BSF Launches New Program to Provide Post-Graduate Educational Opportunities to Neurosurgeons in Developing Countries 

February 2008 - The Brain Science Foundation (BSF) has launched a new educational program that will provide paid fellowships for senior residents, postgraduate fellows, or recently graduated neurosurgeons in developing countries to spend four months as observers in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a designated World Federation Training Center of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS).

The BWH Department of Neurosurgery is a recent addition to the WFNS’ international network of Training Centers that includes sites in the USA, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Japan, China and Saudi Arabia, among other countries. A WFNS-appointed screening committee will select finalists from a pool of international applicants. During their time at BWH, fellows will observe BWH’s multidisciplinary team of distinguished brain tumor experts incorporate innovative technologies and the latest treatments and therapies for the excellent care of meningioma and other brain tumor patients.

A key component of the BSF’s mission is to generate interest and excitement around the research, diagnosis and treatment of all intracranial tumors with particular emphasis on meningiomas. The BSF has sponsored several programs at the BWH designed to expand the number of investigators in the field of brain tumor research by supporting researchers in the early stages of their careers as well as seasoned researchers who are working on translational research and/or novel, scientific approaches for which securing funding is often challenging.

Through the Brain Science Foundation International Fellows Program, the BSF will now advance such critical educational initiatives on an international scale, at a time when the neurosurgical community is cultivating a global approach to brain tumors and other neurosurgical sub-specialties.

This collaboration with the BWH Department of Neurosurgery and the WFNS also supports a core component of the WFNS mission to promote the worldwide development of Neurosurgery by undertaking the challenges of neurosurgical issues in developing countries. Post-graduate neurosurgical education is one of these issues, as many neurosurgeons in developing countries do not have the opportunity to attend large national meetings where they can benefit from the exchange of ideas and up-to-date information as well as from the interaction with faculty and experts.

In the fall of 2007, Dr. Peter Black, PhD, a BSF Trustee, was elected President-Elect of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS), a professional and scientific nongovernmental organization composed of five continental associations, 89 national neurosurgical societies and six affiliate societies representing approximately 25,000 neurosurgeons worldwide.

For more information, please contact Tammy Gilson-Hodge at 617-525-8395 or at TGILSON-HODGE@PARTNERS.ORG