The America for Bulgaria Foundation, Bulgarian technology company SiteGround, Prof. Ivan Mitev Children’s Hospital, and the Bulgarian Pediatric Association presented a new online professional training platform in the field of children’s healthcare—Fundamentals in Pediatric Excellence. The program was developed specifically for Bulgarian doctors and pediatricians by one of the world’s leading university hospitals, Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
The launch event, held on December 3 in Sofia, brought together leading figures in Bulgarian pediatric medicine, including Prof. Dr. Ivan Litvinenko, Chairman of the Bulgarian Pediatric Association; Dr. Blagomir Zdravkov, Executive Director of the Prof. Ivan Mitev Children’s Hospital; and young medical professionals from pediatric clinics in Sofia. Sponsors of the platform were represented by Desislava Taliokova, Executive Director of the America for Bulgaria Foundation and Tenko Nikolov, Managing Partner of SiteGround.
Dr. Susan Bostwick and Dr. Nena Osorio from the Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) Children’s Hospital joined via video link from the US.
The training program includes ten video modules on Weill Cornell’s distance learning platform. It is the result of collaborative work and exchange visits in 2025 between Bulgarian and American medical professionals under a project led by the America for Bulgaria Foundation and Weill Cornell Medicine, with the active participation of the Bulgarian Pediatric Association and in close cooperation with the Prof. Ivan Mitev Children’s Hospital, the Lozenets University Hospital, and the Municipality of Burgas. Significant support for the project was also provided by the Bulgarian technology company SiteGround.
Earlier this year, as part of this project, 11 Bulgarian doctors had the opportunity to visit Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and learn firsthand about the university hospital’s work in medical education and pediatric care. In October, a medical delegation from Weill Cornell Medicine Pediatrics visited Bulgaria for a series of meetings and expert seminars in Sofia, Plovdiv, and Burgas. The topics included improving the quality of children’s healthcare, patient safety, programs for working with children in a hospital setting, and the role of family advisory councils, pediatric palliative care, and others.
For details, see the report by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (in Bulgarian): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfV6UGwK_Wk
