Editorial Comment: Symposium: Tscherne Festschrift: Editorial Comment

Abstract

Unlike the typical collection of papers generally arranged around a topic, this symposium is arranged around a man. In 1970, Professor Harald Tscherne became the director of the newly created trauma department at the Hannover Medical School [1]. At that time, few considered trauma a specialty, and the management of injured patients was often relegated to junior staff at inconvenient hours. Prehospital care systems were rudimentary at best, and few in medicine were thinking about injury prevention. Prof. Tscherne was quickly recognized as a leading thinker in the young and developing field. The Classic article for this issue [2], first published in 1971, presents concepts so familiar to us now as to seem like medical school text. Yet, they were unique at the time, and brought together basic science and clinical experience to establish the principles of modern trauma care. Through the course of his career, Prof. Tscherne made scholarly contributions across the spectrum of trauma from prevention to rehabilitation. Without question, his most important and lasting contributions have been as a leader and an educator. As such, every article in this collection is authored by a surgeon who spent some period of his or her training in Hannover during the Tscherne years.To visit Hannover Medical School during the Tscherne years was first to be inspired by its efficiency, but ultimately one came away impressed by the culture of innovation and scientific rigor. There are few major trauma centers in Europe and North America that do not begin their day with the Hannover tradition of morning report. Each morning, Prof. Tscherne reviewed the previous day's activity, with each class of trainees arranged from senior to junior behind the chief. Visitors, of which there were always many, were seated likewise with their colleaguesattendings in the front and visitors in the back. Given this first impression of military precision and discipline, it was natural to expect the chief to be close-minded and dogmatic, but this was not the case. He expected his trainees to become innovators in their own right and encouraged them to travel for training and to return to Hannover to become leaders in their focused field. Visitors were welcomed not just as students, but as potential sources of education and information. Prof. Tscherne was committed to developing the best and the brightest leaders and recognized the importance ideas and approaches not necessarily his own.