AO world-leading symposia in the spotlight at DKOU 2019

 Matej Kastelec, AO Trauma, Difficult elbow fractures - challenges and dilemmas, at DKOU 2019

The AO is proud of its regular participation in DKOU, one of the world's largest events in orthopedics. This year the AO offered a record number of symposiums and seminars looking at key current issues in trauma and reconstructive surgery.

This year's event shone a light on the difficult, but vital, issue of the importance of values in an era of economic driven medicine. "Knowledge needs values, and we have to focus more on the problems of our patients," said DKOU 2019 President Professor Paul Alfred Grützner (AO Trauma).

This was a sentiment echoed by Carsten Perka, DKOU 2019 President, Chair of the AO Recon Education Forum and Member of the Steering Board of AO Recon. "The patient is not visible in a lot of concepts any more so it is very important for us to bring the best practices to our patients, and that's why values are so important," Carsten Perka told DKOU TV.

The AO's strong offering of scientific symposia and seminars at DKOU2019 featuring internationally recognized experts in their fields (AO Recon, AO Spine, and AO Trauma) has sparked significant interest among participants.

The session co-hosted by AO Recon and AO Trauma on Periprosthetic Fractures of the Knee, and led by Dan Berry and Fares Haddad, pictured above, on October 24, was particularly well-attended and shed new light on complex issues in vital areas.

AO Trauma participants expressed particularly keen interest in the AO Trauma Europe and Southern Africa: Nonunion session, and the AO Trauma seminar on intraoperative imaging. The AO Trauma Deutschland session on Tibiakopf was filled to capacity.

The final day of the event, October 25, sees AO Trauma Deutschland award its knowledge prize, recognizing outstanding contributions to the treatment of trauma and musculoskeletal disorders.

DKOU 2019 participants and delegates stopped at the AO booth (hall 2.2, booth 20) to explore the AO Recon Skills Lab, where one station, on the alignment of the tibial cut, was showcased by Philipp von Roth.

The AO booth also offered guests to DKOU 2019 the chance to understand more about the AO Fracture Monitor, an implantable biofeedback sensor device that measures how a fracture is healing and patient activity, and feeds this data back to the patient's doctor.

The AO is known for having transformed patient care and outcomes, and it builds on this legacy every day–as the leading innovator in its field, innovation at the AO covers the full cycle of development, and includes basic research, product development, and clinical validation.

On Thursday, October 24, the AO Development Incubator held a special session titled "Let us help bring your idea into patient care," during which the challenges and opportunities of developing treatment innovations that respond to emerging clinical needs, in a complex regulatory environment, were considered from the perspectives of surgeons, patients, and investors.