Johannes Graf von Moy, President of the Salzburg Stiftung der AAF, opened the event with a welcome address that captivated the audience’s attention. Dr. Wolfgang Aulitzky, OMI CEO, encapsulated the non-profit’s history and mission in a dynamic speech, after which he invited the guests to become part of the organization’s story.
In a presentation entitled “Cheers to 30 Years of Partnership”, OMI Managing Director Stephanie Faschang spoke about how the partnership between the OMI and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has improved medical education and child health globally. She explained that in Salzburg, more than 400 faculty members from Philadelphia have trained over 5,300 doctors from 78 countries and 5 continents in all areas of pediatrics. One of them recently shared a motivational statement while teaching in Salzburg: “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it”. What an inspirational quote that highlights what education is all about! In a video clip, the 90 attendees experienced that CHOP is more than just a hospital. It is a legacy of dedication, commitment, and empowerment.
Moreover, Ms. Faschang gave a heartwarming example of a young girl in Nigeria whose life was improved drastically due to the invaluable education that the OMI provided. If the girl’s pediatrician, Dr. Collins, had not learned how to perform a laparoscopic nephrectomy during the OMI programs, the girl’s story could have been a very different one. Success stories like these are possible, in Ms. Faschang’s words, “because hundreds of faculty members from Philadelphia are willing to travel to Salzburg, Mexico, and recently even Vietnam to share their knowledge and expertise. They believe in the power of education and let others light their candles.”
It was a real honor that Dr. James M. Callahan, the Medical Director of CHOP’s Global Pediatric Education program, could join us personally for the event. As guests were so moved by his words, we are happy to share his thoughtful speech with you below.
Another one of OMI’s longest supporters and serving faculty members is Dr. Antonio M. Gotto Jr., Dean Emeritus of Weill Cornell Medicine and Provost for Medical Affairs Emeritus of Cornell University. The expert’s loyalty to the cause of lifelong learning became evident in his speech: “My first visit to the Salzburg OMI Program was in 1998, a year after I became Dean at Weill Cornell. I attended Cardiology Courses until I started one on lipid metabolism and cardiovascular disease – I recently finished my 13th year as director of the course. There is no other program like this. It is a fact that medicine knows no bounds.” Furthermore, Dr. Gotto Jr. also made his gratitude to the faculty dinner hosts, board members, and donors clear by addressing them: “You have entertained the faculty in your homes and provided financial support. I have been honored to have enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of your homes. On behalf of Weill Cornell Medicine and all of our faculty, we thank you and are blessed by your presence.
A tradition of the OMI’s donor appreciation dinners is the bestowing of awards. Last night, three individuals were granted special honors. Dr. Gotto was awarded the “Ehrenbecher” of the Land Salzburg for his commitment to the OMI. Dr. Brigitte Pallauf, President of the State Parliament, and Heinrich Spängler, SSAAF Board Member, presented Dr. Gotto with the award. Longtime board members and faculty dinner hosts Verena Horstmann and Thomas Bodmer were both given an OMI award for their unwavering support and generosity.
We would like to thank each and every one for joining us on October 2, 2024, for the celebration of OMI and Medical Education beyond Borders. As Dr. Aulitzky reinitiated, “Our story can be your story”. Here’s to many more evenings of storytelling with you!
Without further ado, enjoy reading Dr. Callahan’s touching speech below:
It is a great honor to join you tonight for this wonderful dinner and a celebration of your contributions to the work of the Open Medical Institute over the last 30+ years. I am thrilled to be able to represent Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia this evening and extend our thanks to you as well, on behalf of Madeline Bell, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. Joseph St. Geme, our Physician-in-Chief and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
CHOP and OMI have been partners for 30 years and it has been an amazing partnership and an amazing 30 years. We had a wonderful celebration of this partnership that Wolfgang and Stephanie were able to join us for last February in Philadelphia. As I said, it has been an amazing partnership, and I believe through this partnership we have been able to positively impact the lives of children literally around the world. In that time, we have worked with over 5,000 OMI Fellows from more than 75 countries in courses covering all aspects of pediatrics and pediatric subspecialty medicine and surgery. We have also presented our OMI-CHOP Leadership seminars. Our faculty have been able to share their knowledge and expertise with so many wonderful colleagues. Just as importantly, those colleagues have become friends.
