WCMC-Q Introduces Live Grand Rounds from New York

The live grand rounds broadcast gives the audience in Doha access to
the latest information presented by experts in their field and inspires
discussion between the two WCMC campuses.

WCMC-Q students, faculty and colleagues from Hamad Medical Corporation gathered in a lecture hall in Doha recently to experience the first live Surgery Grand Rounds broadcast from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

The first of a weekly, two-month pilot series, the Grand Rounds lecture was an “Update on Pancreas Transplantation,” by Dr. Jose Figueiro, assistant professor of surgery in the division of transplantation surgery at WCMC-NY.

Dr. Figueiro is responsible for a huge leap in the number of pancreas transplant surgeries performed at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Last Year, under his direction, 30 transplants were performed, compared to 101 performed between 1996 and 2008.

The WCMC-Q audience viewed the live broadcast on a projection screen showing two views—one of Dr. Figueiro speaking at a podium and one of his PowerPoint slides. After his lecture, which focused on the three main types of pancreas transplants, he answered questions from attendants in New York and Doha.

Dr. Bakr Nour, professor of surgery and acting chief of clinical affairs at WCMC-Q, and vice chair of surgery at WCMC, hosted the grand rounds from the WCMC-Q lecture. He posed a question about immune suppressing drugs that have recently received much attention in literature. Dr. Figueiro answered his question promptly in real time for both audiences to hear, saying that the drug may be gathering a lot of attention, but he wouldn’t recommend it.

“WCMC-NY is an Ivy League school with the best educational resources,” said Dr. Nour. “By chance, all of the November Grand Rounds speakers are from New York, but they often invite top doctors in their fields from Stanford or Harvard, and other top medical schools to speak. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to be able to follow these talks.”

Dr. Nour hosted the hour-long session by briefly introducing the broadcast to the audience and following it up with a brief recap and discussion. WCMC-Q doctors and students stayed for 40 minutes after the live broadcast to ask questions and discuss the topic with Dr. Nour. They even began discussing next week’s topic, resident work hours.

The broadcast of Surgery Grand Rounds has the enthusiastic support of Dr. Fabrizio Michelassi, chairman of the Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The schedule for upcoming live surgery grand rounds follows:

11/9/2009
"Resident Debate: Resident Work Hours"
Glen Shapiro, MD & Stephen Broderick, MD
Chief Residents, Department of Surgery
Weill Cornell Medical College

11/16/2009
“Esophageal Cancer: The Role of Surgery and Multimodality Therapy”
Nasser K. Altorki, MD
David B. Skinner Professor of Thoracic Surgery
Weill Cornell Medical College

11/23/2009
"Gone Fishing for Regenerative Medicine: at the Intersection of Stem Cell Biology and Surgery"
Todd Evans, PhD
Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Surgery
Weill Cornell Medical College

11/30/2009
"Advances in Reconstructive Breast Surgery"
Mia Talmor, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery
Weill Cornell Medical College

Report by Emily Alp