Since 1996, the Open Medical Institute has partnered with Weill Cornell Medicine to offer an annual obstetrics and gynecology seminar educating doctors from medically less developed countries and encouraging them to continue delivering patient care in their home countries rather than emigrating. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine provides comprehensive patient care in complex family planning, general obstetrics and gynecology, gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology, and reproductive medicine across the spectrum of women’s ages and life stages.
This week, leading Weill Cornell Medicine OB/GYN physicians teamed up with renowned specialists from the Medical University of Vienna to teach 29 fellows from 26 different countries. Dr. Stephen T. Chasen (Weill Cornell Medicine) and Dr. Petra Kohlberger (Medical University of Vienna) put together an exciting program.
The seminar addressed important issues in women’s healthcare. Faculty focused on benign gynecology as well as gynecologic oncology, covering topics such as pre-pregnancy care, cancer, family planning, pelvic pain, endometriosis, and operative management of gynecologic conditions. Fellows were exposed to the latest, evidence-based diagnostic and management strategies for a broad range of conditions. On Wednesday, participants had the chance to master their skills during a thrilling laparoscopic training facilitated by Olympus.
On Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, fellows presented cases from their clinical practice. The case presentation sessions were an excellent opportunity to see how medical conditions are managed by physicians in different countries, with differing patient populations and resources. Fellows learned from each other, and faculty learned from the fellows. It was inspiring to see how those with different training and less access to certain diagnostic or therapeutic modalities manage to provide excellent care for their patients.
Children and adolescent gynecology is a field I deal with less frequently in my daily work. I had several questions after this lecture and Dr. Kohlberger patiently answered them all.
The laparoscopic training was amazing! Faculty members took their time to teach us how to handle the instruments and guided us through the procedures.
The possibility of combining uterine embolization and myomectomy was the key message of Dr. Shin’s lecture on endometriosis and adenomyosis for me.
- 29 fellows
- 26 countries
- 1 hands-on laparoscopy training
