A surgeon encounters a tough cardiac case and needs a second opinion. Or perhaps she wants to explore minimally invasive surgery for a faster recovery. While she could consult with her Johns Hopkins colleagues remotely, nothing beats the richness of a face-to-face connection to share knowledge and find solutions.
We connect Johns Hopkins clinicians with our global affiliates through several programs, fostering learning and collaboration.
The Distinguished Faculty Visit Program at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare in Saudi Arabia allows senior Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) faculty members to meet with their peers there, provide clinical insight, and deliver educational talks to JHAH clinicians as well as to the community through Grand Rounds and outreach events. The program has increased its clinical scope over the years, with JHM faculty members now meeting with JHAH physicians to discuss cases and oversee surgical procedures.
At Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá in Colombia, we have established the Visiting Professor Program, in which each department at the hospital can invite JHM leaders in their specialty to lecture and hold roundtable discussions and meetings. In recent years, the hospital has invited other physicians from across their country to attend select lectures offered as part of the program.
Every other month Clemenceau Medical Center, in Lebanon, hosts orthopedic lectures. For more than five years, Johns Hopkins and Clemenceau physicians have connected through videoconferencing to discuss cases and share best practices.
To support physicians at Pacífica Salud Hospital Punta Pacífica in Panama, we launched a visiting professors series to offer lectures in various medical specialties. During the visits, Johns Hopkins faculty members also participate in rounds and complex case discussions with their Panamanian counterparts — ultimately sparking areas for additional collaboration.
“Most of medicine is personal relationships — whether it’s with patients or with other providers,” says Jonathan Efron, a JHM colorectal surgeon and distinguished faculty visitor at JHAH. “So the face-to-face meetings and the friendships you form through visiting faculty programs really enhance collaborative efforts.”
