New AO calls for proposals: turn your ideas into reality

AO calls for proposals offer new opportunities to see your innovative idea become reality.

A new call for proposals targeting early stage innovative ideas opens on December 1, 2019, and more people than ever before are eligible to apply. If you have an idea for clinical tools or technologies that would enhance the patient journey in musculoskeletal disorders, or for educational tools, platforms, and channels that support lifelong training for surgeons: this could be an ideal opportunity.

Find out more and apply, the deadline is January 31, 2020.

Previous beneficiaries of this AO funding stream, delivered by the AO Strategy Fund, include Early Rehabilitation During Disasters and Conflicts, which in January 2020 will publish the world’s first clinical guide and a suite of resources to support the early rehabilitation of patients injured in disasters and conflicts. "We are entirely reliant on the AO Strategy Fund for making this project possible. This support and the expertise of the consortium of professional organizations are absolutely critical to bringing the project together” said project leader Peter Skelton.

Innovation at the AO covers basic research, product development, proof-of-concept, and clinical validation. In close collaboration with industrial partners, academic institutions, and its global surgeon network, the AO is constantly developing new operating techniques, implants and clinical guidance for surgeons.

The AO's support for innovative ideas that come from within its global community of health care professionals extends to proof of concept and valorization, through the AO Development Incubator.

The AO Fracture Monitor, a biofeedback sensor system that continuously and objectively monitors bone healing progression, is one project that has benefited from this comprehensive support. “Without AO Development Incubator support, there is no way we could finance such a project in the AO,” said Dr Markus Windolf, AO Research Institute Davos (ARI) Leader of the Focus Area Concept Development, adding that the idea for the project arose from his discussions with AO founding father and longtime ARI Director Prof Stephan Perren. The AO Fracture Monitor is moving toward patient trials in 2021.

The AO Development Incubator specializes in funding selected inventors to build and execute their projects toward proof of concept and valorization, with the AO and the inventor sharing project development and generated value.

Find out more and apply here.