The first international meet for computer assisted orthopaedic surgery for Asian countries was held in Cochin,Kerala,India on 27th & 28th March 2004.The conference was jointly organized by the international society for computer assisted orthopaedic surgery and the Indian society for computer assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS-International & CAOS-India).The two day meet was inaugurated by Frank Langlotz Ph D , secretary of CAOS-International in the beautiful Le Meridien convention centre.The inaugural function was attented by many eminent personalities in politics , science,  technology and social life.The inaugural function was well covered by various TV channels and news papers.The president of India,Vice-president, Health minister of Kerala , President of CAOS-International, President and Secretary of Indian Orthopaedic Association send their greetings for the success of the conference.
There were 150 delegates from all over India and countries like Taiwan, Singapore, Republic of Korea and United Arab Emirates.The delegates included mostly Orthopaedic surgeons, some neurosurgeons, engineers, scientists and computer experts.The faculty included Frank Langlotz from Switzerland, Klaus Radermacher from Germany,Dr. Andre Bauer from spain and Gerd Regal from Rosenheim. Dr.Chyun-Yu Yang from Taiwan, Dr.Kuang-Ying Yang from Singapore, Alind Sahay from USA and Subhasish deb from Scotland read free papers.A special workshop station was conducted for the participants by Klaus Radermacher on template navigation using laptop and bone models.Hands on workshop was organized by Aesculap,Brainlab and Stryker navigation on THR,TKR,Spine navigation and trauma navigation.Topics for discussion included Newer developments in computer assisted surgery(Frank Langlotz Ph.D), Template based navigation in hip and knee surgery (Klaus Radermacher), THR with Robodoc(Dr.Andre Bauer), Computer assisted spine surgery(Frank Langlotz Ph.D), Robot assisted orthopaedic surgery-initial approaches and future trends(Klaus Radermacher),Robot and ACL reconstruction(Dr.Andre Bauer), Trauma navigation (Prof.Gerd Regel),Computer assisted total hip arthroplasty(Frank Langlotz Ph.D), Fluroscopic navigation for revision hip replacement(Klaus Radermacher), comparison of Robot and navigation application (Dr.Andre Bauer), Experience with spine navigation (Prof.Gerd Regel) and Trauma navigation-emerging trends(Frank Langlotz Ph.D).The free paper session included ‘100 cases of Ct free navigation on TKR’ (Chyun-Yu yang MD), ‘Is computer assisted TKR more accurate than standard instrumentation’(Dr.Kuang-Ying Yang), Application of Robodoc for reducing surgery invasiveness; a volumetric study (Alind Sahay) and Experience with computer assisted surgery in TKR (Subhasish Deb).  There were two sessions for video demonstration on Computer assisted total knee replacement(Dr.Kuang-Ying yang) and Kyphoplasty (Prof.Gerd Regel).During the annual general body meeting of the Indian society for computer assisted orthopaedic surgery ( CAOS-India) held on 28th March 2004, Prof.P.S.John was elected as the first president of CAOS-India and the secretary of CAOS-International installed him as president. The trade and technical exhibitions were very beneficial for the delegates. The discussions were very lively and active.The cultural programme along with the banquet on 27th evening included the famous “Kathakaly”( a special dance form of Kerala).The first Asian meet came to an end on happy notes, with invitation for the second Asian meet for computer assisted orthopaedic surgery to be held in Singapore On 15th&16th April 2005.
From the feedback from the faculty and delegates, the conference appears to have been rated as one of the best in recent times.The secretary of CAOS-International, Frank Langlotz Ph.D, recorded his appraisal “Dear Prof.John, congratulations to this outstanding conference.As you know,our team has some experience with the organization of this type of events, and I can truthfully confirm that you set a very high standard.I would be very surprised if this positive impression was not also reflected by the feedback you got from the participants. In order to communicate your success to the CAOS community, I suggest that you write a short report summarizing this CAOS first Asian meet and distribute it via the CAOS-International mailing list” .