PERSPECTIVES

Drs. Waddell and Bhandari discussed changes in how people do business for organizations. Our discussion uncovered 4 core themes. These themes and their supporting insights are highlighted below.

1. COVID-19 Changes How We Do Business: Leadership

Dr./Professor Waddell holds the prestigious position of Secretary General for the International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology (Société Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopédique et de Traumatologie, SICOT), a global orthopaedic and traumatology organization. Dr. Waddell shared with us his thoughts on the big changes in leadership that are currently happening in medical organizations due to COVID-19.

 

Dr. Waddell believes the key is to develop a strategy that allows people to keep current with medical knowledge and to conduct business of the organization. Although there are a few different strategies that could be developed, the concept of providing medical education through a webinar format is well established and accepted, and this concept is currently more relevant than ever. To do business, leaders of an organization have to think about remote, virtual meetings. In the past, few surgeons were using this style of meeting to either present their material or to hold business meetings, but now are forced to switch. In the last three to four months, the medical world has been learning from industries with more experience using virtual meetings.

2. There Will Be an Increase in Virtual Content

The current climate has changed the view of how we must lead. Dr. Waddell predicts that there will be a significant increase in virtual content for academic purposes and for education.

In Dr. Waddell’s view, the concept of trying to run an organization by virtual means is very challenging. The SICOT organization has spent 50 years holding business meetings and academic meetings in a face to face fashion. Now, the situation has forced every organization to be prepared to adapt completely in terms of how to do business.

For in-person meetings, there may be a low attendance rate because people may not be comfortable travelling on airplanes and being in a room with hundreds of other people. Surgeons’ working in hospitals may not have their attendance to such international meetings approved because of the potential risk of being infected by SARS-CoV-2 as well as the influence of compulsory quarantine following international travel. In some countries, international travel may not be allowed.

3. Challenges of International Virtual Meetings

Drs. Waddell and Bhandari regard that people are familiar with running virtual meetings at the national level, for example, the meetings conducted in Canada and America.

Dr. Waddell talked about challenges of international level virtual meetings:

1) Time zones. With a big international organization like SICOT, that has members from more than 100 countries in over 12 time zones, it is challenging to hold a meeting where we can get all members to participate at the same time.

2) Technical challenges. It is difficult to have computer access and high-speed internet guaranteed in every membership country.

4. Merits of In-person Meetings

It is very important for organizations, like SICOT, to bring value to its members in the form of having an annual meeting. Members from smaller countries, where there are not a lot of orthopaedic surgeons in the country, put high value on the opportunity to present their work to global colleagues face to face. This has been a very powerful driver of SICOT membership and SICOT participation. The experience of virtual meetings will not be comparable to in-person presentations on a podium, showcasing research, clinical cases and interest. Furthermore, presenters cannot get effective feedback from the audience during virtual meetings.

For the social aspect, there is a strong desire for people, especially orthopaedic surgeons, to go back to face to face meetings.

SENSE-MAKING

Dr. Waddell shared some of the operational changes that organizations are facing due to COVID-19. The use of virtual meetings will significantly increase. Most likely there will still be an annual in-person meeting for most organizations, but the meetings might be shorter and smaller.