Microsurgery 101: Tips and Tricks for Microvascular and Peripheral Nerve Repair Techniques

Dr Yelena Akelina (DVM, MS) is Doctor of Veterinary Medicine by Moscow Veterinary Academy (1987) and Master of Toxicology by Moscow Research Institute of Veterinary Sanitation (1991). She completed both Basic and Advanced Microsurgery Educational courses in Columbia University (1997).

Dr Akelina started her career as a clinical veterinary doctor in Russia from 1987-1991 and immigrate in USA in 1992. From 1996 to present she started working at the Microsurgery Training and Research Laboratory at the dept of Orthopedic Surgery, Columbia University, NY. During her early days in the lab, she travelled to the most prominent training centers in US and learned the basic aspects of teaching microsurgery from the "fathers of education in microsurgery" such as Drs. Robert Acland, Frank Allen, Brian Cooley and Hanry Buncke. Dr. Yelena created and implemented her own training program based on her knowledge learned and her own experience and presented it all over the world in many national and international conferences.

The Microsurgery Laboratory at Columbia University has become one of the most prominent and world known training centers in microsurgery and taught mor then 4000 students from more than 70 countries and from 12 surgical specialties.

Dr Akelina helped organized training centers and trained surgeons as an invited faculty at many countries in South and North America, Australia, and many European counties. She taught more than 200 international courses during her career.

In 2011 she became a co-founder of the International Microsurgery Simulation Society, headquartered in Royal Hospital in London where she saw a honorary lecturer at that time. This networking society now consists of many educators in microsurgery from 60 countries and held its 11 annual meetings in conjunction with world known congresses for plastic and reconstructive surgery. Dr Akelina is an active member and a board member for education for many scientific societies in reconstructive microsurgery and robotic microsurgery around the world.

In 2007 Dr Akelina created an educational mentorship program for the postbac students at Columbia University and supports young pre-meds to choose their medical career and learn about medicine and surgery while they are studying and after they accepted in medical schools. Performing as PI and supervising her students, she successfully completed many research projects and published 45 peer-review papers since her work in the lab.

As a recognition for her outstanding lifetime contribution to microsurgery Yelena was awarded a Sun Lee Award in 2023 in Genoa during 16th annual Congress for the International Society for Experimental Microsurgery. This award was an honorably recognition for her distinguished career as an educator in microsurgery.

As her personal interest, in 2019 Yelena stated the life coaching business and successful created, developed and implemented few online courses for Neuroscience in Emotional Intelligence in partnership with Dr. Justin James Kennedy, neuroscientist, author, executive coach from Munich, Germany. Together they taught more than 30 students and developed a community forum NEQ for MDs to continue supporting health care professionals in learning about EQ. She is working toward widening horizons for such forum to the greater audience to improve mental wellbeing for many more people.

Dr Alberto Ballest?n (DVM, MSc, PhD) is Doctor of Veterinary Medicine by the University of Extremadura (2011), University Master's degree in research in health sciences (2014) and PhD on Applied Biomedical Research (2018).

From 2012 to 2020 he worked at the Microsurgery Unit of the CCMIJU (C?ceres, Spain). In 2015, he completed 3-month predoctoral stay at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University (New York, USA). In 2018, he defended his doctoral thesis obtaining the qualification of Outstanding Cum Laude and the Extraordinary Doctorate Prize with the highest score awarded by the University (100/100). In January 2021 he moved to work at the Tumor Microenvironment Laboratory of the Institut Curie (Orsay - Paris, France), where he studied the underlying molecular mechanisms of chemo and radioresistance of glioblastoma.

He has participated on different research teams in large European research projects (financed by the European Research Council, or by the Institut National du Cancer of France among others) but as well he has shown leadership as Principal Investigator obtaining grants and fellowships at regional, national and international levels. Among them, the prestigious Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by the European Commission stands out. It is perhaps the most important postdoctoral contract in Europe and one of the most competitive in the world. Thanks to this European contract, he currently works between two of the world leading institutions in oncology, the Institut Curie (Paris, France) and the Netherlands Cancer Institute (Amsterdam, Netherlands).

During his career he has published many papers in top scientific journals, as well as different chapters and international books. He has also been a reviewer for multiple scientific journals and is author of a patent. He has defended his studies in numerous conferences and has been invited/keynote speaker in countless countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia. Some of these works have been recognized with 9 national and international awards among which stand out: Scellentia Award (Caja de Extremadura Foundation, 2023), MSCA Seal of Excellence Horizon2020 (European Commission, 2022); Robert Zhong Award (International Society for Experimental Microsurgery, 2022), British Journal of Surgery Award (SEIQ, 2016); Best young researcher (SEIQ, 2015); Best Research Paper Prize (International Microsurgery Simulation Society, 2014).

He combines research work with teaching activity, having been faculty of around 100 courses in world leading institutions - like CCMIJU (Spain), Columbia University (USA), Karolinska Institute (Sweden), Hospedale Antonio Cardarelli (Italy), Tomsk University (Russia), Ukraine Microsurgery School (Ukraine), etc. - related to microsurgery in which about 1200 surgeons have been trained. At the same time, he has collaborated as faculty on 6 master's degrees from different universities. And he has been an active member of several Scientific Societies (AEM, EFSM, ISEM, EARC, EANO, etc.) having had roles on the boards of directors of several of them.