Dear Industry Partner,
It has been my pleasure to serve as the 2009 – 2010 President of the International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS). I would like to share with you the strategic vision and mission goals for the ICRS in 2010 and invite you to partner with us in the coming year. The ICRS continues to bring together clinicians, scientists and industry partners to unify our collective approaches towards improving the quality of life of patients with articular cartilage disorders. The many accomplishments of the ICRS and its members could not have been realized without your support and we look forward to moving forward together in the future. The ICRS Executive office has undergone extensive reorganization and we now have an independent office with staff solely dedicated to serving the members of the ICRS including you, our Industry Partners. We have also reorganized our Committee structure to more accurately reflect the contemporary ICRS.
One particular initiative to highlight is the creation of the Industry and Regulatory Liaison Committee to address issues related to cartilage repair with the FDA and EMEA. This Committee and the ICRS Executive Board had a productive meeting with many of you during the AAOS in New Orleans earlier this year. Several important topics were discussed and resulted in focused plans. We hope you will join us during our 9th World Congress in Sitges (Barcelona), Spain in September for a similar meeting.
Another very exciting initiative is the Patient-Education Website which will be an internet site where patients can learn about cartilage and procedures. This site will be hosted by ICRS experts but will connect to a global lay audience focused on education in an entertaining style. This site will provide 3D animation of procedures as well as text information for the educated patient seeking cartilage repair. Two prototype modules will be unveiled at Sitges. The World Congress is our primary educational event, but we also have surgical and laboratory skills courses planned and scholarship opportunities that we hope you will consider sponsoring.
This is a very exciting time for the ICRS as our membership continues to grow at a rate of 10 – 12 % each year and we currently number close to 1200 members throughout the world.
I hope that you will consider partnering with the ICRS once again to help us achieve our common goal of advancing the science and surgical art of articular cartilage repair. Several sponsorship opportunities are outlined on the following pages for you to consider. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me or any member of our ICRS Executive Team at office@cartilage.org.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration with many of you in supporting the ICRS for the upcoming year and I hope to see you in Sitges / Barcelona, Spain this September.
Kind Regards,
Lisa A. Fortier, President ICRS
2011 Sponsoring Opportunities