AO Spine In-Hospital: New deformity and trauma modules

The new AO Spine educational format that brings world-class learning directly to your workplace has successfully gone live. The first two AO In-Hospital modules for spine focus on Adult Deformity and Thoracolumbar Trauma and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The modules are available exclusively for AO Spine faculty and can be accessed via the AO In-Hospital dashboard. Delivering high-quality, accessible education and training entire teams directly in their workplace is an enormous advantage for busy departments and complements their daily practice.

Read the quick summary
AO Spine announces new AO Spine in-hospital modules in adult deformity and thoracolumbar trauma, delivering structured education directly in hospitals.

Modules provide customizable, evidence-based training with lectures, cases, assessments, and certificates to support team-based clinical learning.

Surgeons gain case-based instruction integrated into workflow, improving decision-making and treatment planning for deformity and trauma cases.

Further spine modules are planned; uptake, impact on patient outcomes, and optimal customization for different hospitals remain active discussion points.

This exciting initiative, bringing structured education directly into the hospital setting, marks a major milestone in AO Spine’s mission to improve patient care by making leading-edge knowledge more accessible where it matters most: in the hospital.

“The first AO In-Hospital event in Doha was very successful—the participants really enjoyed it, and it was highly interactive throughout,” said Omar Alnori. “The faculty was excellent, and the content was clear and easy to deliver. Overall feedback was very positive, and many participants expressed interest in similar activities in the future.”

Nasser M. Khan confirmed all lectures and case discussions were delivered as planned. “I think this is a wonderful initiative by the AO Spine!”

Building on the proven success of AO In-Hospital Trauma modules

The new spine modules build on the success of AO In-Hospital Trauma modules. They offer AO Spine faculty customizable, evidence-based education that includes lectures, case discussions, assessments, and certificates.

Since 2022, the AO Trauma modules have helped AO faculty globally to deliver trusted, high-quality education at their workplace. Now, with the new spine modules, also AO Spine faculty will be able to benefit from the same, flexible format.

Members of the AO In-Hospital Spine Steering Committee, Richard Bransford, Alpaslan Senkoylu, Mohammad El-Sharkawi, Luiz Gustavo Dal' Oglio da Rocha, and Jason Cheung are proud to bring this format to the AO Spine global community. “We sincerely thank all the editors and authors whose expertise and dedication made this launch possible.”

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AO Spine in-hospital: New deformity and trauma modules

AO In-Hospital is simple and impactful

Each AO In-Hospital module includes a complete event package that makes planning and delivering a highly interactive event simple and impactful. The learnings can be directly applied in the clinical setting across cross-functional teams, bringing everyone in the team to the same page:

Customizable format designed for one-to four-hour educational events
Evidence-based lectures
Small group clinical case discussions
Automated pre- and post-event assessments and reports
Automated certificates for faculty and participants

A seamless fit into the workplace:

The modules are tailored for orthopedic and neurosurgical spine residents, fellows, surgeons, and medical professionals. They emphasize interactive, case-based learning that integrates seamlessly into hospital environments.

Tremendous global value:

“This initiative brings tremendous value to our global AO Spine community,” said Richard Bransford (USA), chairperson of the AO Spine Education Commission (AO SEC) and AO In-Hospital Spine Steering Committee member. “AO In-Hospital has proven to be an incredibly effective platform for delivering relevant and practical education at the workplace.”

Spotlight on the Adult Spine Deformity In-Hospital module

The Adult Deformity module is the first in a three-part series. It presents current best practices in the diagnosis and management of adult spinal deformity, delivered as a series of lectures and cases in four submodules. The content covers:

Spinal deformities throughout life
Evaluation of the patient
Decision making and goals/strategy
Treatment planning, execution and aftercare

The Adult Deformity module was edited by Markus Loibl (Switzerland) and Caglar Yilgor (Turkey). The module’s authors include neurosurgeon Tamas Fekete (Switzerland) and orthopedic surgeons Ahmet Alanay (Turkey), Pedro Berjano (Italy), Louis Boissiere (France), Yann Philippe Charles (France), Enrico Galazzi (Italy), Sleimann Haddad (Spain), Shahnawaz Haleem (United Kingdom), Siegmund Lang (Germany), and Susana Nunez (Spain).

Practical learning for participants

At the end of the AO In-Hospital Adult Deformity module, participants will be able to:

Recognize the incidence, progression, and evolution of spinal deformities throughout life
Evaluate and diagnose patients with adult deformity
Describe the definitions, classification, must-knows, and current controversies in each pathology
Outline the management options and develop a treatment strategy with appropriate decision making with each patient
Describe how to develop a treatment plan, considering the likely outcomes and possible complications

Spotlight on the Thoracolumbar Trauma In-Hospital module

The Thoracolumbar Trauma module shows the standards of care for diagnosis, decision-making, and management of various trauma situations. It is delivered as a series of cases where the steps in making a diagnosis, defining the management options, and selecting a treatment plan are discussed. An evidence-based approach is applied to each clinical presentation and fracture type. The module can be further customized to the specific needs of the hospital and their spine care teams.

Edited by Muzahem Taha (Iraq) and Klaus Schnake (Germany), the module was authored by Ghazwan Hasan (Iraq), Omar Alnori (Qatar), Sameh Abolfotouh (United Arab Emirates), Mohamed Fawzy Khattab (Egypt), Alexandre Jaccard (Brazil), and Luiz Gustavo Dal' Oglio da Rocha (Brazil). In addition to Bransford, peer reviewers for the module were Dal Oglio da Rocha and Alpaslan Senkoylu (Turkey).