Vancouver: The stay was in one of the nicest hotels on this tour. Dr Nelson Greidanus took us though some complex hip revisions. It was nice to meet all the staff at OR and wards after a long time (4yrs since my fellowship at Vancouver). We celebrated my birthday among my good old friends at Whiterock in the evening. They drove us around all the major tourist attractions in Vancouver on Saturday. We had a dinner with Dr Garbuz and Dr Masri in the evening and left for Rochester in the early morning.

Mayo Clinic, Rochester: We were received at the airport and driven to Dr Trousdale’s house for the dinner. We stayed at Host’s homes (Dr Trousdale and Dr Sierra). We attended Grand rounds at Mayo Clinic in the morning. We spent rest of the morning in the Operating room. We managed to squeeze in few holes of Golf in the afternoon prior to our talks in the evening. Our talks were well received by the Mayo faculty. Next day we visited their database co-ordinator and spent some time in OR with Dr Lewallen.

Stanford, Palo Alto: Final days. Dr H Huddleston had organised the programme for us, which included grand rounds, clinical case presentations and Golf. Next day we spent the morning discussing pre-operative planning. This was followed by Golf with Closed Hip society group. It was intimidating to play alongside the three tall people I have ever played with, Dr Maloney (6.6’’), Dr Rubash (6.8’’) and Dr Schmalzried (6.10’’).
Closed Hip society gave us a unique experience. All the big names in Hip Reconstruction were present and it was a pleasure to hear their thoughts. Metal-Metal hips did not get much attention unlike British Hip Society meeting. Majority of the meeting was dedicated to Metal-Polyethylene bearing. Brief mention was made in regards to conservative hip surgery. After the meeting, we were escorted to the airport for our final flight to UK.
Overall I can say that we both had a wonderful trip to USA. We have managed to exchange our thoughts with our American Counterparts and have made some long lasting friendships.

I sincerely thank British Hip Society for giving me this opportunity and all the more for selecting Prim as he made the time spent away from home, memorable and enjoyable.

Well the hosts have kept us so busy that we have found it difficult to get on to this site to Blog. Prim finally managed to get in to OR in New York (HSS). He had to prove that he did not have TB by chest x-ray (costly affair).

Columbus was nice. Dr Lombardi and his associates Keith and Jason looked after us very well. They had organised a well attended meeting (over 80 clinicians in an excellent AV facility). We both felt they had set up a great private hospital and know how to run a practice in style. We were surprised when they turned up with two Lamborghinis at our hotel and offered us the keys for a drive. I was hesitant but Prim was nowhere to be seen as he had sped off so quickly. Anyway it was a good experience. We got a chance to operate on cadavers sharing ideas about approaches and new techniques. We got to try out the woodpecker femoral broach which works like a pneumatic jackhammer - awesome!

Salt Lake City has been nice. Dr Chris Peters has been a wonderful host. Hats off to his experience in young hip surgery. We have learnt a great deal picking his brains. We both had our own collection of x-rays which we discussed today at the clinic. Prim gave a fantastic talk on training. Both of our talks were well received. Dr Charles Salzburg head of the department took us out for dinner today along with other colleagues including former ABC Fellow Lor Randall, Harry Dunn and Darrel Brodke.

Tomorrow we are off to Vancouver. It looks like we are going to have a quiet time at Vancouver. We are enjoying the trip. It has been a nice experience.

We have just arrived at NewYork and Occupational Health Department is not allowing him to enter OR. They think he needs chest x-ray (may be the looks). We are doing our best to see if this can be resolved.

Baseball game today and Dinner at Union club tomorrow. All day OR tomorrow with the unit. We are loooking forward to it, (May be Prim will have to get some shopping done, Lucky guy!!!!)

As Sanjeev says amazing experience in the company of giants.

Dinner was no different with Dr McCarthy hosting us at the Harvard club with the current fellows and some of the faculty.
Spent the evening drinking good wine, making freinds and talking openly about what we wanted to gain from the visit and from our contact with surgeons such as the fellows on the start of their journeys and Dr Harris in the twilight of his. (The fire burns brighter in his eyes than in many of his younger contemporaries in the US, UK and worldwide)

Sanjeev asked him what kept driving him at 82................"I LOVE IT" he replied

Tomorrow we present in front of the "GIANTS" - Mankin & Harris will be there. I think we have to be radical in our opinions to stoke them up and really find out how their minds work. Apologies in advance watch this space...............

First day with guys at MGH. We spent morning with Dr Mccarthy and in the afternoon at MGH appreciating the research Department, Lab etc. Great setup to do things.

The best part was meeting Dr Harris and spending 30 minutes or so in his office which felt like 5 minutes. I would rate this as one of the best experiences of my life, meeting him was an honour. Thank you BHS for this great opportunity.

Got to rush to Harvard club for the dinner. Still we have not heard anything from Newyork apart from their request for a recent PPD. The rest of the trip is getting shaped well by other units.

Sanjeev

We arrived on time at Boston. The guy at immigration was good, a bit strange for states. He however said very clearly that he did not want NHS like health care in his country.

Champagne on arrival at this nice hotel (converted Jail). ALthogh Prim thinks his house is older than this so called historic hotel.

Easy day today. Coming from Scotland the weather is just too nice. No wind, plenty of Sunshine and no public showers.

Where is my varicella immunisation certificate?
Sanjeev calls to remind me to get travel insurance - I assume my wife gets that annually !!!!
Who reported my last chest Xray? That was for my fellowship in Australia I am guessing.

And to top it all off my private secretary leaves a message saying I thought it was next month you were going.

Some of our hosts have been very kind and called in person, we have a full itinerary from the guys at Mass Gen and Dorothy Lieberman of the American Hip society has been a stalwart in getting our info to everyone.

Yet it is radio silence from the Mayo so far.......

What is the worst thing that could happen?

It's seems an age ago that the panel in a meeting room in Manchester offered Sanjeev Patil from Glasgow and me, Prim Achan from the Royal London the British Hip Society Travelling Fellowship for 2009.
We leave on Sunday to visit Boston, New York, Columbus, Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Rochester and finally Paolo Alto for the American Hip Society meeting.