Regional teaching course of the European Academy of Neurology
6-8.10.2016 Kutaisi, Republic of Georgia
Organized by
The European Academy of Neurology
Akaki Tsereteli University
EVEX Hospital Chain
The regional teaching course took place in Kutaisi, Republic Georgia and was dedicated to headache, stroke and general Neurology.
We first would like to thank the EAN for supporting this event, the faculty for excellent lectures and hands-on courses and especially to Mrs. Julia Mayer, who helped to make it happen.
The first day was dedicated to “headache”. Well known headache experts such as Prof. Straube, Munich, Prof. Ashina, Copenhagen and Prof. Katsarava, Essen together with the local partner Dr. Gegelashvili covered important aspects of the diagnoses and management of primary headaches such as migraine, tension-type headache and trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias and medication overuse headache and trigeminal neuralgia.
The second day was dedicated to “stroke”. Prof. Vosko, Linz, Prof. Jauß, Mühlhausen and Prof. Katsarava lectured about acute and preventative treatment of stroke. Dr. Svobodova, Brno introduced the idea of simulation training for stroke treatment and Prof. Katsarava, Essen introduced several aspects of geriatric medicine. The second day was completed by two hands-on courses on neurosonology and EMG, taught by Prof. Jauß and Prof. Toyka. Both hands-on courses were greatly appreciated by the participants.
During the last day we talked about Mental health (Prof. Landis, Lausanne), Neurological examination (Prof. Toyka, Würzburg), Multiple Sclerosis (Prof. Siva, Istanbul) and Epilepsy (Prof. Okujava, Tbilisi).
The course was attended by 185 doctors, mostly neurologists, but also internal medicine, emer-gency medicine and general practitioners. Their feed-back was full of gratitude and excitement. In particular, the attendants were happy to have interactive lectures and the hands-on courses. Our meeting gave an opportunity to colleagues to come together to create, strengthen and reformu-late links of collaboration with each other and more important with the Faculty. Our main goal was to open new windows to scientific exchange in reflecting new perspectives and the implicit challenges. We believe that the meeting was stimulating, fruitful and it contributed to a better understanding of the neurological diseases.
Several young neurologists from the new established Georgian nerve-muscular and EMG Society established connections to Prof. Toyka, who promised to supervise their work. One of Georgian doctors applied for a EAN clinical fellowship to Prof. Toyka. Several others became interested in Geriatric medicine and applied for the EAN clinical fellowship to visit Prof. Katsarava.
We also organized some social activities and the Gala Dinner in the evening to create a relaxing atmosphere for the participants and the faculty.
I would like to express my admiration to the quality of the simultaneous translation. Invited inter-preters did an immense work during the preparation of the RTC. All lectures had been studied be-fore to be able to help our participants to properly understand the professors.
Overall the teaching course achieved its main aim to transfer the knowledge to young doctors. It was another step in a long process to improve medical service in Georgia.
Prof. Dr. Zaza Katsarava is head of Neurology Clinic in Unna, Germany, as well as vice-president of the European Headache Federation
