American Surgeon of Harvard Medical School, Roy Phitayakorn at Hygeia Hospital

Athens, June 30, 2011

As part of the educational exchange program that has been established between Hygeia Hospital and Harvard Medical School, one more American surgeon completed part of his graduate training in Greece next to Professor Dimitrios Linos at the First Surgical Clinic of Hygeia Hospital.

Roy Phitayakorn, MD, MHPE, is an Instructor in Surgery at Harvard Medical School, where he is also conducting his clinical fellowship in endocrine surgery, as well as a medical education simulation fellowship at the Gilbert Center for Medical Simulation. He is soon to be a regular staff member of Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Linos in collaboration with Dr. Richard Hodin, Director of Endocrine Surgery at MGH, offered the opportunity to Dr. Phitayakorn to complete ​​one month of his endocrine fellowship at Hygeia Hospital. Throughout June, the American surgeon was trained in new techniques that are not applied in M.G.H.

More specifically, Dr. Phitayakorn became acquainted with new surgical techniques, such as the minimally invasive thyroidectomy (MIT), which is internationally established by Dr. Linos, as well as the pioneering retroperitoneal endoscopic adrenalectomy that his team implements.

In fact, the study «Impact of posterior retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomy in a tertiary care center: a paradigm shift» (A. Kiriakopoulos, KP Economopoulos, E. Poulios, D. Linos) was recently published in Surgical Endoscopy, suggesting that this technique is the most appropriate surgical approach for tumors of the adrenal glands.

It is great honor not only for Hygeia Hospital, but for Greece as well, that a surgeon from one of the best clinical and educational centers of the world comes to Greece to learn new techniques which he would not have the opportunity to learn elsewhere.