In the medical field, there is no question about the necessity for continuing medical education. However, this is difficult to achieve in countries where information is distributed slowly, government funding is poor and resources often do not exist for the reeducation of professionals.

Beginning in 2003, the Fund for Armenian Relief Fellowship Alumni Association (FARFAA) began administering the Salzburg Medical Seminars Program in Armenia. FARFAA is a volunteer medical professionals organization, established in 2000 by doctors and healthcare workers who participated in FAR's Medical Fellowship Program at major medical centers in the U.S. and Canada between 1991 and 1997, that seeks to improve healthcare in Armenia by offering physicians a forum for the exchange of medical knowledge and information from around the world, thereby empowering physicians to gain greater personal and professional perspectives.

The Salzburg Medical Seminars, a program of the Open Medical Institute (OMI) of the American Austrian Foundation, have become the largest educational program for doctors in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the former Soviet Union. The Salzburg approach aims to educate a select group of English-speaking medical professionals who have a strong desire and clear ability to learn the latest advances in the medical field, and who can, in turn, share their gained knowledge and techniques with their peers.

Armenia's relationship with the Salzburg Medical Seminars spans a decade. "Since 1996, 185 doctors have gone to Salzburg where they have had the opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills in the best Austrian Medical Centers and to learn advances in the medical field from U.S. faculty members. These physicians then returned to Armenia and shared their new knowledge with others," said Dr. Bella Grigoryan, coordinator of the FARFAA-Salzburg Medical Program who is a Salzburg and FAR Fellow alumna.

Given the success of this method, FARFAA decided to replicate the model of the OMI Salzburg Medical Seminars in Armenia by organizing local seminars in Yerevan, Vanadzor and Stepanakert. Its first local seminar, hosted in 2003, met with such an overwhelming positive response that FARFAA has since organized more than 25 sessions. Topics have included Atipic Pneumonia, Hepatitis C, Bone and Joint Trauma Surgery, Outcomes Research, and other pertinent subjects to Armenian medicine today.

From an educational standpoint, these local seminars are especially important because they efficiently bring medical information right to the doorstep of Armenian physicians. FARFAA's April 2004 seminar titled "Advances in Stroke Management" with keynote speaker Dr. Norbert Negoghossian of the Claude Bernard University in Lyon, France, was presented to more than 200 physicians from all the provinces of Armenia and Karabagh.

A Satellite Symposium in Anesthesiology, jointly organized by OMI and FARFAA, took place on July 25-26, 2005 in Yerevan. Sponsored by the Open Medical Institute and FAR, the Symposium attracted faculty from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. About 150 anesthesiologists, from different hospitals throughout Armenia, from the capital and the provinces, attended. Some of the lectures during the Symposium included Opioids and Chronic Pain, Neuropathic Pain: Current Concepts, Interventional Pain Management (by Dr. Sudhir Diwan), Overview of Neonatal Physiology and Anesthesia, Pediatric Airway Interventional Pain Management, and Management of Congenital Cardiac Problem for Non-cardiac Surgery (by Dr. Aarti Sharma).

By mid-2005, FARFAA had garnered FAR's support to launch new a CME Program in Armenia targeting doctors practicing in Armenia's provinces and Karabagh. Modeled on the OMI Salzburg Medical Seminars, physicians from Armenia's provinces are invited to Yerevan for one month, where they are mentored by FAR and Salzburg Fellow alumni to improve their clinical skills. They are also taught English and computer skills. To date, 32 doctors have been trained and two have recently qualified to attend a Salzburg Medical Seminar thanks to this training. The new CME Program also has the backing of the Jinishian Memorial Foundation.

Physicians in Armenia applaud FARFAA for more reasons than the availability of seminars in Armenia. "I look for any chance to be trained, mainly to improve my skills and to help the other trainers and doctors as well. I am sure that with OMI's and FARFAA's help, and with the dedication of other doctors like me, we will be able to make great advances in Armenia's healthcare system," explained Anoush Nerssisian, a 2005 Salzburg Fellow 2005 from Sisian.

Dr. Gevorg Yaghjyan, the FARFAA Local Seminars Coordinator and the CME Program Director, is a Salzburg and FAR Fellow alumnus. "By implementing a model of the OMI Salzburg Medical Seminars, FARFAA is providing a wonderful network for doctors to become informed about new achievements in the field of medicine. It sponsors the education of physicians from different regions of Armenia, using the knowledge and experience of former Salzburg and FAR Fellows," said Dr. Yaghjyan.

FARFAA activities meet great support from Salzburg Medical Program OMI leaders in Austria. "I would like to convey my appreciation to the Salzburg Fellows who are living examples of philanthropy! Our objective was to train the best of the best in Salzburg and we expected that they would help their colleagues, just as they were helped by their American colleagues. It is great that you have been able to implement this in Armenia! Keep up the excellent work!," added Katharine Eltz Aulitzy, OMI director.