Arranging a professional visit when travelling
A professional visit can add teaching, learning and contact with colleagues to travel planned for other reasons. Arranging access and explaining the purpose of the visit can create an opportunity to discuss medical publications and meet the people who produce them.
Contact and scheduling
A medical communicator planning a tour of Egypt searched online for hospitals and chose the Theodor Bilharz Research Institute in Giza because it was the largest and offered the most diverse services. Its website listed hospital and outpatient services, eight clinical research departments, twelve research divisions, medical laboratory services and a nursing school. Emails were blocked and telephone calls disconnected, but the tour company forwarded the request directly and a welcoming response arrived four days before departure from the microbiology department head, who was also the institute journal's editorial secretary.
A flight delay caused the visitor to miss her original appointment, but the host accommodated the changed schedule and provided a car, driver and escort. The journey from the hotel took forty minutes, while the return took three hours, mostly in stationary traffic.
Purpose and discussion
The visitor explained, both in her email and on arrival, that she was not selling medical-communication services but hoped to tell her professional society's members about the institution's publications. Her first question asked about the publication process, and the hosts showed the organisation chart's Information and Documentation Centre and copies of recent publications. More than an hour's discussion covered journal articles, book chapters, grant proposals, lectures and slide and video presentations before the hosts suggested a tour.
The tour included a surgical teaching meeting, the Information and Documentation Centre and library, and a meeting with the institute's president, who welcomed the visitors despite an interrupted meeting. Three senior women had welcomed the visitor in the first office, and the institute's president was also a woman; the visitor was surprised by women's evident acceptance as medical professionals there.
Continuing contact
By the closing conversation, the hosts felt like colleagues to the visitor, and they invited her to return and consider presenting a medical-writing workshop. Arranging a session to teach, learn or simply meet colleagues during travel offers an opportunity for new friendships and creative ventures.