Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Mexican Society of Neurosurgery co-hosted a day-long conference on brain tumor management in Mexico this month, an unusual joint venture the planners hope will be a model for continuing medical education programs covering a wide range of medical specialties in that country.

Henry Brem, head of neurosurgery at Hopkins, and four senior Hopkins colleagues travelled to Puerto Vallarta for the program, developed in conjunction with Johns Hopkins Medicine International and the Continuing Medical Education (CME) arm of Johns Hopkins.

“This is the first time that CME credits were made available to Mexican physicians,” says Brem, referring to courses accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education in the United States.

The curriculum for the conference, which took place at the Westin Regina, covered brain cancer stem cell research, the biology of primary tumors, minimally invasive brain surgery, brain cancer genomics and spinal cord tumors, among other topics.

Attendees from Hopkins, in addition to Brem, were Alfredo Quiñones, M.D., Rafael Tamargo, M.D., George Jallo, M.D., and Gregory Riggins, M.D., Ph.D.

Quiñones, a native of Mexico who worked picking vegetables in California before attending medical school at Harvard, was co-director of the event along with neurosurgeon Rodrigo Ramos Zuñiga, M.D., a native of Mexico who is a faculty member of the University of Guadalajara. Luis Davila Maldonado of the National Institutes of Health, Mexico, also a native of Mexico, spoke at the event as well.

“It is an honor to return to my native country and participate in such an important event,” says Quiñones.

Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI) works to improve global health by setting an international standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care.

More information can be found at: http://www.hopkinsneuro.org/brain_tumor/images/Brain%20Tumor%20Flier.pdf