In March 2021, the AO and RIMASYS Group announced the signing of a long-term strategic partnership.
RIMASYS is a highly innovative company focused on enhancing surgical education that started with the systematic generation of lifelike cadaveric fracture specimens for practical skills training in labs to developing novel high-fidelity formats. By bringing together the AO’s long-standing history of promoting excellence in patient care and outcomes in trauma and musculoskeletal disorders with the young and dynamic RIMASYS Group that develops and implements innovative products and solutions, the AO will be positioned at the forefront of innovation in its educational offerings to benefit the global surgeon community.
The partnership comes at the most opportune time when digital and hybrid formats have accelerated the pace of innovation and expanded the global reach of surgeons worldwide.
The AO and RIMASYS have set up an agile structure in which RIMASYS will retain its autonomy to remain fast paced and innovative, while working together with the AO as an interface and a catalyst for value creation for both organizations. RIMASYS’ products and services will be included in the AO’s selected high-end global surgical training formats. The AO will continue its successful activities in exclusive partnership with DePuy Synthes, a Johnson & Johnson Group company, and RIMASYS will continue to develop its successful business activities in offline and online education.
In the near term, exciting ideas are brimming in the area of unconventional digital offerings for the surgical community, including integrating the RIMASYS mobile wet lab, THE SHARD, to future AO Davos Courses. THE SHARD is a latest innovation that will allow livestreaming from Davos, Switzerland, to the AO network.
There is also the exciting World Surgery Tour, which will debut in June 2021; and in mid-November, the grand finale of the tour will include a 72-hour continuous livestream from Davos to the global AO network, including locations in North America and Asia Pacific. Also in the works are various strategic projects, from video-based education platforms and gamification to leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm-based medical image recognition are.
AO faculty will play a significant role in shaping these and other very innovative educational formats over the course of the long-term partnership. Stay tuned for more details on how to get involved.
The strategic partnership is the start of a journey for both organizations to mutually benefit and learn from one another, complementing their respective strengths to proactively address the future digital world and the needs of a new generation of surgeons.
