Introduction

Welcome to the Birmingham International Conference Centre and BEVA Congress 2014. Birmingham has become our most popular venue for Congress since we first came here in 1998 when Jeremy Mantell from Liphook was President. At the time, Birmingham represented an enormous gamble for BEVA. Far larger and more costly to stage than any previous Congress, would our members and exhibitors come in sufficient numbers to stop us going bankrupt? The answer was clearly a resounding ‘Yes’, mainly because of the exceptionally good scientific programme that has become the hallmark of BEVA Congresses. This year’s scientific programme has been put together by a handpicked team led by Professor Celia Marr who has featured as a speaker in every Congress in living memory as far as I can recall. Although we have 5 streams of the scientific programme running at any one time, it is impossible to cover every interest in the 3 days available but there is still something for everyone including for the first time clinical evidence sessions that subject common clinical problems to the type of scrutiny that is now considered essential best practice. Coming under the evidence-based spotlight are dentistry, stud medicine, orthopaedics, general surgery and internal medicine