AO Spine fellowship

Selection criteria

We aim to identify the most promising young surgeons specialized in orthopedic, neurosurgery, or trauma surgery with a strong interest in spine surgery and support them in deepening their understanding and extending their knowledge and skills.

AO Spine Fellowships are in high demand, and we receive more applications each year than we can accommodate. In the end, we want each fellow to become a part of the worldwide AO Spine community.

Selection criteria for AO Spine fellows:

• Be a spine physician or specialized in orthopedic, neurosurgery, or trauma surgery with a strong interest in spine surgery.
• Previous participation in at least one AO Course or one AO event (online or face to face)
• Two-year membership prior to the Fellowship application. We are looking for fellows with a long-term interest to stay involved in the AO.
• Have not participated in a Spine Fellowship in the past 2 years (except self-funded)
• Up to 45 years old at the moment of application

Stipends

During your fellowship, you will receive a small stipend fund to contribute to your accommodation and living costs.

Please note that the stipend is a contribution to the costs for travel, accommodation and meals and may not necessarily cover all the costs. AO Spine is not able to arrange accommodation in the host country. Travel as well as insurance costs must be funded entirely by the fellow.

The AO Spine Fellowship stipends are calculated using a benchmark of USD 550 for 1 week's fellowship in the United States. The stipends for all other countries are adjusted for the local price level. To calculate the adjustment, the price level ratio of purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factor to market exchange rate provided by the World Bank is used. The World Bank data can be accessed here. The stipends are paid in Swiss francs equivalents.