Indian Orthopaedic Association

The IOA is one of the largest professional organizations which has more than 11000 active life members. It is a vibrant organization which focuses on academics, research and social networking. From the time of its formation in 1955, in these 60 years this organization has evolved into a strong professional body with many sub-committees and regional committees.

It is a constantly growing organization not only in terms of increasing memberships but also in all other fronts like fellowships, CMEs, orations and sub-specialty meetings. The annual conference of the organization IOACON, is one of the well organized and most sought after meetings conducted in India. The history, birth and development of the Indian Orthopaedic Association is very similar to that of the British Orthopaedic Association, probably due to our past association with the United Kingdom.

Like Hugh Owen Thomas, who all his life remained a general surgeon, but made history by his contributions to orthopaedics, the late Dr M G Kini may well be considered the forerunner of Orthopaedic Surgery in India.

The first surgeon who limited his surgical activities to Orthopaedic practice was Dr R J Katrak of Bombay. The other pioneers in the field were Dr N S Narasimha Aiyar of Madras and Dr S R Chandra of Calcutta. These were the dedicated men who toiled hard when Orthopaedic Surgery was neither popular not recognised as an entity. The Indian Orthopaedic Association owes its birth to the next generation of young surgeons who trained in the field abroad during or after the Second World War. Dr Mukhopadhaya suggested the idea of forming an association in an informal chat with friends during the annual conference of ASI at Vellore in 1952. A letter mooting this concept was sent out by Dr Mukhopadhaya and Dr K S Grewal. Many practicing Orthopaedic Surgeons met at Agra in 1953; the prominent among them being Dr R J Katrak, Dr B N Sinha, Dr K S Grewal, Dr Mukhopadhaya and Dr A K Gupta and agreed to form an Orthopaedic Section of ASI. However the general body of the ASI at Hyderabad, in 1954 did not favour the formation of an Orthopaedic Section. But, the small group of Orthopaedic Surgeons formed an adhoc group with Dr B N Sinha as President, Dr R J Katrak and Dr Thayammanaswami as Vice-President, and Dr Mukhopadhaya as Secretary. Two scientific sessions conducted in Lucknow and Ludhiana in 1955 gave confidence to this group to stand on its own legs.

The dream of the Orthopaedic surgeons came true in the Amritsar meeting of the ASI in December 1955. A formal Orthopaedic Section with office bearers was formed. Dr B N Sinha and Dr Mukhopadhaya were unanimously elected president and secretary of the section.

In order to facilitate young Orthopaedic Surgeons to exchange scientific information and discuss mutual problems the section decided to hold two meetings independently every year and one additional meeting along with the Annual Conference of ASI. However the experience of two well conducted and well organised meetings at Calcutta and Patna in 1956 brought home the realization that such frequent meetings were difficult. At the annual session in 1956, it was decided to hold on mid year session to be called the summer conference and an annual meeting along with the ASI in December.

The activities of the Association slowly gathered momentum in subsequent years. Dr A K Talwalkar deserves credit for the starting of the Johnson & Johnson and the Smith & Nephew travelling fellowships. The Kini Memorial Oration, started in 1958, has been regularly delivered ever since. The Association was indeed fortunate to have the illustrious Sir Harry Platt as the first Orator in 1958. The members of the Association realised the pressing need to start a journal and against heavy odds the first issue was published in 1967 with Prof. Prakash Chandra as the Editor.