ABOS: 90 Years of Doing the Right Thing

The American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) was established in 1934 at the Palmer House in Chicago—the same place where the ABOS conducts Oral Examinations today! The ABOS is spending 2024 looking back over the past 90 years and looking at the Board’s future.

The ABOS is the longest-standing national certifying board for orthopaedic surgeons. The ABOS has evolved over that time period to provide Board Certification that is meaningful to orthopaedic surgeons, while staying true to its mission of protecting the public. With every change, the Board strives to make sure that it is always “Doing the Right Thing,” the name of the book published for the ABOS’s 75th anniversary and the motto by which the ABOS operates.

For the next 90 years, the ABOS will continue to innovate and make sure that the Board Certification and Maintenance of Certification processes are valuable to orthopaedic surgeons.

To learn more about the history of the ABOS, go to https://www.abos.org/about/history. The webpage includes a video history of the Board as well as a new infographic highlighting key events over the last 90 years.

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