Specialty societies enhance learning on OKO

By Keith Huff

Orthopaedic Knowledge Online relies on partners for content, peer review

AAOS members know they can turn to Orthopaedic Knowledge Online (www.aaos.org/oko) when they need an educational resource and easy access to authoritative orthopaedic information. With nearly 25,000 registered users, the OKO portal is a popular site for learning about orthopaedic conditions, treatment, and research.

One of OKO’s greatest strengths is its ongoing association with specialty partners, which reflects the Academy’s unity initiative to spur cooperation among AAOS and orthopaedic specialty societies.

William A. Grana, MD, OKO’s editor-in-chief, also currently chairs the AAOS Board of Specialty Societies’ (BOS) Education Committee. In both roles, Dr. Grana facilitates cooperation among the specialty societies and AAOS and continues to develop and launch new OKO projects that benefit the specialty partners and AAOS equally. Significantly, 13 of the 22 BOS members are listed as “subspecialty partners” with OKO (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 The OKO portal relies heavily on partnerships with specialty societies.

Directing content
Clinical content on OKO is divided into the following 11 sections: adult reconstruction, evidence-based practice, foot and ankle, hand and wrist, musculoskeletal oncology, pain management, pediatric orthopaedics, shoulder and elbow, spine, sports medicine, and trauma. Section editors for anatomic areas are drawn from the membership of the appropriate specialty society.

Under Dr. Grana’s direction, almost all of OKO’s content is developed in association with the specialty societies.

“Each section editor works closely with the specialty membership to develop content that is eventually posted on OKO,” he explained. “For example, the adult reconstruction section has three section editors—William A. Jiranek, MD; Jay D. Mabrey, MD; and Michael A. Mont, MD. Each was recommended by and works closely with one or more of the three adult reconstruction specialty societies: The Hip Society, The Knee Society, and the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons.”

Other examples of specialty society involvement in developing content for OKO include the hand and wrist section, under section editor Matthew M. Tomaino, MD, who develops content with the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, and the trauma section under section editors Thomas A. DeCoster, MD, and J. Tracy Watson, MD. As the former president of the Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA), Dr. Watson represents an internationally recognized authoritative source for the treatment and prevention of traumatic musculoskeletal injury.

Dean C. Taylor, MD, section editor for sports medicine, heads the AAOS/OKO-American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) Liaison Committee, a group of sports medicine specialists that meets regularly.

“Dr. Taylor works closely with both the Academy and the AOSSM to develop top quality educational resources for OKO,” said Dr. Grana. “Similarly, the pediatric orthopaedics section editor, J. Andy Sullivan, MD, works closely with a liaison committee of pediatric orthopaedic specialists that was formed by the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America. Its members serve as authors or peer reviewers of OKO content.”

Learning opportunities
Coordinated efforts with specialty societies also results in a variety of learning opportunities for OKO users, including posting course lectures and workshops. For the past 3 years, for example, OKO has collaborated closely with the OTA to post online slide lectures from its annual Comprehensive Fracture Course for Residents.

In addition, OKO has posted slide lectures from the Orthopaedic Research Society’s annual meeting workshops for 2008 and 2009.

Many clinical topics on OKO have been developed into CME activities. These activities include a pretest, a review of the topic, and a posttest with feedback.

The “orthopaedic review” section of OKO enables users to create their own multiple-choice self-study quizzes to use in planning their continuing education or preparing for important examinations. Self-study questions covering the materials in volumes 7 and 8 of the Orthopaedic Knowledge Update and the Orthopaedic In-Training Exam are also available.

Adding credibility, improving quality
Cooperation with the various specialties makes OKO stronger overall, believes Dr. Grana.

“Unity with the specialty societies is a high priority for the obvious reasons,” he said. “From an editorial standpoint, having the foremost experts in each specialty develop, edit, and peer review OKO’s educational resources has a positive impact on the quality of the materials and fosters fellowship and cooperation among members of the AAOS and the various specialties. Because most AAOS members also belong to or are actively involved in a specialty organization, they view the OKO partnerships as important for accuracy and credibility.”

With a continually expanding body of information in orthopaedics, OKO is an ideal portal for online users. Dr. Grana anticipates working with more specialty partners as time goes on. For example, discussions are currently underway with the Orthopaedic Research Society to develop a series of basic science lectures for fellows and residents.

“Our list of specialty societies is constantly expanding,” he said. “We will continue to build solid relationships with the various specialties by working closely with them to roll out new programs and new types of educational materials.”

For more information about OKO, visit the Web site, www.aaos.org/oko

Keith Huff is managing editor of Orthopaedic Knowledge Online. He can be reached at huff@aaos.org

AAOS Now
July 2009 Issue
http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/jul09/clinical10.asp