Voices for Change: Celebrating diversity within the AO

Across his 40-year AO journey—including a 2021–23 term as president of the AO Foundation Board (AO FB)—Prof Florian Gebhard, MD, has established a legacy as a renowned orthopedic surgeon and researcher and as a champion of new surgical technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) tools like the new AO Companion app. As the world continues to change at a rapid pace, he said the AO is keeping pace not only with innovative technologies but with future-forward, human-centric initiatives like AO Access.

A native of Munich, Germany, Gebhard knew early on that his future lay in the sciences. 

“There is no medical background in my family; they’re all scientists and I’m the only one who went into medicine,” Gebhard said, noting that the humanistic school he attended required students to learn Latin and Ancient Greek which are the foundations of scientific terminology. “I decided that I wanted to go for physics and chemistry as a specialty; I loved both subjects and got the best marks in them. At the time, biochemistry was supposed to be the best combination of both.”  

Intent on studying biochemistry and aiming for a career in research, Gebhard was advised by Munich University to instead study medicine and then switch to biochemistry. Upon taking his final exams and earning his MD, Gebhard began compulsory Germany military service, which offered no pathway into biochemistry.” 

“I performed well as an officer, so the military offered me the opportunity to start doing trauma surgery,” he recounted. “It was the perfect combination of doing a lot of sports and physical training while receiving excellent medical training. So, I agreed to the offer, started my career as an officer in the German military, and stayed there for almost 15 years.”

Entering a new era 

After a decade and a half in the military, he moved on to Ulm University Medical Center, eventually becoming director of its department of orthopedic trauma and vice-dean of its medical faculty. It was the mid-1990s and the dawn of a new era in technology, with innovative surgical navigation and imaging systems. Among Gebhard’s first tasks at Ulm University Medical Center was testing the first navigation system for spine surgery.

“I was one of the very first users of the system and I was totally open-minded about it. I had always been interested in technology—not only medical technology—so I was fascinated from the beginning and happy to have the opportunity to be part of the development of the system to make it better,” said Gebhard.

That early immersion in the continuous improvement of cutting-edge surgical navigation—and research establishing evidence of the technology’s value—positioned Gebhard’s hospital in 2012 to take the next step into very high-end imaging systems, continue its research, and build a new surgical department with the latest interpretive imaging and computer guidance.

“I had seen the limitations of conventional imaging and experienced the challenges associated with anatomies that had been destroyed by trauma,” Gebhard said. “When we started to use state-of-the-art surgical imaging, we never had to do any revision surgery. We had the perfect setting: guidance by the computer system by doing the scans. Very quickly, we became much more precise, and our surgeries required no revisions, and this was convincing to me.

At the same time, Gebhard knew that collecting and publishing evidence were fundamental to convincing others.

“You can tell everyone, ‘Hey, this technology is cool,’ but if there’s no evidence, no one will follow you,” he emphasized.