THE AMERICAN Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS, or the Academy) was formed in 1933 by a group of orthopaedic surgeons who recognized the need for a national organization (Figure 55). (See chapter two for a more detailed accounting of the Academy’s founding.) Without it, orthopaedics surely would have remained a small subset of general surgery and the revolution in musculoskeletal surgery in the last half of the 20th century would have occurred in a much different fashion. The Academy’s inclusive fellowship of musculoskeletal surgeons facilitated this revolution, providing a forum for its participants to exchange new methods and advance the interests of orthopaedics. Like any large organization, however, it has had to balance the interests of the membership as a whole against the subspecialty interests of some members within it. The orthopaedic specialty societies have provided a powerful magnet to attract members seeking the fellowship of orthopaedic surgeons interested in narrower segments of orthopaedics. Thus, the Academy has worked to communicate the importance of membership in broad-based regional and national organizations. The Academy has encouraged the growth of state and regional orthopaedic societies. Also, in 1973, it formed the Board of Councilors that now consists of delegates from all 50 states in numbers proportional to the numbers of orthopaedic surgeons in each state, in the territories, and the military. In 1984, it formed the Council of Musculoskeletal Specialty Societies (COMSS) with representatives from the various subspecialty groups. In 2006, COMSS was renamed the Board of Orthopaedic Specialty Societies (BOS). Both the Board of Councilors and the Board of Orthopaedic Specialty Societies appoint members to the Board of Directors of the Academy. The AAOS also offers support services to other health care professional groups such as orthopaedic nurses, administrators, physician assistants, and special identity societies such as the Society of Military Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society, most of whose members are women, and the J. Robert Gladden Society, most of whose members are from racial and cultural minority groups.