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2025 Annual Meeting Message from Julie Samora, MD

We hope that those of you that attended the 2025 POSNA Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV, enjoyed the experience! 

These annual meetings are such a team effort. We could not orchestrate this incredible event without the tireless efforts, skill, and dedication of the POSNA staff. I am grateful for their professionalism, guidance, commitment, and expertise, which enable us to create such successful annual meetings year after year. The Program Committee (Tony Ricco, MD; Christine Ho, MD; and John Vorhies, MD) provided great insights and spent hours reviewing all the abstracts to help craft the best possible program. President Todd Milbrandt, MD, presided over the meeting and supported our innovation to trial a few new formats this year. 

New to the Annual Meeting included four breakout sessions. A fireside chat on firearm-related injury was led by Derek Kelly, MD. Don Bae, MD, moderated “All Aces: A Masterclass in Pediatric Orthopaedics,” which focused on team building, difficult conversations, intelligent practice hacks, complications, and professional transitions.  Kevin Neal, MD, and Christine Ho, MD, moderated a session on Innovative Management. Corinna Franklin, MD, facilitated small group discussions on equity in pediatric orthopaedics. All the topics covered in these breakouts stem directly from feedback provided by members and attendees in recent meeting evaluations. 

John Vorhies, MD, oversaw two sessions on difficult pediatric orthopaedic cases, with experienced moderators providing pearls on management. 

For the general scientific program, 1203 abstracts were submitted. We are grateful for the hundreds of volunteers who participated in the grading process. These submissions resulted in 105 podium presentations and 100 ePosters.  The final podium acceptance rate was 10%, increasing to 17% when considering the ePoster program—the quality remains high and the competition to present the great work is intense. Including the new sessions, there were a total of 167 presenters from more than 150 different institutions and 14 countries!  

Pre-recorded content available online, including ePosters and virtual symposia. I would like to offer a special thanks to all of the committees who contributed to the outstanding virtual symposia that are on the meeting mobile app. Topics include Artificial intelligence, POSNA Research Priorities and Vision, Environmental Impact of What We Do in Orthopaedics, Disaster Response, Management of Infections, and Navigating Change (Transitioning Pediatric Orthopaedic Patients with Lifelong Conditions to Adulthood). All content is hosted on POSNAcademy, and I encourage you to explore the wealth of content there with others following the meeting. 

 The Steel Lecture was given by Jennifer Dasal, who is the creator and host of the ArtCurious podcast and author of ArtCurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History (Penguin Books) and the upcoming nonfiction work, The Club: Where American Women Artists Sought Refuge in Belle Époque Paris (Bloomsbury). We honored the legacy of Dr. Lori Karol with the Lead Like Lori Lecture, given by Robyn Benincasa. From her, we felt inspired to chase challenging finish lines through G.R.I.T. (Guts, Respect, Innovation, and Teamwork). 

Award recipients included Frances Anne Farley, MD, who received the Distinguished Achievement Award; J. Eric Gordon, MD, accepted the Humanitarian Award; and A. Noelle Larson, MD, received the Special Effort and Excellence Award.  

View this year’s winners for the Best Clinical Research Paper, Best Basic Science Paper, and Best ePoster, in the post Annual Meeting wrap-up email.  

In addition to the many educational opportunities, Las Vegas provided outstanding venues for dining, exercising (tennis of course), catching up with old friends, and making new ones. After Dr. Milbrandt passed the presidential torch to Dr. Kevin Shea, we celebrated the week’s accomplishments and toasted to continued fellowship. John Vorhies, MD, and next year’s Program Committee are already working on  another exciting program for POSNA 2026 in Orlando, FL. 

Thank you all for joining us in Las Vegas! 

Safe travels home, 

Julie Samora, MD, PhD 

Program Committee Chair