Extract
At the Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Association (AOA) in June
2003, the Executive Committee of the Academic Orthopaedic Society (AOS) met
and voted to formally dissolve the AOS at the end of this fiscal year. This
decision came at a time when program directors face substantial changes. These
changes, mandated by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
(ACGME), specified resident work-hour requirements, as well as resident
evaluations based upon performance in the six core competencies.
Traditionally, these topics would consume much of the Annual Fall Meeting of
the AOS. In the organization's early years, these mandates would have been
subjected to the scrutiny of a midyear Delphi panel. Chairpersons and program
directors would have had an opportunity to carefully review these required
changes, reach a consensus, and, hopefully, come to an agreement with regard
to the best method of implementation. In fact, chairpersons and program
directors in all specialties have felt the need for frequent collaboration
and, as such, virtually every specialty has an association of program
directors and, in turn, a national association of program directors. The
history of this organization in orthopaedics is as follows: