Although the organisers of the 2022 World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Disease were keen to hold this major Congress as an on-site event in Berlin, Germany, next March 24-27, 2022, the global COVID-19 pandemic still strongly impacts daily life and continues to disrupt travel plans. We have just been informed that the situation in Berlin is complex, with an important surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, leading to a rather restrictive approach from local health authorities, at least for the coming weeks.

Several academic institutions around the world, as well as some of our major corporate partners, have some concerns about the likelihood of physical attendance in this context. Furthermore, it is highly speculative to predict the extent to which our speakers and registrants will be able to leave their own country and/or enter Germany and reach Berlin, at the end of March.

Therefore, the WCO organisers, together with their partner organisations (IOF and ESCEO), have taken the decision to organise the 2022 edition as a fully virtual Congress, taking place between March 24th and March 26th.

VISIT -> https://virtual.wco-iof-esceo.org/

As was the case for the highly successful 2020 and 2021 editions, which gathered close to 8000 virtual delegates, this 2022 WCO congress will include “live” virtual presentations (including all the plenary lectures and Meet-the-Expert sessions), moderated in real-time by experienced chairpersons and allowing the participants to interact with the speakers during Q&A sessions. In addition, there will be live and/or pre-recorded sessions covering the oral abstracts, non-sponsored satellite symposia, posters, and industry symposia. Recorded materials will be available for registrants to view through the dedicated Congress website, for three months after the opening of the meeting.

Further details of these arrangements will be shared with all registrants, speakers and presenters as soon as possible.

Since the meeting will be organized as a virtual event, we understand that several colleagues, who were not planning to come to Berlin, might be interested in sharing their science with the ESCEO-IOF community. Therefore, we decided to postpone the deadline for the submission of abstracts and awards until February 15th.

The new format of our 2022 WCO will allow delegates to join in the major advances in our field, during this period of unprecedented global uncertainty.

We look forward to welcoming you to this third virtual WCO, next March 24-26, 2022.