The American Orthopaedic Association founded the Austrian-Swiss-German Travelling Fellowship tour in 1981. The ASG Fellowship, as it is known, represents exchange between the AOA and the Austrian, Swiss and German orthopaedic associations.

Two German Fellows, one Swiss Fellow and one Austrian Fellow tour North America over a four-week period. The ASG Fellowship Committee in Europe selects the Fellows.  The Canadian Orthopaedic Association and the American Orthopaedic Association will host the overseas Fellows in 2011, and only in odd years beginning in 2013.

The North American tour traditionally centres around the Orthopaedic Research Society and American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meetings each year, where the AOA honors the Fellows and presents them with certificates at a luncheon. Fellows also may tour Great Britain before or after coming to the United States.

The COA will join the AOA in sponsoring one Canadian candidate to join two American surgeons, along with a possible British surgeon selected by the British Orthopaedic Association, for the travelling tour. This tour is open to orthopaedists who are no older than 49 years of age.