Associate Professor Martin Dominkus, Assistant Head of the Department of Orthopaedics at the Medical University of Vienna and Univ. Prof. Ernst Horcher, Head of Clinical Department of Paediatric Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna, made their expert know-how available to Libyan colleagues on an instructional basis. 

The cooperative project between the Medical University of Vienna International (MUVI) and the Tripoli Medical Center (TMC) which was started in spring 2007 includes, in addition to consultation in the fields of staff training, work-flow management and support in investment-related decisions, the establishment of SOP's and teaching operations in specific areas. 

In keeping with current needs at the Libyan hospital in the fields of tumour orthopaedics and paediatric surgery, the first event of knowledge transfer by MedUni Vienna was held in December 2007. Assistant Professor Martin Dominkus, Assistant Head of the Department of Orthopaedics, and Univ. Prof. Ernst Horcher, Head of the Clinical Department of Paediatric Surgery - both top specialists in their fields - went to Tripoli (Libya) to operate on patients who had been especially prepared for this assignment. 

As TMC intends to integrate tumour orthopaedics into the spectrum of their own Department of Orthopaedics, a tumour course on diagnosis and therapy options for bone and soft tissue tumours was organised specifically for the doctors of this department. In the practical section, a ventral vertebrectomy of the lumbar spine and further operations on extremities in patients with osteosarcomas were performed. 

In general the commitment of both specialists of the MedUni was appreciated as an outstanding phenomenon. On 12th December 2007 "Al-Shams", the daily newspaper of Libya, reported in detail about the successful operations of the two Austrian clinicians together with a group of Libyan doctors. 

TMC is a public hospital with about 1300 beds, 1000 physicians and approximately 3000 employees. In the summer of 2006 the Libyan government allocated a budget of about 800 million dinars (approximately. 470 million euros) specifically for projects and plans in the health sector. Preference is given to non-Libyan consultants and universities, who are selected to bring international know-how and best-practice methods to Libya.