HealthManagement, Volume 8 - Issue 3, 2008
Prof. Juerg Hodler
On Behalf of the IDKD
Scientifi c Directors
Orthopaedic University
Hospital Balgrist
Department of Radiology
Zurich, Switzerland
The case-based International Diagnostic Course (IDKD) in Davos celebrates its 40th birthday in 2008. The course is always fully booked. Additional expansion is hardly possible due to room constraints at the Davos congress centre. In addition, the IDKD should not grow too much in order to be able to maintain the “spirit of Davos” which includes the possibility to meet teachers and other colleagues face-to-face.
IDKD has discussed for quite some time to offer an additional course outside of Switzerland at a different time of the year. This would increase participant choices and would also provide economies of scale. Investments in IDKD-specific software (classroom viewer, electronic teacher evaluation, voting system and others) have steadily increased. Distribution of the cost over additional courses is desirable.
Why Organise an IDKD Course in Greece?
There is an increasing interest from Southeastern European, Eastern European and Mediterranean countries in postgraduate educatio. For them, Greece may be easier to reach or may better fit climate preferences. Greek radiologists have been very supportive with regard to an IDKD course in their country which is for instances demonstrated by the local advisory board helping with the organisation. Greece also offers an excellent infrastructure, a flair for informatics which is crucial for IDKD and a world-renowned cultural heritage.
Course Concept for IDKD in Greece
The concept of the Greece course is the same as in Davos. This means that there are case-based, interactive workshops presented by a top faculty. The workshop teachers for the 2008 course in Greece have been selected from the 2007 chest course faculty in Davos. They will give 75 minutes workshops concentrated in early morning and late afternoon. As in Davos, there will be highlight lectures before the noon break. However, the course will be shorter than its parent in Switzerland (three instead of six days) and the number of topics has been reduced from 21 to 12.
Course Details
Course dates are September 25-28, 2008. The course is held in Anavyssos on the Sounion peninsula. The city of Athens, Cape Sounion and the Athens airport can be reached by car within 30 - 60 minutes. The course hotel (www.plaza-resort.com) provides the infrastructure required for IDKD and also provides 5* comfort. Additional hotels will be offered for budget travellers.
Course registration has started on February 29, 2008 and is available on www.idkd.org. Reduced early bird rates are available till June 15, 2008. Participants will receive the 2007 teaching case collection (80+ cases) on CD ROM and the 2007 high quality course syllabus with more than 200 pages of up-to-date information.
Workshops subjects include: CT diagnosis of management of focal lung disease (Peter Armstrong,UK), plain flim and CT evaluation of the adult mediastinum and hilum (Sanjeev Bhalla, US), applications of MR imaging in cardiac disease (Didier Revel, FR), cardiac and pericardiac imaging for the chest radiologist (Albert De Roos, NL), plain film and HRCT diagnosis of interstitial lung disease (Tomas Franquet, ES), imaging of pulmonary infections (Philip C. Goodman, US), acute and chronic airways diseases (Philippe Grenier, FR), CT and CT-nuclear imaging of the heart (Philip A. Kaufmann, CH), chest manifestations of systemic diseases (Ella Kazerooni, US), current concepts in the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer (Jeremy Erasmus, US), a systematic approach to chest x-ray analysis (Katerina Malagari, GR), imaging of chest trauma (Robert Novelline, US). Highlight lectures are presented by Dimitris Karnabatidis (GR), Dimitrios Siablis (GR), Maria Pomoni-Grammenou (GR) and Walter Weder (CH).
Contact Information
MCI, Zurich office, Flughofstrasse 54
8152 Zurich-Glattbrugg, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)44 809 42 80; fax: +41 (0) 44 809 42 01
e-mail: [email protected]
