Kneedoc Blog

Wise words from a living legend

Wise words from a living legend

I received my copy of the latest ISAKOS journal recently. ISAKOS is the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine and I am a member thereof. I met Dr Niek van Dijk, who is the Editor-in-chief of the ISAKOS journal, at the recent ESSKA conference in Barcelona See my previous blog.

Above is a picture taken at the ESSKA congress dinner with the signed shirt of Lionel Messi that he bought earlier the evening in an auction raising funds for orthopaedic research. He is a living legend in the field of orthopaedic surgery. His editorial piece in this journal is very poignant. I quote him further verbatim:

One of the vanities of science is that it views the past with a sense of superiority. We tend to believe we finally solved the big problems thanks to the brilliance of the present generation and that the future will only need to tweak things here and there. The ancient Romans solved this attitude by having slaves stand behind them in their triumphal chariots, who whispered in their ears ‘remember, remember, you are also mortal’. (Journal of ISAKOS, March/April 2016, Volume 1, Issue 2, p.61).

The future of my field is in good hands with international leaders such as him!