British Indian Orthopaedic Society

The British Indian Orthopaedic Society UK is constituted mainly by a group of Orthopaedic Surgeons from Indian Origin now settled in the UK. The main thrust of BIOS is to function as an academic and educational society, nurturing strong links between British and Indian Orthopaedics and supporting educational activities both in India and the UK, including running of the Indo – British Exchange Fellowship Programmes. The Society has also been conducting annual scientific conferences regularly since that inaugural meeting in Eastbourne in 1999. These meetings have scientific papers from the British Indian consultants and trainees and over the years, with the slots for both podium and posters. All the selected podium papers were abstracted in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and its successor, Bone and Joint Journal.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bone_%26_Joint_Journal)

Why BIOS?

Modern India is a very proud nation, which made tremendous strides in all areas of human endeavour, spanning several millennia. It is home to an ancient civilisation, which constantly underpins its growth and development. A history of two centuries of association as the ruled and the ruler entwine India and UK. The greatest positive that came out of this is the adoption of English language in India and its role in the modernisation of India. Doctors from the Indian Subcontinent formed the backbone of the NHS, particularly in the early years. The specialism of Orthopaedics in the UK has also been enriched by significant Indian contribution. Viewed from this background, the formation of an association of Orthopaedic Surgeons of Indian Origin in the UK is but a logical step. However, it has to be emphasised that BIOS is predominantly an educational and cultural body, promoting and nurturing orthopaedic ties between UK and India. This is an organisation that aims to be inclusive and not exclusive. The British Indian Orthopaedic Society celebrates its core Indian connection but is also equally proud to be essentially a body of British surgeons who happen to be of Indian origin. With this in view, a unanimous decision was taken by the Society at its AGM in Liverpool 2015 to change its name to BRITISH INDIAN ORTHOPAEDIC SOCIETY (BIOS) and this was implemented at the Leicester 2016 meeting.

Inception:

In the early summer of 1999, many exciting things were happening round the United Kingdom and not the least among them was the Cricket World Cup. As the South African and the Indian teams were locked in a group match at Hove on 15th May 1999, A handful of enthusiastic British Orthopaedic surgeons of Indian origin, led by the founder president, Bisal Muddu assembled in nearby Eastbourne to sow the seeds of Indian Orthopaedic Society UK. The idea for such an organisation had exercised the mind of Bisal Muddu for quite sometime. He took soundings from such stalwarts as Chris Colton, President of British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) 1995 and others, who gave their blessings to the concept. Bisal Muddu and his colleague Babu Peravali, the founder secretary of the organisation have invited like-minded colleagues from across the UK for the Inaugural Meeting, hosted by Ravi Koka.

The society has grown steadily over the years and in 2018 it has a life-membership of over 400, comprising of consultants, career middle grades and trainees. BIOS believes that there is a potential membership of nearly twice that number and so there is still some way to go. Encouragingly however there has been a steady increase of the rate at which new members are joining the society.

The organisation is currently in its 18th year of existence and it has made giant strides in all directions, fulfilling many of its stated goals, and planning many future activities.

Executive Structure:

The executive committee including the President and the rest of the office bearers are elected from among the members for a three-year term.

The society continues its close association with the BOA. The President of the BOA now attends IOS UK annual Conference regularly. In reciprocation, the IOS UK president is also invited to annual BOA Conference as head of learned society. The President of the Indian Orthopaedic Association (IOA) is also a regular guest speaker at the BIOS meetings and this is reciprocated by the BIOS president attending the annual IOA meetings. Therefore the bridge underpinned by BIOS linking Indian and British Orthopaedics is built on strong foundations, nurturing the science and art of Orthopaedics across the two continents.

A further proof of the involvement of BIOS in the above process is the recent signing of MOU with Indian Orthopaedic Association and Indian Arthroplasty Association and the agreement with the British Orthopaedic Association to run the BIOS sessions within the BOA Congress.

Indo British Travel Fellowships:

This is the flagship educational programme of BIOS. The idea took shape in early 2003 and Mr. Muddu sought advice from the then BOA hierarchy, including Professor Gregg, Mr. Jones and Mr. Benson to structure these fellowships along the lines of ABC fellowships. The venture finally got off the ground with some hard work put in by the fellowship committee of BIOS at the time. Mr. Leo Jacobs, Mr. Len Funk and Mr. Bisal Muddu were the first trio of British Traveling Fellows to visit India in February 2005. Later that year, three Indian fellows came over to tour the UK in September 2005. This proved to be equally successful and the fellows, Professor Vernon Lee, Dr Ghanshyam Bhatia and Dr Ramachandra Rao wrote glowing accounts of their experience. Since then regular tours have been taking place annually under the overall direction and supervision of BIOS.

