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Prof Shanmuganathan Rajasekaran, Ph.D.
President, SICOT (International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology)
On November 30th, 2017 you are going to kick off the 38th SICOT Orthopaedic World Congress. What convinced you to meet in Cape Town this year?
Cape Town provides everything required for a successful international academic meeting - a great venue with modern facilities, excellent hotels with pleasant accommodation and amazing pre and post conference tour opportunities. Many of the SICOT members have never been to Cape Town and this is an added attraction.
You have chosen the Cape Town International Convention Centre as the home for your convention. Why?
Cape Town International Convention Centre is the natural choice because of its excellent infrastructure, location and facilities. It provides possibilities for many lecture halls and also sufficient space for a good trade exhibit.
What is the social and cultural resonance of your conference?
Africa is currently the buzz word and the place where everything is happening. SICOT travels through various regions of the world every year but has never been in this region before. Africa remains a region of top priority and potential for SICOT. We hope that this meeting will attract many surgeons from Africa and increase the awareness of SICOT in this region. There are many avenues in which SICOT and Africa can mutually benefit from each other.
For those delegates who cannot join you in Cape Town, can they participate remotely / via social media?
All the details of the meeting are on the website. Our Program Committee Chairman is already sending multiple newsletters and brochures about the special lectures, symposia and seminars that are available. During the meeting, there will be daily newsletters that will update about all the important programs and happenings.
What are currently the main challenges for SICOT as an association, as well as for the congress?
The focus on sub-specialties within orthopaedics is increasing. More and more younger surgeons tend to focus on single sub-specialties and favour attending meetings of their interest, rather than a general orthopaedic congress like SICOT. The challenge ahead of SICOT is to be inclusive of all orthopaedic sub-specialties, but also to be of interest to all surgeons from different regions of the world and different age groups. Similarly, there are so many orthopaedic meetings of high quality all around the world, and there is a high degree of competition amongst these meetings to attract as many delegates as possible.