Leading a Surgical Revolution

This book describes the 60-year history of the AO Foundation and its impact on the treatment of bone trauma.
Originally founded by a group of Swiss surgeons, the AO has since established its osteosynthesis treatment approach to trauma, using surgery and implants, as the global standard. The AO successfully convinced the medical community that surgery of bone trauma was superior to the standard conservative treatment using plaster casts. This new technique meant that patients no longer had to spend long weeks at the hospital in traction, and prevented many disabilities.

This book describes the struggle with the medical community, explains how the AO surgeons enlisted the support of an entire industry for their advanced tools and their research and teaching efforts, and details the AO’s evolution into a non-profit foundation that now trains more than 50,000 surgeons, on all continents, every year.


The efforts of the AO’s affiliated surgeons, undertaken largely on a volunteer basis and with their own financial resources, serve as a stellar example of social entrepreneurship. Today the AO Foundation numbers over 20,000 surgeon members worldwide, and the industry that emerged to produce related implants and tools employs thousands of skilled staff. Professionals in consulting as well as in healthcare can use this book as a source of successful strategies, and as a blueprint for active social entrepreneurship.
The AO journey through 60 years tells the amazing success of a group of determined Swiss surgeons which developed solutions to overcome traditional techniques of fracture repair that meant splinting or traction over a period of many hundred years. A must read for any orthopedic surgeon.

Univ. Prof. Dr. med. Florian Gebhard, Director Department for Orthopedic Trauma, Vice Dean Medical Faculty, Ulm University, Germany

Professor Jeannet’s chronicle of the development of the AO Foundation’s game-changing innovation inthe medical treatment of musculoskeletal trauma is inspiring and insightful. It illuminates a potential path forward to transformation of the global healthcare industry through the application of principles and practices of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Professor Mark Rice, Provost and Professor of Entrepreneurship, Babson College, USA

Jean-Pierre Jeannet has written an important book on an important organization. AO’s story is a remarkable case of entrepreneurship-with-a-purpose, as well as an inspiring illustration of how a few determined individuals can end up positively impacting the lives of millions!

Jean-François Manzoni, President  IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland

The History of the AO Foundation is also a story of how the Canton of Solothurn turned into a Medtech hotspot with its unique concentration of leading orthopedic implant firms. This book is a testimony to the innovative impact of this sector on the Swiss economyat large. 

Roger Graber, Economic Development Canton of Solothurn, Solothurn, Switzerland