~~Dear friends,

It is my tremendous honour to be elected as the President of the EWAS for year 2015-2016, right at the 10th anniversary of this one of the most vibrant and innovative surgical societies in the world. It is also my luck and blessing to have this great opportunity through the participation in the EWAS affairs to get acquainted with such a celebrated and passionate group of wrist arthroscopic surgeons from Europe and all over the world since its inception in 2006.  Through the huge concerted education and promotion effort, the EWAS has proudly evolved from a regional society to an international organization with global impact, fame, recognition and establishment within just a decade of time. The brand name has penetrated practically every single wrist surgeon especially those with keen interest in the arthroscopy surgery. The training of the 1000th students through the EWAS courses or EWAS endorsed courses worldwide by December 2013 fully exemplified this formidable achievement. The propagation of knowledge, concept and surgical skill has directly transformed into clinical practices in many places and benefitted the well-being of countless patients in the world who have suffered from various painful wrist disorders. EWAS becomes a guarantee for quality, a symbol for excellence.  None of these would become possible without the dedication and diligence of all the ex-Presidents, Secretary Generals and co-workers in the executive committees under the visionary embracement of our founder and good friend, Christophe Mathoulin.

Being the 10th President of the Society and a non-European by ethnic, I truly thank for the enormous trust and support rendered by my colleagues and friends in the Society. At the same time I also feel the great responsibility of upholding the fame of our organization and to thrive for opportunity to further strengthen the Society and to expand our influence on the world of wrist surgery and related therapeutics, taking advantage of the connections and establishment in my part of the world. There are possibly many measures to realize the target:

1. Format of the arthroscopy courses
• The programme can be designed to incorporate more clinical relevance with the practical application of wrist arthroscopy, both in the diagnostic and therapeutic modality. This can be in the format of clinical case discussion, arthroscopic-clinical correlation, consultation corner and even live surgical demonstration. 

2. EWAS accredited training center
• To pool experienced centers/ individuals as training consortium to offer clinical fellowship programme for young surgeons to enhance their exposure, skill level and clinical decision making. The training centers are not necessarily confined to European region. This also facilitates global networking and exchange of experience.
• Set up criteria of accreditation for training centers to ensure training quality.

3. Expand global interest and impact
• To develop or assist in conducting more arthroscopy courses throughout Europe and in other parts of the world.
• Collaborate with other regional wrist organizations, such as IWIW and APWA in offering a more global wrist educational programme.

4. Encourage research and academic collaboration
• To encourage multi-centers quality research within the EWAS network.

All of these will rely on the concerted effort of the executive board and members of the Society to materialize. We can certainly foresee the brilliant future of our Society with the growing demand, identification and awareness of the common and uncommon wrist problems worldwide.

Last but not the least, it is my penultimate duty as a good tradition of the Society to organize the annual EWAS session at the coming FESSH Congress in Santander in June 2016. I have the great pleasure to work in close collaboration with Jan-Ragnar Haugstvedt, our assiduous Secretary General, and in conjunction with the Congress President and our Ex-President Paco Pinal, in lining up quality speakers and offering a rich scientific programme at the meeting, Our intention is to arouse the interest and to revisit on some of the fundamental problems in wrist surgery, such as physical examination of the wrist, correlation with arthroscopic anomalies, clinical approach and differential diagnosis for chronic wrist pain, and to examine on some unresolved problems, such as chondral lesion, extrinsic ligament lesion and instability, failed scaphoid nonunion surgery, avascular necrosis, arthrolysis etc. I warmly welcome all members of EWAS to join hand with us at this highlight of the year in the incredibly beautiful city of Santander.

May I wish all of you a most prosperous year full of rewards and achievements.

Enjoy the Scope! Enjoy the Wrist!

Yours faithfully

PC Ho
EWAS President 2015-2016