16th ESSKA Congress

ESSKA has gone through a very important growth period and following many changes has consolidated its position as one of the world's leading societies in orthopaedic sports trauma.
By understanding the need of Europe to standardize its level of medical education and in order to deliver a premier health care system which ensures high quality patient care, ESSKA has and shall continue to be committed to the continuing medical education of orthopaedic surgeons through close collaboration with many National Affiliated Societies from both East and West Europe.

Not only has ESSKA doubled its membership numbers in the past two years but the combination of its 2,800 members and 23 affiliated societies makes ESSKA the most relevant European society in our field.
As you know ESSKA is a non-profit organisation that stands for quality, independence, ethics and rigor. Through listening to the needs of its members a development strategy was formulated many years ago and ESSKA continues to strive to not only meet the goals set out then but to surpass them each year. The extreme energy and dedication of the past and current ESSKA Board members enables us to share with you the enjoyment of acomplishment of all our priorities: our new executive office which now has a more professional staff (six now); the purchase of our KSSTA journal (signed); the launch of our new journal of experimental orthopaedics, the (JEO) – already online and receiving submissions; the ESSKA Academy (a web education platform – online in Amsterdam) and the creation of the ESSKA Foundation in Luxembourg (in September 2013). The ESSKA Foundation is managed under the umbrella of the prestigious Fondation du Luxembourg and will be a strong tool to help finance our future educational projects.
It is time to smile and to thank you especially all the board members, KSSTA and JEO officers, sections, committees and office staff.

It was the greatest honour of my life to serve this society alongside this team!
We have our biennual Congress in Amsterdam from 14 to 17 May 2014. You will have the opportunity to attend one of the best scientific programmes ever, which includes 18 Instructional Courses, over 40 symposia, 15 keynote lectures, debates and case-discussions, 220 independent papers, podium presentations, live surgeries, over 500 posters and a session for ESSKA's various awards. Video-stations will be running throughout the congress.

Welcome to Amsterdam!

João Espregueira-Mendes
ESSKA President