Our Director, Charles T. Price, MD represented the IHDI during this years congress and had the following personal recount to share…
“As an online participant of the SICOT meeting this morning, it was deeply satisfying to see the impact that IHDI has had, and continues to have. SICOT is a highly respected global orthopedic society that meets annually. This year’s meeting was in Budapest as a combined ‘virtual’ and an in-person meeting with respect to the well-being of all its members during this trying time. We actually had good attendance for the Zoom session I had the pleasure of moderating from 2:00 AM to 6:00 AM EDT …….ugh!….I haven’t been up at that hour since I stopped taking trauma calls fifteen years ago. However, four cups of coffee helped, and old habits kicked in quickly. Papers and invited presentations came from every continent except Antarctica and the entire session was about DDH. Four of the first five papers (and some others) had used the IHDI Classification to analyze their outcomes based on severity. It blew my mind to see it so widely adopted…beyond our wildest expectation! Prior to the IHDI Classification, these papers would have lumped all cases together and blurred the findings. Treatments across the board are being modified and improved to fit the severity of the problem instead of “one size fits all”…. Who Knew?… And why did it take so long for doctors to think that way? Maybe a Mom with patience and fervor enough to champion her child’s health asked the doctor to do something about it.
A presenter from India showed how they had used IHDI position statements and educational materials to begin a program for decreasing the practice of traditional swaddling. They did a survey and found that 99% of nurses and the majority of pediatricians in India didn’t know that hips are at risk from tight swaddling. Now, they are using our materials and our strategies to partner with their national pediatric association to educate pediatricians and nurses in newborn nurseries. It was heartwarming to see the IHDI logo and information used and promoted throughout this unsolicited presentation. Another presenter from India gave a paper based on IHDR data analysis. That’s very reassuring because this means that the IHDR (International Hip Dysplasia Registry) is coming alive and that bodes well for the future. As you know, several years ago IHDI transferred all of our data to Kishore Mulpuri, MD along with several hundred thousand dollars to get their registry started. We also sponsored their organizational meetings for some time and provided consultants to help them develop their data collection process. Up until now, about fifteen published clinical research studies have been from the original IHDI data because we had an adequate length of follow-up to see what worked and what didn’t for 800 infants with totally dislocated hips. It’s taken a while for the newer IHDR Data to mature, but now it’s coming into its own and has more volume than we could have ever developed. Kudos to the University of Vancouver, Kishore Mulpuri, MD, and his group for taking what IHDI started and giving it jet engines to progress and discovery. It is one of the IHDI’s missions to nurture impact points like the IHDR in order to advance how we view and treat DDH.
SICOT has taken the reins to provide an annual gathering of international hip dysplasia experts. This was our goal three years ago when IHDI sponsored a specific session and provided three speakers, including Jim Kasser from Harvard, to kick off a specific hip dysplasia section that was independent of other pediatric hip conditions. There seems to be an increasing awareness by SICOT leadership that hip dysplasia is a global problem that they could influence. IHDI had the honor of sponsoring two symposia in Beijing and provided speakers to initiate importance to the cause. Innovative papers based on IHDI concepts have been published as a result, and they’ve continued to have an annual research meeting to discuss hip dysplasia research.
We’ve had a few misfires… but not many…and a lot of wheels are turning in the right direction….That’s because the Whitney family, our most significant benefactors, have given us the resources and the marching orders to elevate hip dysplasia as an important topic. Scientific progress is incredibly slow, but the blinders are coming off after fifty years of stagnation and complacency. It’s been a journey of enlightenment.
AND….we’re not done yet! We still have some more tactics and ploys up our sleeves! Stay tuned…for many more years to come.”
Dr. Charles Price
