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From the President's Desk...


As I have handovered the Presidential Medal to the incoming President, Bharat Mody, I would like to recap what has happened during my Presidency. It has been a great honor and pleasure for me to lead APAS in the past 2 years. I am happy to share with you all, some of the progress our executives have made despite the extreme hindrance we encountered with the pandemic happening all over the world, including some of our executives falling sick with Covid and countrywide lockdown.

1. APAS website has been revamped thanks to Rajeev Sharma to reflect our committee lineup and country representatives to add some sense of belonging for our members and executives.

* We need continued contribution from all active members and committees to send in your interesting clinical cases so it can be posted on the website as suggested by Rami Sorial.

* I proposed to create an Expert Forum on our website so surgeons from all over the world can send in their difficult cases to ask for expert opinions. This will increase the interaction among members.

2. The 4th issue of APAS Newsletter has been released in May 2021 with several interesting articles contributed by Parag Sancheti, Ashok Shyam, Rajeev Sharma, Kukuh Hernugrahanto, Rami Sorial and myself.

* I invite you all to think of other interesting topics and contribute on the next newsletter issue under Bharat’s leadership.

* Please share with us what you think will be interesting to read on the newsletter.
* Rajeev Sharma or Guoqiang Zhang will be happy to take in your comments or answer any questions you might have.

3. We are happy to announce that one of our members, Dr. Minjae Lee out of Sydney was selected as the ICM Travelling Fellows for 2021.

* I was approached by Jay Parvizi and Thorsten Gerhke to propose a name from Asia Pacific as a candidate of ICM Fellowship. Rami, Parag and myself interviewed some candidates and at the end, we were very happy to choose Minjae Lee as the proposed candidate.

* The fellowship will last 1 year with the choice location of either Rothman Institute or Endo Klinik or rotating between the two. Minjae chose to rotate between the 2 centers and enjoyed his time tremendously despite travel challenges he faced during the pandemic.

* I encourage Minjae to submit an article for the newsletter so other APAS members are aware that there is such an opportunity and a chance for our member to win the fellowship when application submission reopens next year.

4. APAS Annual Meeting in Bali was planned for 2020 but was impossible to execute so in its place, we organized a Combined virtual meeting with ASIA and APKS.

* The webinar was over the course of 3 consecutive Saturdays on July 10, 17, and 24, 2021.

* We had over 95 renowned speakers and 12 live surgeries pertaining new technologies.

* We had over 600 participants and several thousands of views on our partner platform, OrthoTV.

5. I am pleased to announce that I have signed the agreement on behalf of APAS with Prof. Seth Leopold, the Editor in Chief of Clinical Orthopaedic & Related Research (CORR), appointing them as APAS official journal and to publish our event proceedings in the form of original researches.

* This partnership will let our members submit their manuscript and possibly published at a reduced APC if accepted.

* Our active members can enjoy free online access to the journal by signing in using the credentials at APAS Website. The free access will end December 31, 2023.

6. I have planned for a Young Surgeon’s Forum for the end of 2022 and appointed.

* It will be an informal forum where young surgeons will have the opportunity to present their researches and meet the experts for discussion.

* With the current situation, we will probably have to work on a zoom webinar basis for the forum.

7. Despite pandemic obstacles and challenges, our APAS Committee has grown closer and stronger. We had had 2 very successful executive committee online meetings which was attended by over 86% of our committee members and country representatives.

8. One of other achievements is when I was approached by Shuchi Matsuda for a collaboration between APAS and JSRA (Japanese Society for Replacement Arthroplasty). As the beginning of our partnership, JSRA has invited Yixin Zhou, Chun Hoi Yan, Rami Sorial and myself to be speakers at their next meeting in February 2023 where they have designed a special collaborative session between APAS and JSRA faculty. We hope to see some APAS members participating at that meeting.

9. We also had an opportunity to collaborate with IAA (Indian Arthroplasty Association) to promote APAS event with new membership for both APAS and IAA at the same time.

10. We finally managed to organize an offline (face to face) meeting for APAS 22nd annual meeting in Bali. It was combined with APKS 12th Annual Meeting, IHKS 7th Scientific Meeting and AO Recon Course & Seminar under Hip & Knee Summit 2022 which took place from Aug 22-27, 2022 at Bali International Convention Center. This Summit was also cobranded with AAHKS, EKS and AKS.

* We had a total of 162 speakers from 30 countries

* There were 3 Plenary Speakers, 1 Symposium on PJI, 27 Symposia on the topics of Arthroplasty, Sports Medicine & Trauma surrounding the hip & knee. We had 78 eposters and 59 free podium presentations. We also had 4 very interesting vendor’s masterclasses from our platinum and gold sponsors.

* We garnered a total 654 participants from all over the world despite losing over 400 participants from China due to travel lockdowns.

11. Rami and I have initiated discussion with Zimmer Biomet about supporting gender diversity under the program “Women in Arthroplasty” (WIA) during our meeting in Bali. Zimmer Biomet has fully supported for 4 female surgeons to attend the Hip & Knee Summit in Bali. Discussion between APAS ans ZB has been very positive for support of future programs for Women in Arthroplasty.

I hope all the accomplishments during my Presidency will be beneficial for APAS for many years to come. I am confident that under the leadership of Bharat Mody, APAS will continue to grow even more to newer heights.

Prof. Nicolaas C. Budhiparama, MD., PhD. (LUMC. NL), PhD. (UGM, ID)


• Professor, School of Medicine, University of Airlangga, Surabaya - Indonesia

• Associate Professor - Department of Orthopaedics, Leiden University, The Netherlands

• Founder & Chairman - Nicolaas Institute of Constructive Orthopedic Research & Education Foundation for Arthroplasty & Sports Medicine

• Founding Godfather of ISAKOS Global Connection Campaign

• Past President of Arthroplasty Society in Asia (ASIA) 2019 - 2022

• Past President of Asia Pacific Knee Society (APKS) 2019 - 2022

• Past President of Asia Pacific Arthroplasty Society (APAS) 2020 - 2022

• Global Chair for International Congress for Joint Reconstruction (ICJR)