Max Abei, M.D.

Dr. Abei is currently the Director of Medicine Specialist Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology at Hirslanden Private Hospital Group in Bern, Switzerland. He was born in 1948 and raised in Switzerland, graduating from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bern in 1975. After work as a young surgeon in Ethiopia, he completed his residency and fellowships for Board certification as General Surgeon FMH (’82) and Orthopedic Surgeon FMH (’83) in Switzerland, FRCSC Board certification in Canada from the Royal College (’93), and AMP Diploma from INSEAD, Flontain-Bleau, Paris (’99). He was the Founder and Chief of the first Swiss University Spine Unit at the Hospital in Bern from 1983-1991, served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at McGill University and Orthopedic Surgeon-in-Chief at McGill University Health Center in Montreal, Canada from 1991-2002. He was a Founder, Professor, and Co-Director Emeritus of the MEM Orthopedic Research Center at the University of Bern from 2002-2011. He earned Doctor Honoris Causa in 2003 from the Ministry of Education and Science, Republic of France granted through the Universite Mediteranee, Marseilles, France. Dr. Abei also earned the Lifetime Achievement Award of the AO Spine Foundation in 2014, and the ISSLS Wiltse Lifetime Achievement Award in Spine Sciences in 2016.
Additional accomplishments include: Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the European Spine Journal for 23 years and current Deputy Editor for online education, Co-founder and past Chair of AOSpine, Past President of EuroSpine, Past President of the Canadian Orthopedic Research Society, Past President of the Quebec Scoliosis Society, Co-Founder and past Chair of the European Spine Foundation, Co-Founder of Spine Tango (a European Spine Registry), President of the SIRIS Foundation (the Swiss Implant Registry), Co-inventor of a significant number of spinal implants and surgical technologies for the MedTech industry, active reviewer and board member of different scientific journals, societies, and foundations, Author/Co-author of more than 400 publications and book chapters, Active spine surgeon and senior consultant at Das Ruckenzentrum in Bern, Switzerland, and visiting surgeon and Professor at National Armed Force Medical College, Rawalpindi (Pak) and Children Hospital in Yervan, Armenia.