For our English-speaking readers

ductus reuniens …

… is a blog dedicated exclusively to knowledge transfer in Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery with countries using idioms of  the Serbo-Croatian language. The blog is edited by the Swiss Society of Friends of Otorhinolaryngology (SOF ORL). The Society was founded in 2003 by the Academic Association of teaching hospitals in Aarau, Liestal and Olten with the ORL-HNS Department of the Basel University Hospital (Official designation: ORL-BAL). All details on ORL-BAL and the SOF ORL and its current projects are to be found on the homepage of ORL-BAL . We are a non–profit, private volunteer organisation.

Diffusion of recent literature, as well as clinical and scientific information is slowed down in all countries of the wider region of the Western Balkans by lack of funding, postal uncertainties and predominantly private IT connections, much plagued by the weak telephone system and lack of powerful IT transmission. Our Society believes, that individual exchange of information might alleviate this difficult problem of relative isolation (travel is restricted due to financial and visa problems, especially for Serbia). We firmly believe that transmission of standards in research, publishing and ethics are of special importance to these emerging countries, where the colleagues rarely can undertake individual educational efforts abroad for financial reasons and where hospital funding is extremely rare.

We are constantly in search of collaborators, who share our wish to help specialist colleagues in their endeavour to ameliorate the conditions under which they treat their patients. We were able to motivate a number of  Swiss, British, German, Belgian and Austrian colleagues to visit our couterparts and recieve their trainees in European institutions for stays of several weeks in order to study targeted subjects. In this respect, we are especially indebted to Heinz Stammberger for a yearly demonstrational course in FESS in Graz for 30 trainees from the region free of charge! We are very grateful to all of our friends and hope to enlarge the list further. The great eagerness to learn and implement modern standards of our partners abroad is matched only by their great hospitality to all visitors, which makes this work even more rewarding.

We have also founded a Training Center for ORL in Beograd, Serbia. This institution organises courses in Temporal Bone Preparation, FESS, other operative techniques and also plans to invite foreign guest for seminars. We finance our projects with membership fees and sponsoring contributions by the pharmaceutical and medical instrument industry. Our main corresponding partners in the targeted countries are the official specialist Societies. 

Since 2002 we have motivated for (or facilitatated) a visit, hosted or otherwise introduced friends and colleagues to the region: Klaus Albegger, André Arnoux, Sue Archbold, Daniel àWengen, Thomas Bregenzer, Milanka Drenovak, Marco Caversaccio,  Paul van Cauwenberge, Borka Ceranic, Orlando Guntinas-Lichius, Nicolas Gürtler, Rudolf Häusler, Dasa Herrmannova, Andreas Huber, Thomas Kamber, Andreas Leunig, Francis Marchal, Cem Meco, Philippe Monnier, Gerard O’Donoghue, Rudolf Probst, Richard Ramsden, Marc Remacle, Nevenka Schmid, Nicolas Schmuziger, Heinz Stammberger, Antje Welge-Lüssen and Jeremy Lavy. We are very much indebted to all those who have undertaken the extra effort to participate in this project and who have done this – without exception - free of any charge.   

Interested to join? Contact mihael.podvinec@ksa.ch