The Executive Board of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery (CAOS International) has unanimously decided to cancel the 2020 annual meeting scheduled for June 10-13, 2020 in Brest, France.

Under the leadership of this year’s President, Prof. Eric Stindel, the local organizing committee led by Guillaume Dardenne has now concluded that despite all diligent preparations, the meeting is now irrevocably disrupted by the pandemic crisis of coronavirus (COVID-19).  The painful decision to cancel was based on the clear recommendations from the World Health Organization, international Public Health centers, and national governments emergency management plans. The exponential growth of the pandemic is the most important thing to manage at present. Canceling this international meeting is necessary, self-evident, and the responsible response to the crisis.

The Executive Committee has discussed the possibility of a web-based seminar later this year, featuring focus groupsand a spotlight on the top-rated paper submissions of 2020. Furthermore, our Society plans to offeropen access publication of all accepted papers which have been submitted to CAOS2020 via theEasyChair'sEPiC Series in Health Sciences series,once we have sought explicit agreement from each author.

More information will be posted on our website and via our social media in the coming weeks and Prof Rodriguez y Baena, who chairs the Programme Committee (PC) will be in touch with PC members and authors with further instructions in the coming days.