The British Orthopaedic Association was founded in 1918 and is the professional association for over 4000 orthopaedic surgeons. Their web site was re-launched in mid 2006. I had no idea that there were so many subspecialty branches or orthopaedic surgery.

Here’s an interesting idea that other journals could follow with benefit. In the orthopaedic world the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (Br) has commissioned several experts to review the content of the Journal over the last five years and to pick the most important papers in a specific topic area. These papers are then placed into context within that area. Each of the reviewers has provided a suggested reading list – check it out.

Getting carefully filtered access to quality material is always an issue. This has been addressed for the orthopods at Orthogate - “the gateway to the orthopaedic internet” -

The trainees in the UK are pretty well organised and have some excellent sites. The BOTA site is being re configured and a temporary version is currently available and the Association of Surgeons in Training have an excellent site as do the Otolaryngologists and the Urologists I will add some more links for the other disciplines next month.

Adjuvant!

Useful tools
Here are a few interesting sites which you might well find interesting and useful.

Have a look at the Scottish Radiological Society site.

The site design is interesting and thoughtful. It is almost minimalist, straightforward but useful. The archive is not the largest collection on the web but is certainly worth a look. Amongst the cases are many good examples and they are well presented. Past exam papers are available. They are a little dated and while many of the questions are poorly constructed the facility to test yourself against the clock, carry out the marking and get explanatory notes is good.

In the category of “other useful tools” – you should have a look at Adjuvant Online. The purpose of this is really smart. It is designed help health professionals and patients with early cancer (breast, colon or lung) discuss the risks and benefits of receiving additional therapy after operation. You need to register but the process is painless and free!

Finally – please let me know if you come across interesting personal sites maintained by colleagues. Here is a fantastic example. Stephen Parker is a General and Paediatric surgeon in Coventry has an excellent site bursting with educational resources.

Till next month …

David Galloway