The purpose of ISAKOS is to act as an umbrella association for these regional societies to provide a means for exchange of knowledge between them and, most importantly, to promote education in the fields of knee surgery and orthopaedic sports medicine to those areas of the world where such educational opportunities are lacking.
These two societies previously held meetings 'back to back' and as most delegates attended both it became a logical step to combine them.
[1] The society is currently chaired by Dr. Willem van der Merwe of South Africa, who will hold the post until 2021.
[2] ISAKOS is an international society of individuals interested in Sports Orthopaedics and the fields of medicine and science related to that.
In keeping with the fundamental mission of ISAKOS some preference is given to supporting research and scholarships to individuals from countries where such opportunities may not have otherwise been available.
The primary focus of ISAKOS is education in the fields of Orthopaedic Sports Medicine, Arthroscopy and Knee Surgery.
It achieves this goal by 4 means; the Biennial ISAKOS Congress, focussed expert consensus meetings resulting in a publication, instructional courses and surgical techniques available on the ISAKOS website and involvement with approval of many other courses with similar educational intent throughout the world.
The Congress also includes sessions for debates on current issues, technical exhibits and time for networking which is so important in developing International professional contacts and acquaintances.
The most recent ISAKOS meeting was held in 2017 in Shanghai, China, and involved over 4000 attendees from 84 countries presenting 256 papers and 753 E-posters.
ISAKOS also supports and collaborates on several other meetings throughout the year focusing on knee injuries or other sports related areas of interest.
Focussed Expert Consensus Meetings The Clinical Committees of ISAKOS are made up of multinational members with common interests.
A number of ISAKOS derived publications of the outcomes of consensus meetings are available to members, many of which have been published in respected orthopaedic literature.