Welcome to our academic meeting in London in June 2011

The opinion leaders in the field of surgical navigation and robotics are coming from around the world, and you can be sure that there will be a strong local faculty in support from London, where Brian Davies built the first robot to operate on a human, back in 1991. But that is ancient history. The 2011 meeting is aimed at clinicians and investigators – both scientists and engineers – (if they you can tell them apart...). Only in the CAOS meetings can you have a coffee with exactly who you want to meet, whether a robot maker, or a spine surgeon who may have the expertise that you need.

So please come and present your work, or just come to listen and learn at the 11^th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery. As always, all papers are scrupulously reviewed by the scientific committee, and the highest standard work selected for podium presentation. We will have poster sessions, and special poster presentations, as well as live surgery and workshops across the entire spectrum of technology that can assist the orthopaedic surgeon. We hope you will submit work in the different areas that encompass the field, from the basic science issues of registration, and image quality, through the fields of planning and modelling, into the application in clinical trials across the spectrum from trauma and elective surgery, in every field from the extremities to the spine, via the large joints of course. We also need long term follow up and cost effectiveness contributions, as the challenge in the clinic is to show that the investment will reap returns in improved clinical outcomes.

The meeting will be held in the Mermaid Conference Centre at Blackfriars in the centre of London between June 15th and 19th 2011. The conference centre is right on the River Thames, just beneath St. Paul's Cathedral and across the river from the Tate Modern, and Globe theatre among other attractions. The 2011 Annual Meeting already has the makings of an excellent event, leading surgeons from every continent, and a British and European workforce hungry for the technical offerings that industry can bring to the field.

London is a great destination for all the family, with the Jewels of the Tower of London less than a mile east, and the Festival Hall and National theatre less than a mile west. The River Buses from just outside the centre will speed you eastwards to the Greenwich Meridian, where Longitude was established – possibly the most memorable moment in navigation to date, or to watch Chelsea playing football in the west.

I do look forward to welcoming you to London in June, for a meeting that will be profitable for all who come.

Professor Justin Cobb, M.D.
President of CAOS-International
Meeting Chairman