, as Teija Lund, one of the latest additions to our FICEBO team, was awarded the Orthopaedic Surgeon of the Year 2022 Award for her contributions to the development of a new competency-based curriculum for the orthopaedic discipline. Teija has tirelessly steered the work through numerous obstacles, to the point where we now have – for the first time ever – a curriculum that clearly outlines the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that orthopaedic residents should master when completing their training. We wholeheartedly congratulate Teija for this distinction and applaud the board of the Finnish Orthopaedic Association for making such a wonderful decision!
Two in a row –– The Orthopaedic PhD Thesis of the Year
Another obvious highlight of the meeting was that Kari Kanto’s PhD Thesis was granted the best PhD Thesis of the Year 2022 Award by the Finnish Orthopaedic Association. Kari defended his thesis entitled “Subacromial decompression for subacromial pain” in July. As Lasse Rämö’s thesis got the award last year, FICEBO PhD students are on a two-year streak now! In addition to the many prizes and recognitions that Lasse has received over the past year, his thesis on humeral shaft fractures was again awarded, this time with an honorary mention by the Finnish Society of Surgery at the society’s annual meeting Operatiiviset päivät.
Finally, light at the end of the FIMAGE tunnel
Although it may seem like the annual meeting is just awards and celebration, it is always a very important event in the FICEBO calendar, as we make the best out of the opportunity when most of our collaborators are in town and host meetings of our ongoing and future projects. This time it was time to remind and reassure our collaborators that although it has taken us eight long years to get all the bits and pieces at the right places, the FIMAGE study is going to turn into flesh and blood shortly. Our core FIMAGE research team (lead investigator Thomas, study manager Pirjo and project coordinator Saara) were kept busy filling the FIMAGE researchers in on the latest developments of the project. And since it’s been a long wait to get this close to the start it was very encouraging and even heartening to sense the enthusiasm/zeal among the FIMAGE people – “This is a study that I really want to be involved and participate in” was a phrase commonly heard in the meetings we hosted!
