HHS/NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D., Opens Clinical Oncology Workshop in Croatia

	HHS/NIH Director Eliaz Zerhouni, M.D. (third from right), with (from left to right) Mirko Šamija, Ph.D., Central European Oncology Congress Secretariat, University Hospital for Tumors, Zagreb; Danica Ramljak, D.V.M., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive of Medora Global Consultants; Eduard Vrdoljak, M.D., Ph.D., Center of Oncology, Clinical Hospital of Split; Steven Zivko Pavletic, M.D.; and Boris Labar, M.D., Ph.D., former Dean of the University of Zagreb Medical School.
	HHS/NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D., addresses a workshop on the development strategy for clinical oncology held in Zagreb, Republic of Croatia, from May 11 to 13, 2007.
	HHS/NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, M.D., with Professor Dragan Primorac, M.D., Minister of Science, Education and Sports in the Croatian Government.

May 22, 2007 – The Honorable Elias Zerhouni, M.D., the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), gave opening remarks on May 12, 2007, at a clinical oncology workshop in Zagreb, the capital of the Republic of Croatia.   The purpose of the workshop was to determine strategies for improving treatment of cancer in Croatia. 

Organizers of the two-day workshop included the HHS/NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI); the Croatian Medical Association; the Croatian Oncology Society; the Schoold of Medicine of the University of Zagreb; the Croatian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare; and the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports.  Approximately 150 oncology experts and stakeholders from the United States and the European Union participated in the event.  

During his trip to Croatia, Dr. Zerhouni also met with a number of officials from the Government of Croatia, including the Croatian President, the Honorable Stipe Mesic; the Croatian Deputy Prime-Minister, the Honorable Damir Polancec; and the Minister of Science, Education and Sports, Professor Dragan Primorac, Ph.D., M.D.

Last revised: October 11, 2007