| ||
Dear Colleagues
We are privileged to welcome you to the 30th meeting of the European Paediatric Orthopaedic Society in 2011 in Basel. This is the second time that Basel is fortunate enough to host the society. The 3rd meeting in 1984, chaired by Juerg Baumann, also took place in Basel and at this time there were only 31 participants. Since then the group has developed and expanded to the respected and authoritative organisation it is today and we expect to host between 400 and 500 guests.
The venue is the Congress Center in Basel which provides all the necessary facilities for this size of a meeting. There are two large and comfortable Congress Hotels situated in the same square and several smaller, inexpensive hotels in the neighbourhood within 5 minutes walking distance.
A premeeting course will be held and the subject this year is “Idiopathic Scoliosis and Kyphosis”. Leading expert faculty will report on current state-of-the-art diagnosis and treatment in these conditions. The main topic of the congress is the “paediatric foot”. 437 Abstracts have been submitted – a record for this society. The Reading Committee had a hard work to rate them. The 99 best rated papers were accepted for oral presentation, another 27 as posters and 95 as e-posters.
Basel is an ancient city with a recorded history of more than 2000 years which traces back to an original Roman settlement. The historical city centre, which is a 10 minute walk from the Congress Centre, offers spectacular scenery and many historical buildings, some of which date back to the Middle Ages. The schedule of the scientific program has factored in time to explore and enjoy the highlights of the city. The scientific program will finish at 4 p.m. on Thursday, following which there will be a guided walking tour of the city for all participants. This will be followed in the evening by a boat trip on the Rhine. On Friday the Gala Dinner will be held in the historical and atmospheric restaurant “Safran Zunft”, which has belonged to the guild of spice traders since medieval times. Several Guided Tours to various interesting and scenic places in Switzerland will be offered.
Prof. Fritz Hefti
Dr. Stephanie Böhm