Roy M. Gulick, MD, MPH
Course Director
“I think we should be impressed with several things. We have people from all over the world together and we all share something and that is Infectious Diseases. And we all share something else: We all became covidologists together.”
Under the academic leadership of Weill Cornell, this year’s OMInar in Infectious Diseases took place from May 11-13, 2021 as an interactive multi-day webinar.
Course Director Dr. Roy M. Gulick is well acquainted with the program, as he has been a member of the OMI faculty for more than 15 years. Dr. Christoph Steininger has been an OMI faculty member in Infectious Diseases Seminars and OMInars since 2015 and co-directed the course for the fourth time this year.
The high-level faculty was completed by Dr. David P. Calfee, Dr. Kristen Marks, Dr. Matthew S. Simon and three new faculty members: Dr. Andrea Ammon, Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Dr. Katrin Praprotnik, a political science expert, and Dr. Christine M. Salvatore.
This year’s course focused on COVID-19.
As summarized by Dr. Gulick, the schedule covered the following topics:
- Emerging Infectious Diseases (Dr. Christoph Steininger | Medical University of Vienna)
- Outbreak Investigation (Dr. David P. Calfee | Weill Cornell Medicine)
- COVID-19 Epidemiology and Clinical Presentation (Dr. Roy M. Gulick | Weill Cornell Medicine)
- COVID-19 Transmission and Infection Control (Dr. Matthew S. Simon | Weill Cornell Medicine)
- COVID-19 Testing (Dr. Christoph Steininger | Medical University of Vienna)
- COVID-19 Treatment (Dr. Roy M. Gulick | Weill Cornell Medicine)
- COVID-19 Political Perspective (Dr. Katrin Praprotnik | Danube University Krems)
- COVID-19: View from the ECDC (Dr. Andrea Ammon | European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control)
- COVID-19 Pediatrics (Dr. Christine M. Salvatore | Weill Cornell Medicine)
- COVID-19 Vaccines (Dr. Kristen Marks | Weill Cornell Medicine)
32 fellows from 23 different countries were selected to participate in the OMInar. The fellows were asked to hand in case reports, which were screened by the course directors prior to the webinar. 10 nominated fellows were given the chance to present and discuss their cases during the live event.
“I participated in the “Global Health: Vector-Borne Diseases Seminar” in September 2019 and gained valuable experience. What really attracted me to the Infectious Diseases OMInar was the distinguished faculty, extensive coverage of the topic, and most importantly, the very diverse backgrounds of the other fellows who are physicians/researchers trying to improve healthcare delivery in their countries. The OMInar has expanded my knowledge and broadened my horizons so I can see the real needs of developing countries against infectious diseases.”