Shoichi Kokubun, MD, PhD; Professor Emeritus, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; APOA President 2021-2022.

Dr. Kokubun is Director of the Research Center for Spine and Spinal Cord Disorders at the NHO Sendai Nishitaga Hospital in Sendai. He stayed at the University of Hong Kong in 1974 and at the University of Oxford in 1992. He was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Tohoku University School of Medicine in Sendai from 1995 to 2006.

His major research and clinical activities are pediatric orthopaedics and spine and spinal cord surgery. He is the author of more than 150 original publications in English.

Internationally, the 2nd Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Paediatric Orthopaedic Societies (IFPOS) was a great success under his presidency in Sendai in 2001. He was National Delegate to SICOT (1999-2005), Chief National Delegate to the Asia-Pacific Orthopaedic Association (APOA) (2001-2006), and Chairman of the Spine Section, APOA (2005-2008). He actively contributed to Bone and Joint Decade (2000-2010) as a member of its International Steering Committee from 2003 to 2010. He is now President of APOA (2021-2022).

A/Prof Wong Keng Lin Francis; MBBS, MRCSEd, MMed (Orth), MCI (NUS); Sengkang General Hospital, Singapore.

Asst Prof Francis Wong KengLin is a Consultant in Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, an Assistant Professor in Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, and a Clinical Lecturer in NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

He maintains a special interest in orthopaedic surgery wound healing using innovative technologies, including limb salvage surgery for diabetic foot wounds.

He is currently the programme leader of his hospital’s multi-disciplinary orthopaedic surgery wound service: Team Orthopaedic Podiatry (TOP), where nurses, doctors, and podiatrists come together to heal difficult wounds and give patients a new lease of life to walk again.