It was the second time our Department in Lviv supervised a Regional Teaching Course, funded by the EAN. The RTC took place from 28-30 May, 2015. First, our organising committee would like to express their appreciation for the great help of the EAN staff with the preparation of our EAN RTC, especially Julia Mayer. We are also very thankful to Professor Theodor Landis who gave us his kind supervision and supported us during all our work.
Overall we had 231 participants from 44 cities in the Ukraine, and 4 attendees came from Moldova. We arranged a large lecture hall to make the performance of the lectures more comfortable for both participants and lectors. However, we had no additional financial ability to rent another 2 small rooms for workshops.
Our RTC followed the structure that brought plenary lectures in the morning followed by workshops in the afternoon.
The sessions of the first day were dedicated to diseases of the peripheral nervous system. The lectures were presented by Prof. Vitalie Lisnic (Moldova), Prof. Christian Krarup (Denmark), Prof. Stefan Evers (Germany) and Prof. Natalia Svyrydova (Ukraine).
The second day focused on headache. The main topics were presented by Prof. Lars Edvinsson (Sweden), Prof. Stefan Evers (Germany), Prof. Astrid Gendolla (Germany) and Prof. Anzhelika Payenok (Ukraine).
The last day was organised as a “free topic day”. During this day, talks by Prof. Theodor Landis (Switzerland), Prof. Fabienne Perren (Switzerland), Prof. Nicholas Gutowski (United Kindom) and Prof. Volodymyr Shevaga (Ukraine) were presented.
All participants appreciated the scientific level and practical value of lectures, as well as presentations performed by speakers (filled out evaluation forms at the end of the course). Participants noted the usefulness of EAN flyers, with the announcement of upcoming conferences, which we handed out with the RTC educational material. Especially educative useful was the abstract book* “KEY NEUROLOGICAL QUESTIONS” (25 pages) and Syllabi of lectures (56 pages), which was appreciated by all participants.
Information on the EAN Regional Teaching Course was even covered in the local TV-news. Professor Vitalie Lisnic, Professor Christian Krarup, Professor Astrid Gendolla and Professor Nicholas Gutowski gave an interview to local journalists on main aims of such RTC performance and perspectives of future collaboration especially for young neurologists.
Participating and scoring in the RTC exam is not obligatory for Ukrainian doctors (professional attestation considers only certificate of participation), but 205 participants took part in the final RTC exam. 73% of participants successfully passed the exam. Average score of correct answers to 60 questions was 42.07±7.23. The lowest score was 26, the highest 57. Probably, the results of the exam were also influenced by the difference between approved medicinal preparations in Ukraine and those used in Europe as well as a somewhat different approach to the diagnosis of the neurologic diseases.
The cultural networking programme included a visit to Lviv National Opera and a Gala dinner at which participants in a friendly warm atmosphere could communicate with each other.
All participating doctors were grateful for such valuable educative event and noted extreme need and usefulness of this type of training, as well as hopes for further meetings with lecturers of the EAN.
(*- to view the Abstract book you have to be logged-in on the EAN website)
Anzhelika Payenok, MD, PhD,
Professor, Chief of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Lviv National Medical University,
Chairperson of the RTC EAN in Lviv (Ukraine)
