The 6th World Congress of ASAMI-BR&ILLRS Societies was successfully concluded in Beijing on September 22, 2024. The conference is a milestone in the development of global trauma repair, limb deformity correction, limb lengthening and limb reconstruction.

A total of 917 delegates registered and signed in for the conference, from 47 countries in six continents and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, including 254 overseas delegates (excluding secretaries and family members of some overseas experts), and 3 delegates registered in Ukraine, but failed to obtain visas to attend the conference (see Table 1 for details). This conference is hosted by the Chinese Medical Association and the Traumatology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association. All domestic and foreign delegates attending the conference are equally registered and paid, without VIP treatment, and wear the same badge.

Statistics of the number of delegates actually signed in by each country and region (arranged in descending order by the number of registered delegates)

The publication of the final statistical results of the number of delegates from each country is of great significance for the academic community to truly understand the history and reality of this conference. Professor Qin Sihe, chairman of the conference, believes that the successful convening of this conference and the conference management paradigm have brought profound inspiration to the Chinese medical community. From the final statistical results of the number of delegates, there are several phenomena worth thinking about:

1. According to international practice, the registration fee for this conference was implemented at a preferential price of 3,600 yuan/person on August 31, and after the standard of 4,200 yuan/person was implemented on September 1, 65 domestic and foreign delegates still registered; on-site registration was implemented at 5,600 yuan/person, and 13 people still registered. The higher registration fee and transportation and travel expenses during the conference are mostly paid by the delegates themselves. It proves that the academic schedule of this World Congress, the innovative content of the speeches and reports of experts from various countries, and the opportunity to communicate face-to-face with many international peers are indeed worthy of doctors or scholars who are good at learning, brave to make progress, and broaden their horizons to participate in this event.

2. No overseas company participated in this conference, and no company related to equipment, tools, instruments, drugs, robots, etc., such as joints, sports medicine, spinal surgery, and pediatric orthopedics, participated in the exhibition. The conference funds all come from the registration fees of the delegates and the exhibition fees of more than a dozen external fixation companies. Therefore, it is a principle that this conference must follow to run international conferences frugally and encourage well-known domestic experts to make selfless contributions to the preparations for the conference and during the conference. From the opening to the closing, almost all the delegates, especially those from abroad, praised the conference, saying that this conference was wonderful and left wonderful memories, and thanked the conference staff for their hard work.

3. Among the 47 delegates from foreign countries, 15 countries had only one registered delegate. Among them, several countries had a series of innovative research and inventions on external fixation limb lengthening and reconstruction, which had a great influence in the international academic community, but still only had one representative attending the conference. This phenomenon may be related to the influence of non-academic factors such as international relations, social culture, and economic development.

Unexpectedly, in addition to the host China, the country with the largest number of registered participants is Bangladesh, which is one of the poorest economies in the world. The group registration fee is 3,000 yuan per person, which is a considerable expense for doctors in the country. The enthusiasm and persistence of Bangladeshi doctors for the World Congress also proves from the side that Ilizarov and the limb reconstruction technology system have the advantages of high efficiency and low cost, and are suitable for widespread use in populous and economically underdeveloped countries.

“Limb morphology and function reconstruction” is a new cross-integration discipline. I believe that all representatives who participated in this conference will gain a lot of new knowledge and new technologies, and the collision of ideas will surely gain infinite inspiration. We are pleased to see some thoughtful and ambitious doctors show Chinese technology, equipment research and development and excellent culture to their peers around the world, and also have the opportunity to embrace the world.Let us work together to create a better future for limb reconstruction!