British Orthopaedic Association (BOA)
The British Orthopaedic Association was founded in 1918 with twelve founding members. They now have over 4,500 members worldwide, the majority based in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is a pivotal organisation within the British surgical scene, representing some 40% of the total surgical workforce.
Wat They Do:
Their vision is a vibrant, sustainable, representative orthopaedic community delivering high quality, effective care to fully informed patients. They seek to achieve this by ensuring that the Government’s Health Care reforms take full account of the need for properly resourced and accessible musculoskeletal services. This is important given the UK’s demographics and the fact that musculoskeletal disorders account for annual expenditure of some £5Bn: trauma and orthopaedic practitioners really can transform their patients’ lives.
Their purpose:
They can only deliver on the vision by providing clear national leadership for the trauma and orthopaedic surgical community. That means engaging their patients, offering real value to their members and Specialist Societies, making their charitable work count – especially in the field of research. It also means that they must ensure their voice is heard at the most influential levels in Government, Whitehall, the NHS, and industry. That entails focused advocacy and the clearest possible communication of their core messages. It also entails close working with their partners in the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA).
Their mission and strategy:
Their mission, therefore, is to advance for the public benefit the practice, art and science of orthopaedic surgery. To do this they have designed a strategy focused on their core objectives of excellence in professional practice, training and education, and research.
For each core objective they are currently developing a five year plan that sets out short, medium and long term deliverables. They review progress in each area periodically throughout the year, culminating with an annual report to Council. Because of the pace of change across the health care system they keep that report light on words and long on substance in the form of a presentation: effectively it becomes a decision support tool to inform future priorities across their three core objectives.