The Weill Cornell Medicine Open Medical Institute (OMI) Seminars in Salzburg began in 1993 as the Salzburg-Cornell Seminars, a collaboration between Weill Cornell Medicine and the American Austrian Foundation (AAF). The mission was to bring state-of-the-art medical knowledge to physicians from former Eastern Bloc countries. Austria was regarded as “a bridge between East and West,” a place where physicians from diverse national backgrounds could come together.
Now sponsored by the Open Medical Institute, the program has since expanded to include seminars conducted by faculty from several other academic medical centers, notably the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Duke University, the Cleveland Clinic, and Columbia University.
The pool of fellows also expanded to include physicians practicing in “countries in transition” in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Building on the success of the seminars, the AAF developed additional medical programs, which include the Satellite Symposia, in which Salzburg Seminar alumni teach courses in their home countries, and an exchange program of observerships that provide hands-on experience in Austrian hospitals for seminar alumni.
The Seminar Series hosts 41 week-long seminars in medical education for junior physicians, 17 of which are fully run by WCM Faculty in key clinical specialties. A full list of the seminar topics can be found here.
Over 20,000 fellows from around the world have attended the series since its launch.
