Athens Medical Center: The 16th Seminar on Applied Hand and Upper Limb Surgery was successfully held
The 16th Seminar on Applied Hand and Upper Limb Surgery, organized by the Department of Upper Limb Surgery, Orthopedic Reconstructive Microsurgery, of the Athens Medical Center, was held with great success this year in the amphitheater of the Medical Group.
At the official opening of the groundbreaking seminar, the Minister of Health, Mr. Adonis Georgiadis, and the CEO of the Medical Group of Athens, Dr. Vasilis Apostolopoulos, delivered a speech.
The seminar was attended by 32 speakers – trainers, from all the University schools of the country, from NHS clinics and from Private Hospitals, while lectures were also presented by four Professors of Orthopaedics from America. The seminar included demonstration of surgical cases in real time, lectures and practical training on cadaveric hands. Specifically, during the seminar in the Live Surgery section, ten (10) surgeries of different severity and specialization were demonstrated, while in the theoretical section, 38 different topics were analyzed by specialized speakers with proven experience in the field. Finally, all trainees practiced Hand Surgery on cadaveric specimens in two workshops lasting a total of 8 hours.
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| From left: Dr. Vasilis Apostolopoulos, CEO of Iatriko Athens Group, Mr. Adonis Georgiadis, Minister of Health. |
The Minister of Health, Mr. Adonis Georgiadis, emphasized: “The fact that a leading hospital care and health care group, such as the Athens Medical Group, organizes a conference with such a great educational character is a very commendable initiative. It shows, in addition to the ability of the Medical Center to provide health services, also social responsibility so that knowledge is passed on to future generations and other doctors and becomes the property of the scientific community and therefore disseminated for the benefit of the rest of the population and patients.”
The CEO of the Athens Medical Group, Dr. Vasilis Apostolopoulos, stated: “At the Athens Medical Group, our goal is to discuss and transmit the modern knowledge and expertise that is being developed and to be sure that we are always offering the Greek patient the most innovative medicine has to offer.”
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| From left: Mr. Panagiotis Giannakopoulos, Orthopedic, Upper Limb Surgeon, Director of Upper Limb Surgery-Microsurgery at the Athens Medical Center, Dr. Vasilis Apostolopoulos, CEO of Athens Medical Group, Mr. Adonis Georgiadis, Minister of Health, Mr. Diamantis Misitzis, Orthopedic Surgeon of the Upper Extremity, Director of Upper Extremity Surgery-Microsurgery at the Athens Medical Center. |
The organizer of the seminar, Panagiotis Giannakopoulos, Orthopedic Surgeon, Upper Extremity Surgeon, Director of Upper Extremity Surgery-Microsurgery at the Athens Medical Center, stated: “The seminar is educational and includes three sections: the first concerns the demonstration of surgical cases and gives the trainee the opportunity to ask questions and solve his/her doubts during the Surgery. The second includes selected speeches by distinguished scientists from Greece and abroad and the third, an exercise on real hands with the trainees following specific instructions from the trainers.
For his part, the co-organizer of the seminar, Diamantis Misitzis, Orthopedic Surgeon of the Upper Extremity, Director of Upper Extremity Surgery-Microsurgery at the Athens Medical Center at the Athens Medical Center, emphasized: «After 16 years of conducting the Seminar, we have trained 600 colleagues in hand and upper extremity surgery, and we have extensive experience in the practice of Orthopedics and Traumatology in our country. This seminar is pioneering for Greece, as it includes demonstrations of surgical cases in real time, exercises on cadaveric hands and lectures by distinguished speakers.
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| From left: Mr. Theodoros Hamakiotis, General Manager of Athens Medical Center, Mr. Diamantis Misitzis, Orthopedic Surgeon of the Upper Extremity, Director of Upper Extremity Surgery-Microsurgery at the Athens Medical Center, Mr. Panagiotis Giannakopoulos, Orthopedic, Upper Extremity Surgeon, Director of Upper Extremity Surgery-Microsurgery at the Athens Medical Center, Mr. Georgios Patoulis, President of the Athens Medical Association, Mr. Georgios Zerdilas, General Manager of the Athens Medical Group. |
Dr. Konstantinos Konstantinidis, Scientific Director of the Athens Medical Center, said: “We are proud of the Athens Medical Group because we offer education and training, not only in this specific field, but also in many other fields such as robotic surgery. We are particularly pleased that the Athens Medical Group gives us the opportunity to participate in education and training and, above all, to be first and present in the development of technologies and to present our own techniques at international conferences with great success.”
For his part, the President of the Athens Medical Association, Mr. Georgios Patoulis, referred to “the high level of Greek scientists, as well as the important role of the continuing education of doctors.” He also pointed out that “Greece can play a leading role on the medical tourism map, as it has excellent scientific staff and leading, well-equipped hospital units.”
