Dear SOSORT members and friends,

This message is to inform you that the SOSORT Board of directors has voted to cancel its participation in SPINEWEEK2020 due to the effect of the novel coronavirus (COVID19). The situation on COVID 19 has evolved. Our decision was based heavily on minimising the risk of transmission to our community hoping to protect the health of our participants, their patients and their communities. Further, the COVID19 situation would affect our program with a number of presenters now unable to travel to our conference either due to travel bans from their country of origin or due to their institution policies.
This has been a very difficult decision with an ever changing COVID19 situation. SOSORT was looking forward to visit Australia and meet many attendees from Asian countries. We look forward to the future for an opportunity to reach Australia and ASIA.

If you still wish to go to Melbourne, please do so and get updates from the Spineweek.org website and emails, as Spineweek will be held as per the latest information. If you are attending SPINEWEEK and have an accepted abstract by SOSORT, SOSORT has requested the SPINEWEEK committee to consider rearranging the presentation schedule for presentation in SPINEWEEK 2020. Please coordinate with SPINEWEEK2020 to confirm presentation arrangements (Charlotte Schaek charlotte@medicongress.com). This is subject to the discretion of the SPINEWEEK committee. Alternatively, the Abstracts accepted for SPINEWEEK can be presented at SOSORT 2021 in San Sebastian Spain (http://www.sosort2021.com/). 

IF you wish to cancel your registration to SPINEWEEK 2020, please act fast. The cancellation policy is still as outlined below:

Cancellation policy
Cancellations received no later than March 10, 2020, entitle registered persons to a full refund less € 100,00 (€ 50,00 for Student/Trainee/Nurses/Visitor exhibition) administration costs. No refunds can be made for cancellations received after this date.
 
To cancel, please email astrid@medicongress.com stating the reference number in your registration confirmation email. The subject line of your confirmation message was: SpineWeek 2020: Registration Confirmation
 
We are sorry for any inconvenience this decision may cause you and ask for your understanding as we reluctantly took this decision to ensure participants safety and that of their community. The Board deliberated extensively while actively monitoring the situation with input from the SOSORT advisory board. We will follow-up with further information including details about what we will offer presenters of accepted abstracts and about our annual general assembly in coming weeks.

We wish to thank the organizers of SPINEWEEK and the Medicongress team for their work and welcoming attitudes. The SOSORT Board took this decision reluctantly. We are sad we will not be able to participate in this edition of SPINEWEEK and look forward to meeting in San Sebastian for SOSORT 2021 and to a possible future SPINEWEEK edition.

Eric Parent
SOSORT President 2019-2020