AO Technical Commission Innovation Awards
For outstanding achievements.
AO recognition acts as a driver for further innovative development.
The AO Recognition Award, the AO Technical Commission Innovation Prize, and the AO Technical Commission Certificate of Merit are intended to recognize and encourage the continued pursuit of excellence, innovation, and continued rigorous improvement.
The AO Technical Commission recognizes outstanding achievements in development and innovation, which have a lasting impact on patient care and outcomes in fields central to the AO mission.
[Title] AO Recognition Award
The AO Recognition Award is awarded by the AO Foundation's supervisory body, the AOFB, to honor individuals within the AO Technical Commission who have made significant contributions to the AO Foundation throughout their career and achieved meaningful impact to product innovation and patient care.
In July 2017 the Recognition Award was presented to David L Helfet; a member of the AO Technical Commission since 1998 from New York in USA. The AO Technical Commission would like to thank David for his enduring engagement and signification impact on the AO throughout his career.
From left: Tim Pohlemann, David Helfet, Claas Albers, Nikolaus Renner, AO Recognition award 2017 -
Previous winners of the AO Recognition Award
2016 Dankward Höntzsch
2012 Pietro Regazzoni
2010 Paul W Pavlov
2008 Jörg A Auer
2006 Alex E Staubli
2005 Theerachai Apivatthakakul, Anselmo Reyes, Christoph Sommer, Timothy Weber
2004 Emanuel Gautier
2004 Michael Schütz
2003 Brigitte von Rechenberg
2002 Phil Kregor
2001 Michael Plecko
2000 Michael Wagner
1999 Reto Babst
1998 Douglas Klotch
1998 Christian Krettek
1994 Christoph Müller
1994 Roland Schmoker
[Title] AO TC Innovation Prize
The AO Technical Commission is proud to announce the Cervical Expert Group as well-deserved winners of the 2021 Innovation Prize. Awarded for advancements in Posterior Cervical Fusion (PCF) and development of the Symphony Occipito-Cervico-Thoracic System, the prize acknowledges clinical innovation apparent in a solution that successfully addresses deformity correction, revision surgery and fixation in poor quality bone. Discussions about the need for such a system were initiated during a 2014 Cervical Expert Group meeting. After years of development Symphony was introduced in a teaching capacity during the 2019 Complex Cervical Course in Davos. The Cervical Expert Group is an international group of expert spine surgeons, and the AO Technical Commission congratulates them for their achievements in advancing the care of patients requiring fixation of the cervical spine.
At the time of Symphony release, the CEEG members were:
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Frank Kandziora (Germany)—CEEG Chair
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Rick Bransford (US)
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Osmar JS Moraes (Brazil)
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Chung Chek Wong (Malaysia)
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Abdulrazzaq Alobaid (Kuwait)
CEEG members at the time of Symphony release.
Left to right: Rick Bransford, Frank Kandziora, Lois Wallach (AO TC), Chung Chek Wong, Abdulrazzaq Alobaid, and Osmar Moraes.
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Previous winners of the AO Technical Commission Innovation Prize
2020 Hans-Christoph Pape, Brett Crist, Peter Giannoudis, David Hak, Ingo Marzi, Christof Müller, Brent Norris, Martijn Poeze, Gerhard Schmidmaier
2018 Karl Stoffel
2016 Scott P Bartlett, Daniel Buchbinder, Carl-Peter Cornelius, Nils-Claudius Gellrich, Damir Matic, Alf L Nastri, Rainer Schmelzeisen
2013 Gerhard Schmidmaier, Michael J Raschke
2013 Michael Mayer
2012 Per-Henrik Agren, Michael Castro, Juan B Gerstner Garcés, Leslie Grujic, Andrew K Sands, Ian G Winson
2011 Theodor F Slongo
2010 Peter Däscher, Emanuel Gautier, Romano Matthys-Mark, Urs Schlegel, Peter Toggwiler, Dieter Wahl
2008 Alberto A Fernández Dell'Oca
2007 Toru Sato
2007 Takeshi Sawaguchi
2006 Sigvard T Hansen
2004 Stephan Perren
2001 Fridolin Schläpfer
2001 Robert Frigg
1995 Hill Hastings, Jürg Brennwald, Ueli Büchler, Jesse Jupiter
[Title] AO TC Certificate of Merit
The Certificate of Merit is awarded by the AO Technical Commission's supervisory body, the TKEB, to individuals as a sign of appreciation for outstanding activities over the course of one project or a year.
In December 2019, Markus Windolf received the AO Technical Commission Certificate of Merit. He was in particular awarded for the outstanding and innovative development of a simplified navigation system based on shape recognition and for a concept to automatically determine the required screw length during drilling.
Both concepts are now in translation to clinical applications which is a clearly visible sign that the Concept Development Focus Area under the thoughtful leadership of Windolf plays an essential role in the efforts of the AO Foundation to foster innovation. In this regard the AO Technical Commission wishes Windolf and his team continued success and is looking forward to a fruitful collaboration.
From left: Michael Raschke, Markus Windolf, and Claas Albers, Davos, Switzerland, 2019 -
Previous winners of the AO Technical Commission Certificate of Merit
2012 Marc C Metzger, Alexander Schramm, Edward B Strong
2009 Marc C Metzger, Edward B Strong
2007 Peter Messmer
2007 Beat Hammer
2006 Kaj Klaue, Hans Zwipp
2005 Maria F Sanchez
2004 Romano Matthys
2004 Daniel Rikli
2003 Yvonne Adank
2001 Ortrun Pohler
2001 Christoph Nötzli
2001 Joy Buchanan
2000 Frank Baumgart
2000 Hermann Oberli
1994 Helga Reichel
Prize for Lifetime Achievements
J Kellam and S Perren at the AO Courses opening 2004 In 2004 Stephan Perren has been awarded the AO Innovation Award for his lifetime achievements and exceptional contributions to the development of new concepts, technologies, and treatment options.
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