February 1, 2008

Broadcast from Baghdad

As part of an American physician delegation, Laurence Ronan, MD, of MGH Internal Medicine Associates and director of the Thomas S. Durant, MD, Fellowship in Refugee Medicine, attended the First National Conference on Continuing Professional Development in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 11 and 12. Ronan met with Gen. David Petraeus, commanding general of the Multi-National Forces in Iraq, to discuss the MGH's contributions to Iraq's reconstruction efforts. The MGH plans to broadcast Medical Grand Rounds to four Iraqi hospitals in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and Erbil. The conference was attended by more than 400 Iraqi physicians, the Iraqi Minister of Health Salin Mahdi Motlab Al-Hasanawi, MD; U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker; and U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, S. Ward Casscells, MD. Pictured above, from left, are Michael Brennan, MD, president-elect of the American Opthalmological Society; Bud Alpert, MD, of the Department of Plastic Surgery at the University of California in San Francisco; Petraeus and Ronan.