Dr. Jesus de Santiago shares his impression and experience from his EFIC Fellowship in Tel Aviv, an excellent opportunity for young professionals to enhance their training in the diagnosis, treatment and management of pain related conditions.
Are you a member of one of our EFIC chapters and want to learn more about this opportunity? Visit our EFIC Fellowship page and read about Jesus experience below!
“This fellowship took place at the Chronic and Acute Pain Centre, Tel Aviv Medical Centre, Pain Institute and the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis Research and Treatment, which is part of the Israeli National Health System, and it was led by Dr. Brill. The fellowship lasted 4 weeks and it was an ‘observership’ type, since I was not registered in the Israeli Medical Council.
During the mornings, I attended the clinics, and although most of the Israeli patients spoke very well English, the language barrier was a problem. This barrier was however solved with the translation to English by the main physician and with a computer personal translator. I was able to attend a great variety of different pain clinics, for instance: oncology, myofascial syndromes, psychology clinic (CBT), headache clinic, acupuncture, chiropractor, and general chronic pain clinic. I was also able to attend to the different MDTs (multidisciplinary pain teams) of oncology and neurosurgery. I also had the opportunity to assist the Cannabis Clinic, where patients were given information and advice about their treatments.
I had the excellent chance to continue my formation in Medical Cannabis first, by being invited to the Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Cannabinoid Research at the University of Technion (Haifa), and secondly, by being invited by BOL Pharma, where I learned all the processes related to the cannabis industry, from cultivation, production, extraction to product development. I was able to see all the different aspects of Medical cannabis: basic research, growing agriculture, pharmaceutical industry, and the clinic. In the afternoons, I usually attended different procedures, for cervical and lumbar back pain treatment, radicular and peripheral neuropathic pain, oncology pain and osteoarthritis pain treatment.”
Dr. Jesus de Santiago, 2019 EFIC Pain Fellow
