Dreams come true: the soul and spirit of orthopaedics

The Annual Meeting of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) for 2014 will be held on May 22–25, at Kobe International Convention Center and Kobe Portpia Hotel. The main theme of this congress is ‘Dreams come true: the soul and spirit of orthopaedics,’ as seen in the title of this editorial. We all have dreams in our own professional careers. It is certainly not easy to make a dream come true. But what are your dreams? If something which had long been desired or hoped for finally happened, it would bring extreme joy to your professional career. You could enter the mysterious and fascinating world of dreams, where the rules of reality do not apply. We hope that your desire to achieve your dreams will help you make sense of them and achieve a better understanding of them. We will try to help you find the key to unlock the door toward the dream and interpret the meanings of your dreams through the 87th annual congress of JOA. By understanding your dreams, you will gain a clearer view of your personal relationships, an uncensored view of your real feelings, and a better perspective on scientific issues. We value your unique dreams; no other individual can have your personal background, your emotions, or your experiences. Thus, your own dreams can only be connected to your own ‘‘reality’’. With this in mind, it is important to draw from your personal life and orthopaedic experiences when interpreting your scientific dream. Once you have an understanding of your scientific dreams, it can unify the body, mind, and spirit. It gives you insight into yourself and provides you with the means for further selfexploration. You will gain a better understanding and discover more about your scientific dream. So listen to the lecturers who have understood their dreams, and who are trying to make their dreams real in the future. Please explore, discover, have fun, make friends, and find out what is in your dreams by attending the 87th Annual Meeting of JOA in Kobe! In the congress, there will be plenary sessions, luncheon seminars, morning and evening seminars, a symposia, a panel discussions, free papers and poster sessions. Those people who have made their orthopaedic dreams come true will be invited as plenary speakers. One of those speakers is Prof. Shinya Yamanaka who is a Nobel Prize Laureate and really makes his dream real. Many young surgeons who have their dreams will be presenting their updated research outcomes as well. Contemporary orthopaedic problems will continue to be discussed intensively in the annual congress, such as locomotive syndrome, and geriatric orthopaedic problems. Another new challenge of the upcoming congress will be the question of how international the JOA congress can be. To achieve an internationally acceptable congress level, the JOA presidential talk, Professor Shinya Yamanaka’s plenary talk, and the congress president’s talk will be given in English. On the other hand, the JOA and AAOS combined symposium will be scheduled on the 3rd day of the meeting. This is the first trial of such a combined symposium between large regional societies. In this symposium, ACL injury problems will be discussed as one of the most common sports related knee problems. The title of this symposium will be ’ACL reconstruction — what we are facing now and where we will be going in the future?& Seven internationally known members from JOA and AAOS will discuss the updated issues of ACL injury. Also, crossfire talks in English and a general English spoken M. Kurosaka (&) Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan e-mail: [email protected]