Our Mission

The mission of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association is to  unite the national orthopaedic community through advocacy, education, research and practice standards. We do this by upholding our four strategic priorities and values derived from the membership we represent.

Strategic Priorities

  1. Engagement: Collaboration, recruitment and retention of diverse membership and stakeholders
  2. Advocacy: United voice of the profession, appropriate representative of orthopaedic community
  3. Education: Provide access to quality educational programming and presentation opportunities
  4. Quality: Foster and support research, knowledge translation and develop policies to ensure standardized quality of care and practice

Core Values

  1. Integrity: Promote transparency, consistency and accountability to its leaders and membership.
  2. Diversity: Reflective of the member and patient population COA serves.
  3. Leadership: Unique source for a national perspective on the profession and discipline.
  4. Excellence: Surgical competencies, improving access to care, research opportunities and practice standards.

Strategic Plan 2022-2025

Between 2022 and 2025, the COA will sustainably:

  • Seek and create opportunities to engage with membership, subspecialty societies, national associations, government authorities and international collaborators.
  • Lead advocacy efforts for membership and participate in advocacy measures invited by partners.
  • Expand education variety and delivery options with provincial associations, subspecialty societies, national associations and international collaborators in mind.
  • Ensure quality on current and future policies, guidelines, position papers, research support and any internal and public-facing approaches to accomplishing the Mission of the COA.
View the Full Strategic Plan Here
Gender Diversity Strategic Plan – November 2019

Orthopaedic surgery has the lowest percentage of female surgeons among surgical disciplines in Canada.  In 1968, the percentage of practicing female orthopaedic surgeons was a mere 0.9%. By 2018 this percentage grew to 11.2%. Considering that at least half of medical school graduates are female, this remains far below the expected number of women entering orthopaedics. Many barriers have been identified that account for the difficulty in attracting women into orthopaedics as well as in advancing women into leadership roles. Implicit bias negatively affects all aspects of women’s orthopaedic surgery careers and has been implicated in the challenge of attracting women to orthopaedic surgery, optimizing career development for women, gender pay inequities, and the lack of leadership opportunities.

To address this challenge, the COA requires a comprehensive and cohesive plan to eliminate the systemic gender-based inequities that exist within the profession. Understanding that there is strength in diversity, the COA seeks to promote a culture of equity, not equality, where all individuals are afforded impartial access to the same opportunities. The COA Gender-Diversity Strategic Plan provides key strategies and practical actions to promote and advance gender equity within Canadian orthopaedics in order to maximize the talent, skill and diversity within specialty.

Click here to view the COA’s Gender Diversity Strategic Plan 
(French version available upon request)

CPD Mission

The Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Committee will develop, maintain, and improve the competence, skills, and professional performance of orthopaedic surgeons and orthopaedic healthcare professionals by providing high quality, relevant, accessible, and effective educational experiences that address gaps in professional practice.  The COA CPD program strives to meet the educational needs of orthopaedic surgeons and orthopaedic healthcare professionals and support their lifelong learning with a goal of improving care for orthopaedic patients.

The CPD committee will pursue its vision through:

  1. High quality presentations at Annual General Meeting (AGM) with session specific evaluations.
  2. High quality courses accredited for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits with summary evaluations delivered to CPD Committee within 4 months of completion of the course.
  3. Web-based access to presentations from the AGM so attendees can review presentations and non-attending members can view presentations.
  4. Effective communication and collaboration within the COA and with regional/provincial organizations to promote the education mission of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association.

Other Strategic Plans

Read the latest updates.