The Orthogate foundation meeting in New Orleans March 1998 was attended by over 100 people and it was agreed that the Internet Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Trauma (ISOST) ⁸ ( http://www.isost.org/ ) should be founded to provide governance of the site. ISOST has since been established with by-laws largely based on the Society for the Internet in Medicine. The site itself was formed by the amalgamation of most of the major independent sites managed by orthopaedic surgeons.

Table 1 Orthogate Foundation Sites

Thus the gateway is being formed by the agglomeration of the best sites in the subject and the agreement of the web managers to work together. We fully anticipate that other fine orthopaedic web sites will be founded and will amalgamate with Orthogate. Since the foundation meeting the work of building the site has continued through a variety of open and closed mailing lists, webmeetings and a few face to face meetings. In addition to the core structures, links collection, textbook, mailing list, patient information set and electronic journal, the site has developed a variety of dedicated search engines, has defined its quality criteria and put together an international panel of editors. A review of Wheeless' Textbook ²⁶ is the first order of business for the editorial board.