Dear ARCO members, future members, colleagues, and friends,

It is a great honor for me to work with you in furthering the goals of our esteemed organization. During recent years, we have met some challenges but still came out on top! COVID disrupted many aspects of our lives, including ARCO; however, under the leadership of Dr. Shin-Yoon Kim (2021-2022) and then Dr. Nobuhiko Sugano (2023-2024) we have regained momentum and began to flourish again.

The 22^nd International Meeting of ARCO on Sept 6-7, 2024, in Osaka Japan was a great success in all respects. The meeting was very well organized and academically stimulating; the venue and social events were superb. Congratulations to the Japanese organizing committee headed by Drs. Nobuhiko Sugano, Takashi Sakai and Wataru Ando. Special recognition should also go Dr. Lynne Jones, the Executive Director of ARCO International and the international executive committee for guiding our organization through the re-emergence of ARCO activities.

Dr. Michael Mont (JOA), Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Arthroplasty, together with Dr. Lynne Jones and I, and the 2024 Japanese ARCO meeting organizers are facilitating peer reviews of selected high impact papers from the meeting. Accepted manuscripts will be published in a special issue of the JOA.  Thank you to Dr. Mont for his collaboration on this effort.

What goals do I foresee for ARCO for the coming years?

First, for our organization to grow and flourish, we need more widespread exposure of our goals and accomplishments. ARCO members should arrange symposia and other activities locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. This can be initiated by local enthusiasts and coordinated with the national and international ARCO committee members. One such example is the symposium titled “Hip Osteonecrosis; Joint preservation from basic science, cell therapy, and techniques to delay collapse” being given at the 2025 European Orthopaedic Research Society Meeting in Davos, Switzerland in June 2025. This will involve Philippe Hernigou (France), Peter Yang and me (Stanford), Sophie Verrier and Arnaud Scherberich (Switzerland). Please make your presence and our causes known by initiating these symposia, taking pictures at the meeting and updating our website via Lynne Jones.

Second, our organization must grow to survive. The Asian countries are the most prolific participants in our membership. The North American and European numbers are stagnant. Special effort should be directed through our hospitals, local and national societies to disseminate the goals and importance of our society, and its successes.  To this end, the ARCO National Leadership must become more actively engaged in these efforts.

Third, one our Past Presidents Edward Cheng and others in the past (e.g. Kay Koo, Dewei Zhao etc.) have spearheaded collaborative studies and publications that are vital to the mission of ARCO. The International Committee is soliciting new ideas to pursue. Please send these to Lynne Jones and me, for further input and discussion.

Fourth, one particular facet of our organization that has been under-represented is the treatment of osteonecrosis in very young patients, such as teenagers undergoing chemotherapy.  These cases are grossly underreported, and easily over-looked until it is too late to “save the femoral head”.  I am working with Kevin Shea and his team at our Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford to formulate and validate specific protocols for earlier diagnosis of these patients to facilitate timely joint-saving interventions. I am hoping that we can expand our organization to include pediatric orthopaedic surgeons and researchers in this area globally and broaden our scope.

These are just a few of my thoughts.  Please feel free to contact me (goodbone@stanford.edu) and/or Lynne Jones (ljones3@jhmi.edu), and engage your national Vice President on potential ideas to make our organization even more relevant to our patients, health care providers, and the community at large.

Best Regards,

Stuart Goodman