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MEYER AWARD

For Discovery, Innovation and Disruption in Orthopaedics.

In honor and memory of Dominik C. Meyer, M.D.

2024 EDITION

On January 8, 2024, Dr. Jesse C. DeLee, the Chairman of the Meyer Award Jury which consisted of

Dr. Olivier Borens, appointed by Swiss Orthopaedics

Dr. Enrique Gomez Barrena, appointed by EFORT.

Dr. Li Felländer-Tsai, appointedby EFFORT.

Dr. Daniel K. Guy appointed by the AAOS.

Dr. Stephan Heinz appointed by Swiss Orthopaedics.

Dr. David. H. Sonnabend, appointed by the Australian Orthopaedic Association.

Dr. Yasuhito Tanaka appointed by the Japanese Orthopaedic Association.

Dr. Jon J.P. Warner, appointed by the AAOS.

has announced that the second Meyer Award has been bestowed on

Prof. Alain C. Masquelet, Paris, France,

for his game-changing discoveries and innovations in the reconstruction of soft tissue and bone defects using the biological potential of the patient's own tissue.

The award ceremony will take place during the Annual Meeting of EFORT in Hamburg, Germany, May 22, 2024.

The award stands for uniquely outstanding contributions to musculoskeletal medicine, which have been created by a living individual and changed the practice of orthopaedic care on at least two continents.

The prize money is 100’000 CHF, and the Prize is awarded triennially, usually based on nominations of individuals or groups to individuals or groups who fulfill the criteria outlined in the bylaws.

ResOrtho and the Jury congratulate Prof. A.C. Masquelet and all nominees for their contributions and look forward to a memorable Award Ceremony in Hamburg Germany.

ABOUT THE AWARD

Injury and disease of the musculoskeletal system represent the greatest medical, socioeconomic burden and the most frequent reason for sick leave and the loss of quality of life in the working population.

In the history of musculoskeletal medicine, patients’ destinies have only been fundamentally changed by discoveries and disruptive innovations. Replacement of joint fusions by total joint prostheses, replacement of plaster casting by operative fracture fixation or microsurgical replantation of limbs rather than amputation are examples. Musculoskeletal medicine does not know a worldwide recognition and honor for ideas which have changed patient care. The Meyer Award has been created to do that.

A Jury which is composed of members independently nominated by the most important international societies identifies the most patient relevant discoveries, innovations or disruptions which have been made by living contributors.

The award will be presented for the second time in 2024. The prize money will be 100.000 Swiss Francs and is offered by the ResOrtho Foundation. Thereby the Meyer Award represents by far the most important award available in musculoskeletal medicine.

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DOMINIK C. MEYER

Only exceptionally gifted and passionately curious personalities discover new land, innovate technologies which change medical practice, or successfully change paradigms. Dominik C. Meyer was about to become a game-changer. His premature death due to ALS could only have been prevented with the type and class of discovery and innovation that the Meyer award is honoring.

Dominik C. Meyer was born and grew-up in Zurich, Switzerland. He used the curiosity and talents of a true renaissance man for breeding poison frogs, creating new forms of sound and light that prominently featured at student parties, or in developing novel biomaterials which can be deformed with laser light and observed the earth using drones or self-designed and constructed model airplanes.

He complimented his Medical School curriculum with a diploma in medical physics at the ETH in Zurich. He joined the Department of Orthopaedics at «Balgrist University Hospital in Zurich», discovered why many resorbable bone anchors fail, how fatty infiltration of pennate muscles after tendon tear develops, studied the mechanisms of anterior knee pain, and contributed to the description of the possible role of the acromion in osteoarthritis and shoulder instability. He innovated and patented numerous medical technologies including a new, fascinating alternative to sutures as a means to surgically connect tissues to the body.

His devotion to «Discovery, Innovation and Disruption» makes him a unique role model for any young physician-scientist. His memory is treasured and honored with the Dominik C. Meyer Award.

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WINNERS

On December 15, 2021, the Chairman of the Jury, Dr. Jesse C. DeLee has announced that the first Meyer Award has been bestowed on Professor Reinhold Ganz, Switzerland for his disruptive discoveries and innovations in joint preserving hip surgery.

Reinhold Ganz was born in Karlsruhe, Germany. After Medical School in Germany, he received his postgraduate medical education in Switzerland and did his residency at the University of Bern under Professor Maurice E. Müller. He continued his career in his professional base Berne where he steadily moved up and acted as Department Chair from 1981 to 2004. Thereafter Prof. Ganz served as Consultant for Hip Surgery at the Departments of the Universities of Bern and Zürich (Balgrist University Hospital) and as a consultant for hip problems for various institutions and surgeons throughout the world.

