The AO Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the care of patients with musculoskeletal injuries or pathologies and their sequelae through research, development, and education of surgeons and operating room personnel.

The AO Foundation is credited with revolutionizing operative fracture treatment and pioneering the development of bone implants and instruments.

[3] On March 1, 1950 Maurice Müller, one of the founding members of the AO, visited a 70-year old Belgian surgeon named Robert Danis in Brussels, who had been experimenting and treating fracture patients surgically for 25 years.

[9] Maurice Müller had an agreement with the Balgrist Orthopedic Clinic, through which he enjoyed a day off every week that he used to travel around the region visiting hospitals and other like-minded surgeons.

This helped Müller develop a network, which, paired with his reputation of a very talented surgeon, got him recommended and requested to operate on difficult cases in hospitals around the country.

The meeting took place at the Hotel Elite in Biel/Bienne, and the agenda for the day included a presentation of Müller's Instrumentarium, a set of implants, screws, and tools he developed and fine-tuned first with Zulauf, a woodworking tools manufacturer, and later in collaboration with Robert Mathys, a mechanical engineer from the city of Bettlach, in Switzerland, who owned a small shop specialized in designing and producing stainless steel screws.

To manage the administration of this industrial area of the AO, Müller recommended to create a company, which would be called Synthes AG Chur.

From 1963 to the early 1980s, the AO developed new implants, tools, and devices; appointed new manufacturers for the AO-developed solutions; and assigned distributors throughout most of the world.

Scientists working in the AO research facilities located in the Swiss city of Davos conduct fundamental and applied research in the fields of biomechanics and biology of bone, disc and cartilage (including tissue engineering and musculoskeletal infections), and biomaterials science (such as degradable polymers and polymer-based transport systems).

[23] The different anatomical and pathology areas are covered by different working groups, task forces, and commissions, split into the following 5 clinical specialties The main operation of daily activities at the AO Foundation lies in the organization and delivery of educational events, comprising symposia, webinars, seminars, and courses aimed at orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, craniomaxillofacial surgeons, operating room personnel, and other health professionals.