HSS Hosts Training Seminar for Greek Surgeons

A group of 16 surgeons from Greece received high-level training at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) during an annual seminar dedicated to teaching the latest techniques and innovations in complex primary total hip and knee replacement. The event, which commenced in 2006, is known as the HSS Stavros Niarchos Foundation Orthopaedic Seminar Program.

HSS hip and knee surgeons Drs. Michael Cross and Peter Sculco served as moderators this year, and oversaw two days of didactic sessions, case consultations, roundtable discussions, hands-on workshops and operating room observation at HSS. The event, held November 28 and 29, 2017, focuses on visiting Greek surgeons with under 10 years of experience.

Last year, HSS received a $925,000 grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) that is supporting professional development programs, such as this, for Greece’s orthopedic surgeons. HSS and the Foundation have had a longstanding relationship lasting over a decade.

Dr. Cross told OTW, “The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Orthopaedic Seminar Program allows for a high-level exchange of orthopaedic knowledge between top surgeons from Greece and from HSS. Through this exchange, our friendship and collaboration with the best surgeons in Greece have continued to grow. By providing both a didactic session on complex problems in total hip and knee arthroplasty, and a ‘hands on’ cadaveric lab, we are not only able to exchange knowledge in a lecture hall but also to share our surgical experience as well. Providing both surgical training and medical exchange of knowledge is a real benefit to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Orthopaedic Seminar Program.”

“I think the future success of the program will depend on the top surgeons from Greece going back in to their communities, and striving to be leaders in their particular hospital and region. We hope they will continue to pursue to be academic, and we hope we can collaborate on research and case discussions in the future. We try to choose those surgeons from Greece who will have the greatest impact on their communities. The group each year has been fantastic, and are true leaders in Greece so I am confident the program will continue to grow and be successful.”