First-ever fully online AO Davos Courses open today

Today highly motivated surgeons and operating room personnel across the world log in to our unique virtual environment for the opening of the AO Davos Courses 2020. Participants from every continent gather online to experience the first-ever fully online AO Davos Courses.

Over the coming days, participants and faculty will enjoy 20 courses and five webinars in fields across the AO's range of clinical areas. The high-quality educational offerings are this year delivered in an innovative format.

Speaking to participants from Mississippi, United States, AO President Robert McGuire said: "This has been an extraordinary year in many ways. As health care professionals, we are used to challenges. None of us went into medicine for an easy road. But the complex challenges we face as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are unique. At the AO, we have mobilized in response to the pandemic. We accelerated our plans to bring you more online educational offerings, launched the AO Innovation Translation Center, and we continue to develop new areas of activity, such as our webinars in sports medicine."

AO President Elect Florian Gebhard, speaking to participants from the AO center headquarters in Davos, echoed these sentiments. He focused on the 60-year-history the AO Davos Courses have as the gold standard of education and the prime opportunity for outstanding surgeons to connect and share insights with each other, and with the AO's global network. He noted that the AO's founders sixty years ago had a vision to innovate patient treatment, and that this journey continues today.

This year the AO Davos Courses are open to more people than ever before, and President Elect Florian Gebhard encouraged everyone to make the most of it.

Participants at this year's AO Davos Courses can explore the virtual environment and connect with each other online, as in regular years they would do in person.

Over the past 60 years, 65,000 surgeons have been trained on-site during the AO Davos Courses, and the multiplier effect of each surgeon bringing their insights into innovation and treatment has a global impact that benefits patient care worldwide.

Find out more about this year's AO Davos Courses, explore the open sessions available and enter the virtual environment here.