Malta recently saw its first international postgraduate course dedicated to functional and aesthetic surgery of the nose.
The first Mediterranean Rhinoplasty course was inaugurated recently at the Mediterranean Conference Centre by Education Minister Dolores Cristina.
The Minister underlined the high local medical standards that go back to the Order of the Knights of St John and said government was committed to keep up this tradition of excellence in the medical field.
Mrs Cristina added that for years Malta has had the human and physical resources to act as a centre of postgraduate learning. The teaching and exchange of surgical concepts and techniques at such a high level will serve for the benefit of patients in this demanding field. "Surgery has advanced to the stage where we no longer talk about mortality but about quality of life outcomes to our procedures," the minister said.
She welcomed the idea of bringing an international faculty of professors from the European Academy of Facial Plastic surgery, as this helps local trainee doctors fulfil their training goals in Malta instead of going through the expense and inconvenience of travelling to other countries.
The course is being held under the auspices of the European Academy and of the Malta Institute for Medical Education - an institute housed in this same conference centre with the aim of accelerating the diffusion of best evidence-based medical information and fostering interaction and discussion among healthcare providers, using the latest information technology.
Surgeon and course director Adrian Agius welcomed the foreign teaching faculty, and also the 46 participating surgeons from all over the world.
The meeting was conducted under the auspices of the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery and the Malta Institute for Medical Education and featured didactic lectures, live nasal surgery, anatomic laboratory dissection sessions and a Botox demonstration workshop. Teacher of honour was Prof. Gilbert Nolst Trenite, from the Amsterdam Medical Centre.