For while we come to Salzburg, and Mexico City, and Hanoi to share our knowledge and expertise, I can tell you that as faculty members we always feel that we learn more than we teach. We are able to witness the incredible dedication of the fellows to improving care for their patients in their home countries. We get to meet colleagues and hear about their experiences and learn from them while we live together and truly get to know each other in this beautiful setting. Our faculty are thrilled to be able to participate and look forward to these opportunities. By really getting to know each other, we can work together to improve the care of children. And the learning and friendship don’t end once we go back to Philadelphia on Saturday morning.
Many of our faculty have kept in close contact with fellows they have met while here or in Mexico City or Hanoi. The relationships that start here, remain strong. We often welcome colleagues who have participated in these seminars to CHOP for observerships, and conferences, or to collaborate on research or educational programs together. Our Global Pediatric Education team welcomed over 200 observers to CHOP last year. Not all our observers came to CHOP through OMI, but many do. In addition, our free, online learning platform, CHOP OPEN was a direct outgrowth of the CHOP OMI seminars. Dr. Aulitzky and my predecessor and mentor, Dr. Steve Ludwig recognized the wealth of information that is shared during the seminars and sought to make those materials more widely available. With support from the Leir Foundation, CHOP OPEN was established just for this reason and has now grown to a site that has over 21,000 registered users and over 1,100 learning modules including the presentations from each of the most recent CHOP OMI seminars. At the end of each week, the skilled technical staff here shares the recordings of these talks with our team in Philadelphia and the seminar proceedings are quickly posted to the site. CHOP OPEN averages about 25 new users each day with over 40% of users coming from outside the United States.
Friendships, collegial, and mentoring relationships that start here continue for many years after. Tomorrow morning, I am leaving to go present a talk at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Austrian Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine Society in Bregenz. I was invited by my good friend and colleague Professor Burkhard Simma who is the President of the Conference this year. Professor Simma has served as Co-Course Director for the CHOP OMI Seminar in Pediatric Emergency Medicine for many years and we first met here in 2008. He and I have published a review paper together about mild traumatic brain injury in children and adolescents. He has also come to Philadelphia to present at and help teach our annual CME seminar in PEM several times.
We continue to have contact with numerous fellows. I receive holiday greetings each December from a colleague in Azerbaijan. Several years ago, Dr. Hajiyeva reached out after a conference with questions about a patient she was seeing in Baku. I happened to be here in Salzburg with colleagues presenting our seminar in Medical Education. We put our heads together, helped Dr. Hajiyeva reach a diagnosis, and connected her with our liver specialist at CHOP who has continued to provide remote consultation for this child and his family. Another fellow who we have maintained very close ties with is Dr. Lubica Kováčiková in Bratislava who with the help of OMI and the CHOP Division of Cardiology established the first Pediatric Cardiac Center in Slovakia. Dr. Kováčiková hosted a satellite seminar in Pediatric Cardiology this spring after the CHOP OMI Cardiology Seminar here in Salzburg and will be joining us in Philadelphia for CHOP’s Global Health Conference later this month.
So, what is in this relationship for CHOP? We feel improving the health of children everywhere is part of our core mission. Our partnership with OMI helps us do that and is one of our most important partnerships outside the U.S. Last February in Philadelphia, Dr. St. Geme, our Physician-in-Chief told Dr. Aulitzky and Ms. Faschang that he valued this partnership as much as any of our international partnerships. Our faculty love to come and participate in this work. One of the most enjoyable parts of our trips are the wonderful dinners many of you have hosted in your homes or nearby restaurants. We all learn so much here and find our work incredibly fulfilling. Dr. Aulitzky, Ms. Faschang, and the entire team here at Schloss Arenberg make it so easy to do this work. They are truly great hosts, great partners, and great friends.
W. B. Yeats said, “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” Hopefully our faculty light fires for the fellows we work with here just as those fellows energize us and inspire us as we work with them.
So, on behalf of CHOP, I first want to thank my dear friends Wolfgang and Stephanie for their partnership in all that we do. I also want to again thank all of you for your support of the work of OMI. You are making a difference for children around the world and we, the faculty from CHOP are thrilled to be able to partner with the OMI team to share our knowledge here in Salzburg but also in Mexico City, Hanoi, and many other locations as a direct outgrowth of this partnership. Thank you for all you do and I hope you all enjoy the rest of this wonderful evening.”
James M. Callahan, MD
Medical Director | CHOP’s Global Pediatric Education Program
