Editorial Note by Professor Eleftherios Tsiridis, EFORT Secretary General
Europe has never lacked excellent orthopaedic education. What it has lacked is a network that connects it. EFORT Meets Education Courses is that network, and MAST 13 in Thessaloniki is its first course.
One federation, one European learning community
EFORT is the home of European orthopaedics and traumatology. It brings together national associations and specialty societies from across the continent, and it is the only organisation with the reach, the credibility and the mandate to turn Europe’s many excellent courses into one learning community. That is what a federation is for: achieving together what no single society can achieve alone.
Excellent courses deserve a European stage
Across Europe, university departments, national associations and specialty societies run outstanding courses, built over years by surgeons who combine clinical practice with a passion for teaching. Too often, their reach does not match their quality: a superb meeting stays known only within one country or one subspecialty.
EFORT Meets Education changes that. It gives established courses a European stage, while each course keeps the expertise and identity that made it strong.
The word “Meets” says it all:
- EFORT meets the expertise already present in its community.
- Organisers meet a wider European audience.
- Participants meet colleagues from other institutions and healthcare systems, and see familiar problems from a new perspective.
The network sits within EOTEP, EFORT’s European Orthopaedic and Traumatology Education Platform, and extends the exchange of the annual EFORT Congress throughout the year.
What every EFORT Meets course must deliver
- Scientific rigour. Time to question the evidence, examine uncertainty and apply it to the individual patient.
- Honest discussion. Complications and difficult cases, because they reveal the limits of a technique and the judgement it requires.
- A critical eye on innovation. Separating promising technology from proven benefit.
- European perspective. Different healthcare systems approach the same problem differently, and that diversity is a teaching resource.
- A place for the young. Residents and young specialists learning directly from leading surgeons, building mentorship and future collaboration.
MAST 13: the first of its kind
MAST 13 is where the idea becomes reality: the first course of the EFORT Meets Courses network.
The 13th Masterclass in Arthroplasty Surgery Thessaloniki (MAST13) will take place on 11–13 December 2026 in Thessaloniki, Greece. Listed in EFORT’s educational calendar as “Mastercourse: Current Concepts in Advanced Arthroplasty Surgery”, it is an EFORT co-organised EOTEP event, and the first established course to join EFORT Meets Courses.
What makes MAST 13 unique:
- A new format: hybrid, short, TED-style presentations followed by clinically oriented discussions.
- A world-class faculty: 85 international speakers, among the leading hip and knee arthroplasty surgeons, most of them members of the International Hip Society and the International Knee Society.
- Thirteen consecutive years of leadership: founded and chaired by Professor Eleftherios Tsiridis for 13 consecutive years, MAST is an established arthroplasty course now opening its expertise to the whole EFORT community.
The road ahead
MAST 13 opens the door; others will follow. We invite course organisers across Europe to bring their expertise into the network, and we invite every colleague, and especially our young surgeons, to join us in Thessaloniki this December.
The success of EFORT Meets Courses will be measured by simple things: colleagues sharing knowledge openly, examining clinical decisions carefully, and returning to practice better prepared to care for their patients.
Recognise the expertise. Connect it across borders.
Bring it to every surgeon who can benefit.
That is EFORT Meets Courses.
