Celebrating 50 Years: How It All Began

AAOE is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019! During this milestone year, we will be sharing stories, testimonials, and memorabilia from past and current members to commemorate the 50 years that brought us where we are today, while anticipating our bright future. Whether you have been a member for decades or days, you are an important part of this anniversary!

The big celebration will take place at the 2019 Annual Conference May 5-8 in Nashville, TN. Past and current members have shared their AAOE stories and experiences for a 50th anniversary video, which will be revealed at the Annual Conference! Leading up to the conference, we will be sharing short clips of video interviews alongside accounts of AAOE's history gathered from those conversations.

This month, we're taking it all the way back to the beginning!

If you are a newer member, you may not be familiar with BONES, but that was AAOE's original name. It stood for Best Orthopaedic News Exchange Society, a fitting title since the group started as a quarterly newsletter among orthopaedic administrators. The initial gathering took place in September of 1969 when a group of 28 orthopaedic administrators met in Denver, Colorado to share knowledge and ideas related to orthopaedic practice management. This was an important networking opportunity that had otherwise been lacking in the industry.

The first quarterly newsletter was sent in October of 1969 under the leadership of Don Shearer, the first chairman. The newsletter connected orthopaedic administrators across the country, who would submit their practice management questions to be included in the newsletter and receive responses from peers. This popular opportunity to ask and answer questions would eventually lay the foundation for an online community, which started as the AAOE Listerv and today is AAOE Collaborate.

In the videos below, two Past Presidents, Jan Vest, MBA, CEO Emeritus of Signature Medical Group and Tim Pella, Practice Manager, Southeast Iowa Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, discuss the reasons BONES was started and how that laid the foundation for what AAOE is today--an expansion and evolution of those core principles. (Turn on closed captioning to watch the videos with the sound off.)

"The Best of What Humanity Has to Offer"

"All About the Networking"