The fellowship programme has evolved over a period of time culminating in two separate tours, a junior tour in June/July of 3 fellows ending with their participation in the annual IOS UK conference and a senior tour of 3 fellows rounding off with their presentations at the BOA congress.

Indian Summer:

The concept of “Indian Summer” was the brainchild of Bisal Muddu who got the inaugural event off to a great start in the summer of 2004 as a part of the Annual BOA Congress taking place in that year in Manchester. A delectable combination of invited lectures from eminent Indian Orthopods, spicy Indian Dinner and even spicier Bollywood themed entertainment enthralled the attending delegates The second Indian Summer event was held in 2009 generating equally enthusiastic reviews on the quality of the speakers and their presentations, not to mention the Indian themed entertainment. A decision was then taken to make it a triennial event and the next one took place in 2012, again in Manchester and again lauded for the learned presentations and the inevitable high-class entertainment. This event is now firmly established in the BOA Congress calendar. A reciprocal event in India mirroring the Indian Summer in UK was first mooted at the Indian Summer meeting in 2009 and it became a reality at the Chennai IOACON in 2013, under the name, “British Autumn” when senior British Orthopods gave a series of lectures to an immensely appreciative audience.

Other Educational Activities:

BIOS arranges, from time to time, short term visiting fellowships for British Trainees to spend some time in India, taking in the vast amount of clinical material and the gargantuan experience of the surgeons there. So far these fellowships were arranged on an adhoc basis with individual BIOS members liaising with their Indian counterparts to organise local accommodation, hospitality and a teaching programme. The travel costs, though not much for an economy return fare, are still considerable and again, BIOS members have stepped in where necessary, to support the programme. All the British trainees, who had the opportunity to go on these tours so far, have been hugely appreciative of the educational and cultural benefit that they had. Anna Fox, a trainee on Manchester rotation was one and she wrote an excellent essay on her experience in an issue of BON. BIOS is extremely keen to streamline these tours and in fact is now looking at an ambitious programme of putting together formal training opportunities for British Trainees in India. BIOS identified a number of centres of excellence in India which can potentially offer experience in areas such as paediatric surgery, spine, lower limb joint replacements, hand surgery, to name a few. The society realises that it is not easy to slot in such overseas training into the current structured training programmes of British trainees, particularly if they exceed 3 months. However BIOS believes that programmes of up to 3 months in India in a selected centre/selected subspecialty for those trainees who have successfully completed their training, but waiting for a consultant appointment, are certainly in the realms of possibility. BIOS has a database of such centres across India with a breathtaking turnover of clinical material and procedures, and who are willing to offer such training. The trainees therefore will have a great chance to be exposed to orthopaedic pathology not usually seen in bulk in the UK. The society has already done some ground work and is most keen to take this forward, having made a beginning by funding BOTA fellowships with blessings and support from such relevant bodies as the Deaneries, BOA through its Training Committee and the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB).

Traditionally, the UK has been the choice destination for legions of doctors from India for rounding off of their training and education. Countless numbers of such doctors spanning many generations returned to India and enriched the Indian Medical Scene with their skills. Sadly the opportunity for such training has been all but shut for all non-EU international medical graduates for reasons beyond the scope of this article. With this in view, BIOS has put in place a number of opportunities for young Indian Orthopaedic Surgeons to be able to visit UK in an observer capacity for a short duration of two or three weeks, to get an exposure to modern concepts. Details of such programmes are available on BIOS website. BIOS has introduced state chapter level fellowships in collaboration with a number of states in India and already several young orthopods have benefited from such exposure facilitated by BIOS.

BIOS has been instrumental in organising FRCS Orth teaching courses in various regions of the country where its where its senior members regularly teach. BIOS draws on the vast expertise of its members in areas of mentoring, education, training and leadership.

Honorary Membership

BIOS has taken a decision to honour eminent orthopaedic surgeons either of British or Indian origin with proven track record of fostering ties between British and Indian Orthopaedics, by conferring on them Honorary BIOS Life Membership. A list of individuals who accepted this honour so far, is available on the website.

References

http://www.britishindianorthopaedicsociety.org.uk/about/

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