The Open Medical Institute continued its 2021 course series with a Weill Cornell OMInar in Otolaryngology from February 9-11, 2021.
We were very honored that Dr. Michael G. Stewart, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology and Senior Associate Dean for International Affairs and Affiliations at Weill Cornell Medicine led the course again this year, being a member of the OMI faculty for 16 years now. We also owe special thanks to Dr. Gerhard Rasp, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology at the General Hospital of Salzburg, who co-directed the course for the twentieth time!
Both US and Austrian faculty was very well represented, with renowned speakers from Weill Cornell Medicine, the General Hospital of Salzburg, the Medical University of Vienna and the Medical University Graz.
The course directors created a compelling schedule that included cutting-edge information on:
- Oropharynx and HPV Related Cancers (Victoria Banuchi, MD)
- Chronic Rhinosinusitis: Anatomy and Pathophysiology (Michael G. Stewart, MD, MPH)
- Chronic Rhinosinusitis: Diagnostics and Therapy (Gerhard Rasp, MD, PhD)
- Neck Dissection (Dietmar Thurnher, MD)
- Skin Tumors of the Head and Neck Region (Markus Brunner, MD, MBA)
- Laryngology and Voice Rehabilitation (Julia Rechenmacher-Strauss, MD)
- Larynx Cancer: From Early to Advanced (Victoria Banuchi, MD)
- Tonsils and Adenoid 2020 (Vikash K. Modi, MD)
- Pediatric Hearing Loss: Diagnostics and Rehabilitation (Sebastian Roesch, MD)
- Endoscopic Pediatric Airway Surgery (Vikash K. Modi, MD)
28 fellows from 19 countries were invited to attend the virtual event. The group was very engaged, which resulted in lively discussions due to many questions being addressed to the lecturers.
Fellows were asked to hand in clinical case reports, which were screened by the course directors prior to the OMInar. The nominated fellows from Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Mexico, Qatar, Russian Federation, Slovakia and Ukraine had the chance to present and discuss their cases during the second and third days of the live event. These excellent cases on the topic of Otolaryngology are now part of the OMI Case Library, accessible to all OMI alumni.
Olga Stancheva, MD (Russian Federation)
“The new knowledge acquired during the course will help me to improve the quality of treatment for children with chronic tonsillitis and laryngomalacia. I will be more confident in diagnosing children with sudden hearing loss and will actively use the methods of diagnosis and medical treatment described by the faculty in the course.”
Ostap Orishchak, MD (Ukraine)
“Thanks to the OMInar, I am now capable of improving our treatment quality for patients with benign and malignant vocal cords and larynx lesions. Furthermore, I am also going to improve the medical management, proper selection for sinus surgery, and outcome assessments of patients with chronic sinus diseases. I will integrate intracapsular tonsillectomy in my practice for kids with OSA. I can already envision how I can apply the information and knowledge gained during this OMInar. In my hospital, we recently launched voice box microsurgery, so all the sessions related to laryngeal cancer, voice rehabilitation, and pediatric airway management were very useful to me. Moreover, the chronic rhinosinusitis session was interesting as the treatment approaches are slightly different in Ukraine than in the US and in Austria. Having attended the OMInar, I think I can now contribute to better treatment results for patients with chronic sinus diseases.”
Eva Grudupa, MD (Latvia)
“Of course, seminars are always better if attended in person. But thanks to the OMInar, we were still able to experience an interesting program gain high quality medical knowledge. So, I would definitely attend again.”