The Pune orthopaedic society was started in 1974, on the initiative of Late Dr.Sharad Choudhary, head of unit at Sassoon General Hospital. At that time Orthopaedics was at a very nascent stage and there were only a handful of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Pune. The first President then was Dr.SG Tatke. The POS was officially launched with a CME held at the Poona Club and late Dr.AK Talwalkar, Dr.KB Chaubal, Dr.Bavadekar, Dr.Shahane and other stalwarts of that time came to Pune for the first ever CME held under the name of POS. At that time the president and secretary held their posts for 3 years each. The next president was Dr.SK Lohokare, followed by Dr.KH Sancheti, followed by Dr.SM Hardikar. Soon it became important to have a constitution and register the Society, as a public charitable trust and register it with the charity commissioner. The POS was then Poona Orthopaedic Society and the members would meet once a month at the few hospitals there were at that time, to discuss cases and interact socially. There was a great feeling of bonhomie and fellowship and there was a great desire to learn new things and share knowledge and skills, at that time.
There was a great participation and interaction with the AFMC at that time and the Big Doyens of Orthopaedics in the armed forces, like Gen.Ananthnarayan and Gen Chahal, were busy in organising the first even IOACON organised by the POS, in
1975. The next IOACON, was held directly in the year 1995 with Dr.Sharad Choudhary as the Organising Secretary and the staff of Sassoon Hospital as the main Organsing Committee then.
Gradually the number of orthopaedic surgeons in Pune grew and over the years, the membership has gone from a mere handful to the present strength of 600 plus members. As of last month, the strength has grown so much and the travelling
distances and traffic concerns have become such a matter of concern, that a new association, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Orthopaedic Society was formed early in 2022.
The 'Poona Orthopaedic society' was officially rechristened 'Pune Orthopaedic Society', during the tenure of Dr.Parag Sancheti as President of the POS in 2013-14. This was registered with the charity commissioner and the members were automatically transferred with the payment of a minimum registration fee.
The POS website was launched in 2011 during the secretariship of Dr.Arjun Viegas. The POS Facebook group was also formed then. The POS YouTube channel was launched by Dr.Abhijit Wahegaonkar during his tenure as secretary POS, during the
2020-21 lockdown period and it really helped to keep all members involved with academics through regular activities through live streaming on the YouTube channel.
The president of POS was always nominated from among the past secretaries, or it was as per rotation. This made it important to reduce the secretary term from 3 years to 1 year and the Presidents term also likewise..as per the constitution, only a
member who served as secretary, could become the president of POS at a future date. This rule was broken only in the case of Dr.Anand Kelkar and Dr.Nitin Bhagali, as there were no other candidates standing for the post then and it was discussed
elaborately in the GBM that an exception be made.
The POS has always stood for promoting strong ethics and professionalism and provide a forum and a body for academic discussions, learning and dissemination of knowledge. Postgraduate teaching has been a strong focus, as also social and cultural activities like a yearly get together of all members along with their spouses and a yearly outing or picnic to encourage non professional interaction and social bonding among orthopaedoc surgeons of Pune.
The POS has always stood for promoting strong ethics and professionalism and provide a forum and a body for academic discussions, learning and dissemination of knowledge. Postgraduate teaching has been a strong focus, as also social and cultural activities like a yearly get together of all members along with their spouses and a yearly outing or picnic to encourage non professional interaction and social bonding among orthopaedoc surgeons of Pune. Over the years, the Pune orthopaedic Society has grown from strength to strength, and its members have grown famous nationally and internationally. Papers in reputed national and international journals have been published, awards have been won. Members like Dr.KH Sancheti, Dr.SM Hardikar, Dr.Parag Sancheti, Dr.Ashish Babhulkar, Dr.Sachin Tapasvi, Dr.Hemant Wakankar, Dr.Sandeep Patwardhan, Dr.Chetan Pradhan, Dr.Arvind Bhave, Late Dr.Ketan Khurjekar, Dr.Shailesh Hadgaonkar, Dr.Amol Rege, Dr.Abhijeet Wahegaonkar, Dr.Ashish Ranade, Dr.Mahesh Kulkarni, Dr.Kiran Kharat, Dr.Pankaj Jindal, have put the name of the POS on the National and International pages. They have consistently been invited to national and international conferences as faculty and have also organized nationally acclaimed and extremely well attended conferences, like The Pune Knee Course, The Pune Shoulder Course, The Pune Trauma Course, The Spine Weekend, and such courses to name a few...
During the tenure of Dr.Narayan Karne as President POS for two terms 2020-2022, there was a shot in the arm for communication especially on whatsapp. The POS suddenly saw the single whatsapp group in existence, suddenly branch into 25 different groups, some for different academic purposes, some for social interaction, some for administrative purposes, some for trade and purchase of equipment, and others for academic dissemination via telegram, another social media platform. Dr.Karne, through his knack of being extremely systematic, helped resolve many pending matters related to the finances, the taxation, the registration, and the bank accounts etc, of the POS. This was earlier worked upon by Dr.Neeraj Adkar and later Dr.Parag Sancheti, during their tenure as president respectively.
The POS sorely misses the presence of some of its doyens and stalwarts who passed away over the years, leaving a vacuum and void in their spaces. Over the years, there have been many sad demises, but of more recent times, Dr.Ajit Waknis, Dr.Subhash Agashe, Dr.Steve Rocha, Dr.Ketan Khurjekar, Dr.Narendra Wagh are among the members who's names are remembered most and who are missed very much.
