From July 4 to August 26, 2022 Tbilisi State Medical University Department of Endocrinology Assistant Professor Karen Grigoryan underwent internship at the University Hospital of Innsbruck within the framework of bilateral agreement between Tbilisi State Medical University and the Medical University of Innsbruck. 

TSMU Assistant Professor spent the first part of the internship at the Endocrinology Outpatient Clinic of Internal Medicine Department. He was introduced to management techniques of patients suffering from a rare endocrine pathology - adrenocortical carcinoma. Karen Grigoryan spent the second part of internship at the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the University Clinic. “In contrast to Georgia, in some European countries including Austria and Germany patients suffering from thyroid diseases are managed by a nuclear medicine specialist along with an endocrinologist. Therefore, it was interesting to find out how patients are managed by thyroid nuclear medicine specialists. We used to discuss thyroid ultrasonography, scintigraphy and laboratory data with the assistants of a doctor. I was encouraged to attend boards by the nuclear medicine doctors where contemporary laboratory methods and complex oncological cases were discussed” said Karen Grigoryan. 

The internship program was organized by Tbilisi State Medical University and supported by Dr. Irma Kvitsaridze Honorary Doctor of TSMU, Senior Doctor at Radiation Therapy and Radiooncology Center of the Medical University of Innsbruck.

“I want to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Zurab Vadachkoria, Rector of TSMU and Dr. Irma Kvitsaridze for their support” Karen Grigoryan highlighted. 

Prospects for collaboration between the University Hospital of Innsbruck and Tbilisi State Medical University were outlined. In particular, a collaborative research was planned to be conducted in the field of managing patients suffering from a rare endocrine pathology - adrenocortical carcinoma.