In his early career, Prof. Ganz played a pivotal role in orienting the AO/ASIF group towards minimally invasive musculoskeletal trauma care. Progressively fascinated by hip disorders in the adolescent and the young adult, he started to devote himself to studying the reasons for early onset osteoarthritis of the hip and to possibilities of prevention and treatment of these disorders. Based on CT assessment of coverage and congruency of the hip,1 he developed a new periacetabular osteotomy for hip dysplasia, currently known as the Bernese peri acetabular osteotomy. 2 With his collaborators he followed and documented its results with a follow-up of 20 years. Based on landmark studies on the vascularity of the hip,3 he developed, described and documented safe surgical dislocation of the hip, which did not only allow direct inspection of the acetabular cartilage e.g. in acetabular fractures but the discovery of the lesions caused by cam deformities of the femoral head or pincer configurations of the acetabular rim and the conclusion that early onset osteoarthritis can be caused by these mechanisms and prevented or treated by correction of the respective deformities.4/5 He thereby discovered femoro-acetabular impingement,6 innovated a safe and effective treatment and with his numerous collaborators (Mascard, Myers, Leunig, Ito, Lavigne, Beck, Nötzli et al.) documented the role of femoro-acetabular impingement in various disorders, leading to a concept of early onset osteoarthritis published in 2008.7 In recent years, impingement caused by slipped femoral epiphysis and intra-capital osteotomies to reduce head size in Perthes disease are the focus of Prof. Ganz and his pupils and colleagues.

The refusal to accept the dogma that osteoarthritis is always an idiopathic disease which can neither be prevented nor decelerated has completely reoriented modern hip surgery. The concepts are proven, the patient benefits of the discoveries and innovations of Prof. Ganz are established.

NEWS/EVENTS

NEWS

3.6.2024

Second Meyer Award Ceremony held at the EFORT Congress in Hamburg

The Second Meyer Award Ceremony

On May 22, the second Meyer Award was presented to Prof. A.C. Masquelet from Paris, France for his disruptive innovations in soft tissue and bone reconstruction at the Annual Meeting of EFORT in Hamburg.

The winner of the Award was unfortunately unable to be present due to a medical emergency but had prepared an outstanding presentation documenting his extraordinary contributions. The ceremony was very well attended and ended with Prof. David Limb representing the hosting society EFORT Prof. Jesse C. DeLee representing the international Jury and Prof. C. Gerber representing the ResOrtho Foundation handing over the diploma to Prof. Thierry Bégué representing his mentor and friend Prof. Alain C. Masquelet.

Listen and watch the award ceremony here: Click here

8.1.2024

Prof. Alain C. Masquelet wins the second Meyer Award

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Today the Second Meyer Award Winner was announced by Jesse C. DeLee, Chairman of the international Meyer Award Jury 2024. We congratulate Prof. Alain C. Masquelet, Paris for his game-changing discoveries and innovations in the reconstruction of soft tissue and bone defects using the biological potential of the patient's own tissue. The award ceremony with attribution of the prize of 100’000 CHF will take place during the Annual Meeting of EFORT in Hamburg, Germany, May 22-24, 2024. (Click here to watch the announcement video!)

Resortho joins the Jury in congratulating Prof. Alain C. Masquelet for his unique contributions to orthopaedic care.

23.3.2022

The Meyer Award ceremony streamed live from Chicago.

The Meyer Award ceremony

Tomorrow the first ever Meyer Award ceremony will be hosted at the Presidential Symposium of the 2022 AAOS congress in Chicago. You can follow when Professor Reinhold Ganz will be awarded with the Meyer Award for his disruptive discoveries and innovations in joint preserving hip surgery.

UPCOMING EVENTS

13.10.2024

Annual Scientific Meeting of the AOA

The annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Orthopaedic Association AOA will take place in Bristbane, Australia from October 13 - 17, 2024.

10.3.2025

Annual Meeting of the AAOS

The annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons AAOS takes place in San Diego, United States from March 10 - 14, 2025.

11.6.2025

Annual Meeting of EFORT

The annual Meeting of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology EFORT will take place in Lyon, France from June 11 - 13, 2025.

22.5.2025

Annual Meeting of JOA

The annual Meeting of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association JOA will take place in Tokyo, Japan from May 22 - 25, 2025.

25.6.2025

Annual Meeting of Swiss Orthopaedics

The annual Meeting of Swiss Orthopaedics will take place in Zurich, Switzerland from June 25 - 27, 2025.

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PARTNERING SOCIETIES

To ascertain the undisputable international importance and value of the Dominik C. Meyer award, the Jury for the Award is composed of a number of individuals who themselves have contributed at the highest possible level and who are carefully and independently selected by the following organizations.



AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEONS

Felix H. Savoie III

Felix H. Savoie III, MD, FAAOS, FAOA

«The AAOS is proud to be a participant in the Dominic Meyer award, honoring one of the most creative surgeons in our lifetime. The award, which honors those who make major, disruptive advances in health care benefits people worldwide.»


EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS OF ORTHOPAEDICS AND TRAUMATOLOGY

Prof. Enrique Gómez-Barrena

Prof. Enrique Gómez-Barrena

«EFORT is honoured to support this global initiative emphasizing the invaluable orthopaedic advancements to improve the quality of life of humankind, in tribute to an outstanding European orthopaedic clinician and researcher.»


AUSTRALIAN ORTHOPAEDIC ASSOCIATION

Chris Morrey

Chris Morrey, MBBS FRACS GAICD

«The board of the AOA acknolwedges that the road to change is a difficult one but often worthwhile. Innovations such as the Meyer award created to recognise the talents, determination and fearlessness of scientists such as Dominik Meyer are an inspiration to us all. We as an organisation through our representatives are delighted to be involved.»

JAPANESE ORTHOPAEDIC ASSOCIATION

Yasuharu Nakashim

Yasuharu Nakashima, MD, PhD

«JOA is proud of supporting this outstanding award. We believe the Meyer Award will motivate physician scientists all over the world to generate innovative musculoskeletal research that leads to a better life for patients.»

SWISS ORTHOPAEDICS

Dr. Stephan Heinz

Dr. Stephan Heinz

«Swiss Orthopaedics is proud that the first Meyer Award was attributed to its member of honor Prof. R. Ganz. The award honors extraordinary performances which assist us all in reorienting our efforts towards game-changing innovations in favor of musculoskeletal patients. We thank ResOrtho for contributing to this goal and are honored to be part of it.»

RESORTHO FOUNDATION

Christian Gerber

Christian Gerber, MD, FRCS

«It is the the mission of ResOrtho to advance musculoskeletal health through research leading to discovery, innovation and disruption. The Meyer Award has been created to honor the most exceptional contributions to patient care and to motivate physician-scientists to realize their dreams of preventing or healing musculoskeletal injury and disease.»

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EXAMPLES

Examples of discoveries, innovations and disruptions which have transformed orthopaedics.

1846

First successful general anesthesia

William T. Green Morton

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1865

Antisepsis

Joseph Lister

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1878

First arthrodesis

Eduard Albert

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1874/1928

Discovery of Penicillin

Theodor Billroth/Alexander Fleming

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1882

First tendon transfer

Carl Nicoladoni

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1891

First femoral head replacement with ivory Prosthesis

Themistokles Gluck

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1912

Arthroscopy of the Knee (cadavers)

Severin Nordentoft

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1921

Arthroscopy of the Knee (patients)

Eugen Bircher

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1931

Intramedullary Rod for long bone fractures

Gerhard Küntscher

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1934

The medical record

Ernest A. Codman

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1943

The metallic Hip

Austin Moore

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1953

Hinged, cemented, total knee

Bijrje Walldius

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1953

The Harrington Rod (Scoliosis treatment)

Paul Randall Harrington

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1955

Poliomyelitis Vaccine

Jonas Edward Salk

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1950ies

Distraction Osteogenesis

Gawriil A. Ilizarov

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1950ies

Microsurgery

Harry J. Buncke

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1958

AO/ASIF

Maurice E. Müller/Hans Willenegger/Martin Allgöwer

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1960ies

Low friction Total Hip Replacement/ Polymethyl methacrylate in Orthopapaedics/ Compression Arthrodesis

Sir John Charnley

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1961

Oral Polyomyelitis vaccine

Albert Sabin

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1971

Unconstrained total knee replacement

Frank Gunston

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1980ies

Crosslinking of polyethylene/ Cementfree acetabular component

William H. Harris

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1980ies

Operative Arthroscopy

David Dandy/Robert Jackson

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1985

Locked intramedullary nailing

Ivan Kempf/Arsène Grosse

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1987

Reverse total shoulder arthroplasty

Paul Grammont

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THE RESORTHO FOUNDATION

ResOrtho Foundation

The ResOrtho «Research in Orthopaedics» Foundation was created in 2000 by Christian Gerber, M.D. in Zurich, Switzerland. It is a tax exempt non-for-profit organization of recognized public interest. Its activities are based on donations, sponsorships and beneficiary contributions.

With the goal to prevent or cure disease or sequalae of musculoskeletal injury, it is the mission of the Foundation to create and finance optimal research conditions, to enable discovery, research and innovation though support of persons and projects and to ascertain sustainability of progress by educational efforts for future investigational leaders.

The design and construction of the Balgrist Campus, funding of scientific, academic chairs and the creation of the Meyer Award are examples of the activities of the ResOrtho Foundation.

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CREATED BY RESORTHO