Designated Signatories:
- EFORT European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology
- AO Foundation
- NVIDIA Corporation
- Google LLC
- ERMOS European Research Foundation for Mobility and Orthopaedic Surgery
- ICUC.net
- MAIVAN.ai New Medical Insights PBC AG
Preamble
Orthopaedic and trauma surgery stand at a historic inflection point.
For more than a century, progress has been driven by craftsmanship, biomechanics, implants, and incremental clinical evidence. Today, a new force is reshaping every scientific discipline: Artificial Intelligence grounded in data, physics, and computation.
This transformation is not optional.
It is not incremental.
And it cannot be owned by any single institution, company, or country.
The Surgical Intelligence Forum (SIF) is founded on the conviction that the future of musculoskeletal care must be scientifically rigorous, ethically grounded, technologically open, and globally cooperative.
Our Mission
The Surgical Intelligence Forum exists to:
- Advance orthopaedic and trauma care through Surgical Intelligence
- Bridge surgeons, scientists, academia, and industry
- Translate breakthrough technologies into patient-centered, value-based healthcare
- Establish openness and cooperation as the default operating principles
SIF is not a conference about tools.
It is a forum about paradigms.
What We Mean by Surgical Intelligence
Surgical Intelligence is the convergence of:
- Clinical expertise and surgical judgment
- Biomechanics, biology, and medical imaging
- Data science, AI, and physical simulation
- Open scientific validation and real-world clinical evidence
It moves beyond “decision support” toward:
- Predictive and personalized care
- Digital twins of anatomy, implants, and outcomes
- Continuous learning from real clinical practice
- Safer, more reproducible, and more equitable surgery
Surgical Intelligence does not replace surgeons.
It augments human expertise with collective intelligence.
The New Technological Paradigm
Breakthrough platforms—such as physical AI, simulation-driven intelligence, foundation models, and open-source ecosystems—are redefining what is possible.
Technologies emerging from domains like autonomous driving, robotics, and large-scale simulation (e.g. physics-based AI, generative world models, and scalable compute) will inevitably reshape healthcare.
The key question is not if this will happen, but how:
- Closed or open?
- Fragmented or interoperable?
- Profit-only or value-driven?
- Extractive or cooperative?
SIF stands for a future where technology serves patients, clinicians, and society—not the other way around.
Open Science · Open Intelligence · Open Business
We believe that sustainable innovation in surgery requires a new social contract:
Open Science
- Transparent methodologies
- Reproducible research
- Shared datasets and benchmarks
- Clinical validation as a first principle
Open Intelligence
- Open AI models and reference architectures where possible
- Interoperability instead of vendor lock-in
- Community-driven improvement and peer review
Open Business
- Fair value creation for innovators
- Sustainable business models aligned with outcomes
- Partnerships based on trust, not dependency
Openness is not the opposite of excellence.
Openness is how excellence scales.
Value-Based Healthcare as a Moral Imperative
Value-based healthcare is not a reimbursement model.
It is a moral ambition and obligation.
True value means:
- Better outcomes for patients
- Lower long-term burden for healthcare systems
- Transparency in benefit and risk
- Accountability through evidence
Surgical Intelligence enables value-based care by making outcomes measurable, predictable, and improvable—across populations and over time.
The Role of EFORT and AO FOUNDATION
EFORT and AO FOUNDATION represent the collective intelligence of orthopaedic and trauma surgery worldwide.
By hosting the Surgical Intelligence Forum:
- They provide a neutral, trusted platform
- They ensure scientific integrity
- They connect generations of surgeons and researchers
- They anchor innovation in clinical reality
SIF is not outside the orthopaedic community.
It is by the community, for the community, and open to the world.
The Role of Industry and Technology Partners
Industry—medtech, pharma, and technology—plays a vital role in translating science into reality.
We invite partners who:
- Believe in openness over enclosure
- Invest in long-term clinical validation
- Respect clinical autonomy and patient trust
- See healthcare as a system, not a market to extract
Global technology leaders bring compute, platforms, and scale.
Medicine brings responsibility, ethics, and lived human impact.
Only together can we build what neither can build alone.
A Call to Cooperation
The philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote:
“The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.”
In a world of rising complexity, no single discipline, institution, or nation can solve healthcare alone.
The Surgical Intelligence Forum is an invitation:
- To cooperate across boundaries
- To share knowledge without fear
- To compete on outcomes, not opacity
- To place patients at the center of intelligence
Our Commitment
We commit to:
- Scientific rigor over hype
- Patients over platforms
- Cooperation over control
- Long-term value over short-term gain
The future of surgery is not merely digital.
It is intelligent, ethical, and shared.
Surgical Intelligence Forum
Advancing Surgery through Open Intelligence – together!
