Drilling and hammering at Schloss Arenberg?! What sounds like a construction site is this year’s group of 33 orthopedic surgeons from 22 countries improving their practical skills during an exciting hands-on workshop. A combination of excitement, education, and medical experts? That is what we would consider a proper start to 2025!
The educational seminar, which took place from January 19 to 25, 2025, was led by two famous surgeons: Course director Dr. Mathias Bostrom (Hospital for Special Surgery) and co-course director Dr. Reinhard Windhager (Medical University of Vienna). Dr. Bostrom’s research largely focuses on periprosthetic joint infection, bone healing, and implant osseointegration, while Dr. Windhager specializes in orthopedic oncology and adult reconstruction. The power duo was joined by Dr. Aleksey Dvorzhinskiy (Hospital for Special Surgery), Dr. Claire D. Eliasberg (Hospital for Special Surgery), Dr. Francis C. Lovecchio (Hospital for Special Surgery), Dr. Gerhard M. Hobusch (Medical University of Vienna), Dr. Christoph Boehler (Medical University of Vienna), Dr. Irene K. Sigmund (Medical University of Vienna), and Dr. Kevin Doering (Medical University of Vienna).
Dr. Dvorzhinskiy is an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in trauma, Dr. Eliasberg’s focus lies in sports medicine, knee, and shoulder surgery, and Dr. Lovecchio’s fields of interest are complex spine surgery and spinal deformity correction using a combination of traditional and minimally invasive techniques. Dr. Hobusch is an expert when it comes to the treatment of bone sarcoma and amputation care, Dr. Boehler specializes in adult reconstruction, Dr. Sigmund focuses on musculoskeletal infections, and Dr. Doering is interested in osseointegration and patient-centered implant solutions in arthroplasty, tumor orthopedics, and foot surgery.
Dr. Dvorzhinskiy explains what he believes makes the OMI seminars so special and why he chooses to support our educational initiative in a heartfelt statement. He emphasizes, “The OMI allows us to exchange ideas with diverse individuals from around the world. Although designed for us to share our knowledge with the fellows, I find that their questions make me take a critical look at my own work. Thus, both sides gain insights into improving their practice and everyone benefits tremendously.”
Together the nine experts were excited to share their know-how with the participants over the thrilling week. There was a mix of 23 didactic lectures by faculty, including case presentations and a research presentation, two workshops, and three fellows’ case presentation sessions.
When asked to summarize this week, the course director expressed that “the seminar was probably one of the most content-rich programs ever with subspecialty topics including hip and knee arthroplasty, prosthetic joint infections, state-of-the-art amputation care, orthopedic oncology, spine medicine, and sports medicine. In addition to the didactic presentations covering basic and advanced topics, both our US and Austrian faculty concentrated on case-based learning and hands-on workshops. The enthusiastic fellow involvement included thoughtful questions during our interactive case-based sessions and the perennial faculty favorite: the fellows’ case presentations. The knowledge base of the fellows continued to impress the faculty and allowed for sophisticated discussions and an exchange of ideas which will hopefully improve the care of our orthopedic patients.”
Through the generous support of Smith & Nephew and Arthrex, the seminar included two hands-on bioskills sessions that allowed the fellows to execute techniques discussed during case discussions and didactic sessions. The fellows enjoyed being able to showcase their abilities and fine-tune their surgical techniques under the guidance of Dr. Bostrom and Dr. Eliasberg. The arthroplasty workshop, which was supported by Smith & Nephew, consisted of two hip and two knee stations at which fellows could practice total hip arthroplasty, total knee arthroplasty, and revision arthroplasty of both hip and knee. During the sports workshop, supported by Arthrex, participants tested their surgical skills with arthroscopic techniques and devices for rotator cuff repairs and meniscus repairs.
We would like to thank the vendors from Smith & Nephew and Arthrex for their collaboration and for supplying their modern equipment for our workshops!
“Converting knowledge into practice is critical for all surgical subspecialties, especially orthopedic surgery, and these sessions allowed this to happen, resulting in better-trained surgeons,” explains Dr. Bostrom.

Angelina Strelkova, MD
OMI fellow from Estonia
“Dr. Christoph Boehler’s lecture on total knee arthroplasty truly stole my heart! I am going to apply new preoperative and intraoperative techniques in my everyday work.”

Marco Antonio Altamirano Cruz, MD
OMI fellow from Mexico
“We performed meniscus repairs using plastic models, and labrum and rotator cuff repairs. The workshop was extremely educational and provided me with knowledge that I can apply in my practice.”

Kryštof Ĺ Ădlo, MD
OMI fellow from Czech Republic
“Dr. Aleksey Dvorzhinskiy gave us an excellent overview of traumatology. It was really interesting to hear about some of the differences in the treatment of fractures in Europe and the US.”