News

Post Meeting EPOSNA 2024

We would like to extend our gratitude to all those who attended the EPOSNA 2024 meeting in National Habor, MD, USA, and sincerely hope you enjoyed the experience!

Dear Meeting Attendees, 

We would like to extend our gratitude to all those who attended the EPOSNA 2024 meeting in National Habor, MD, USA, and sincerely hope you enjoyed the experience! This gathering marked the second joint meeting of the European Paediatric Orthopaedic Society (EPOS) and the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA), a collaboration that began in 2017 to foster global pediatric orthopaedic education and scholarly exchange. Together, we have made history. With well over 1000 attendees from 60+ countries across the world and over 400 scientific presentations, this was the largest academic pediatric orthopaedic meeting in the world to have ever taken place. It was wonderful to catch up with friends from across the globe and share ideas that will hopefully allow us all to better care for our patients. We hope that this meeting provided valuable and cutting-edge information while also allowing you to enjoy the grandeur and beauty of the United States capital city. A huge thanks goes to our local hosts from Children’s National Hospital, Matt Oetgen, MD, and Megan Young, MD, for coordinating some amazing events and activities in Washington, DC. 

We had the pleasure of chairing this year’s program and are grateful for the guidance provided to us by the EPOS Reading Committee consisting of Franck Accadbled, MD, PhD of France; Cristina Alves, MD, MSc, FEBOT of Portugal; and Ilkka Helenius, MD, PhD, of Finland, as well as the POSNA Program Committee consisting of Nicholas Fletcher, MD; Julie Samora, MD, PhD; and John Vorhies, MD. EPOS President Hakan Ömeroğlu, MD, AAS, and POSNA President Dan Sucato, MD, MS, presided over the meeting and transferred their presidencies to Carol Hasler, MD, and Todd Milbrandt, MD, respectively.  

An astounding 1359 abstracts were submitted for consideration of inclusion in the general scientific session, and we are incredibly thankful for the 100+ volunteer readers from both societies who participated in the grading process. Ultimately, this resulted in 250 podium presentations and 197 ePoster presentations from 168 institutions and 39 countries…a truly global exchange of ideas!  In addition, the meeting hosted seven industry-sponsored symposia and four outstanding virtual symposia.   

We would like to offer a special thanks to the EPOS and POSNA committees that contributed to these virtual symposia, ranging in content from pediatric trauma care following natural disasters to differences in multicenter research efforts between Europe and North America. These symposia explore topics of considerable importance to attendees that unfortunately could not be offered in person due to time constraints. The effort to record and submit these symposia is significant, and they add tremendous value to the meeting. All virtual symposia will be available to registered attendees to earn CME through December 29, 2024. The links to the symposia are below and they are also housed on POSNAcademy. 

This year’s Steel lecturer was Rajiv Shah, MD, a former administrator of the United States for International Development and a current president of the Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution with a mission of promoting the well-being of humanity across the world. The EPOS Presidential Speaker was Manuel Cassiano Neves, MD, a leader in pediatric orthopaedic education across Europe. The POSNA Presidential Speaker was Larry Lenke, MD, an icon in pediatric spine deformity correction. EPOS award winners included Deborah Eastwood, MD, who received the Pro Maximis Meritis Award, and Elhanan Bar-On, MD, MPH, who received the EPOS Humanitarian Award for his longstanding work involving emergency missions to disaster areas. POSNA award recipients included Charlie Johnston, MD, who received the POSNA Distinguished Achievement Award; Colleen Sabatini, MD, MPH, who received the POSNA Humanitarian Award for her advocacy efforts to improve healthcare access to children in lower-resource areas; and Carter Clement, MD, MBA, who received the POSNA Special Effort and Excellence Award for his work in developing Peds Ortho, the official podcast of POSNA.   

This year’s meeting award recipients are:   

In addition to the many educational experiences offered at the meeting, Washington, DC, provided outstanding opportunities for dining, sightseeing, catching up with old friends, and making new ones. The closing reception at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History was a memorable event and the perfect venue for reconnecting with friends. As we left Washington to return home, Julie Samora, MD, PhD, and next year’s POSNA Program Committee were already working on creating another exciting program for POSNA’s 2025 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV, hosted by David Stewart, MD.  Likewise, David Farrington, MD, and the EPOS Reading Committee are well underway in creating an extraordinary program for the EPOS 2025 meeting in Toulouse, France, hosted by Franck Accadbled, MD, PhD. 

Lastly, none of this could have happened without the amazing and tireless efforts of the POSNA and EPOS staff. They have our highest praise and deepest gratitude for their professionalism, commitment, and expertise in organizing this meeting. We would also like to thank EPOS and POSNA leadership for their vision and determination in making this historic international gathering of pediatric orthopaedic surgeons a reality.  

Sincerely,  

David Farrington, MD, and Tony Riccio, MD 
Program Chairs