2020 – 2021 ISCD President
Dato’ Dr. Joon-Kiong Lee,
MBBS, FRCS, MS ORTH, AM, CCD

ISCD recently welcomed Dato’ Dr. Joon-Kiong Lee as the President of the Board of Directors during ISCD’s first ever Virtual Annual Business Meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dato’ Dr. Lee has been an active member of ISCD for over 10 years and has served on numerous committees and task forces including five years as a member of the Board of Directors. This is his initial address to the ISCD membership.

Presidential Address

First, I would like to thank Dr. Chris Shuhart, the President of ISCD from 2019 to 2020 for his excellent leadership and his service for ISCD over the past year. Chris has worked so hard through the year to develop and bring to implementation many of the strategic planning items created by the Society in 2018.

Chris has been instrumental in pushing our strategic agenda forward, created a very clear and organized path forward for the new team to work. I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to him and certainly, the new team will need his support and guidance over the next one year. Thank you, Chris.

Since the end of 2019, the world has changed. The Covid-19 Pandemic has caused the worst impacts on the socioeconomic status of the world, no country is spared, be it in US, Latin America, Europe, Middle East or Asia Pacific.

Priorities have changed! Priorities of Health Care System, Health Care Providers, Health Care Workers and even individual patients have changed. Musculoskeletal Health which has NOT been receiving much attention and interest by many, has been repositioned as even lower priority. In many countries, “Densitometry Measurement” with DXA scanner had dropped significantly in both public and private hospitals. The compliance and adherence of patient’s treatment for osteoporosis has dropped significantly. All these have paved a very negative futures for all, especially for all of us who have been involved in promoting Densitometry worldwide.

ISCD and the team has been working together relentlessly to plan and to produce new ideas and platforms which will be introduced over the next few years.

With the strong belief that “crisis is another new opportunity”, ISCD’s strategic plan could not be better aligned to take this crisis and turn it into an opportunity, in particular the “Revised ISCD Position Statement”, “New Membership Models”, the “New Educational Platform” and the “New ISCD Website” seem to be coming out at the right time.

The “Revised ISCD Position Statement” which was led by Chris Shuhart, John Shepherd, and Swan Sim Yeap with the hard work from a plethora of expert panelists, task force chairs and task force members will provide clear guidance to practitioners in the field.

The “New ISCD Membership Model” which was led by Diane Krueger and Ranjodh Gill along with a number of working group chairs and members is designed to answer the feedback we received from you, our members, that you wanted more choice and not a one size fits all approach. Moving forward, we will have three categories of members and current/potential members can choose which category of membership and groupings of benefits meets their needs.

The “New Educational Platform” and initiatives which is led by Diane Krueger & May Peckham, is THE direction ISCD is targeting on. As we expect there will NOT be as many local, national, regional and even global FACE2FACE meetings and training courses in all parts of the world until this virus can be brought under control, virtual meetings and training courses, interactive digital learning solutions are the ways to go! This New Educational Platform has been under development for the past year and this is the right time and right opportunity to introduce this. Of course, our live courses are an integral part of our educational offerings and we are not disbanding live education nor replacing it with digital learning, rather adding additional opportunities.

The “New ISCD Website” initiative which was led by Larry Jankowski and the Web development committee will also be introduced in late 2020. This is a total new facelift of how ISCD appears on the Web and how we provide services and access to our members and visitors. It is more dynamic, “vibrant” and user friendly which I believe will also attract more members to log in. That helps to attract more users and benefits everyone who logs into our ISCD website. It will be mobile friendly and should streamline many of the routine interactions such as member renewal, registering for a meeting or accessing resources on the website.

We will introduce more programs and collaborations with the current Alliances.

For the information of our members, there were two important alliances that we had established over the past two years. IOF/ISCD/AFOS Tripartite Alliance is a three-party alliance involving IOF, ISCD, and AFOS (Asian Federation of Osteoporosis Societies). The Asia Pacific Fragility Fracture Alliance (APFFA) involving seven regional societies, Asian Federation of Osteoporosis (AFOS), Asian Oceana Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (AOSPRM), Asia Pacific Orthopedic Association (APOA), Asia Pacific Geriatrics Medicine Network (APGMN) and three global organizations IOF, ISCD, and FFN. Both were launched in Sydney during the IOF Regional Meeting in 2018. These two alliances allow ISCD to work more closely with various regional and global organizations in promoting Densitometry in the management of musculoskeletal health.

During this difficult time, even though we are not able to organize face to face meetings and live courses, we will make full use of the opportunity to touch base with Regional and National Societies, Clinicians, Radiologists, and Technologists to establish new relationships and invite them to join us as our new partners. One example is the newly formed South East Asia Bone Academy. The Steering Committee is very interested to work with ISCD and incorporate Densitometry into the program. There are many other organizations and Musculoskeletal Groups who are interested to learn Densitometry and they might not know who to turn to. It is also our responsibility to explore and identify these potential partners.

It is also important for us to identify those who are passionate in Densitometry and Musculoskeletal Health from different parts of the world, to recruit them to join us in different Regional Panels. We should have two representatives from each country in each Regional Panel. That will allow ISCD to create a Broad Base Approach and at the same time to promote ISCD as a truly International Organization. I look forward for this restructuring of our family so that ISCD is being recognized worldwide. Regional Panels with a broad base supported by people passionate in Densitometry are the backbone of our International Strategic Programs.

I am fortunate and blessed that I have the support from everyone on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee to guide me so that my Team and I can work on the right direction for the future.

I hope I will get the support from all ISCD members from all parts of the world, North America, Latin America, European, Middle East and Africa, UK/Ireland, China, and Asia Pacific so that we can work together to bring ISCD to a platform recognized globally.

With our strategic plan, the engagement of our members, the belief that “Crisis is a New Opportunity” and also “Where there is a will, there is a way”, we will work together to bring ISCD closer to you and closer to your heart.

It is my greatest honor to be a member of this family and to lead and work with the team as the President for the coming year.

Thank you.

Dato’ Dr. Joon-Kiong Lee, MBBS, FRCS, MS ORTH, AM, CCD
President of ISCD
president@iscd.org