Department to Department Visit Report: Maria Mirabela Manea

First I would like to thank the European Stroke Organization for granting this visit. During the week spent in Inselspital Bern, Switzerland I had the great opportunity to work with an amazing team.

My entire appreciation goes to Prof. Urs Fischer, one of the best world experts in the field of Stroke Neurology, whom I thank for the warm welcome and for making me feel like a valued member of his team. I thank him also for all the scientific discussions about stroke and other neurological disorders, from which I’ve learned a lot.

The Stroke Unit in Inselpsital is one of the best stroke care units, due to both the professionalism of all the team members, and the employment of the best techniques of investigation and management of acute stroke patients.

I attended morning rounds in the Stroke Unit, where I had the opportunity to see how the Stroke Unit is managed and to discuss the scientific details of each stroke case. For this my graditude also goes to PD Dr. med. Simon Jung, co-leader of the Stroke Unit, for the kindness of answering all my questions regarding stroke and for the help offered every day.

It was also a very pleasant surprise to observe the good cooperation with other medical specialties, the professionalism of the neurointerventional and neuroradiological teams and the enthusiasm and respect they have for each other.

I also had the opportunity to meet great neurologists in the Emergency Department where I saw not only how acute ischemic stroke patients are managed, but also other interesting neurological disorders (for this my thanks are also directed to Dr. Katja Galimanis, Dr. med. Joan Philipp Michelis and all the team for the attention they paid to and the confidence they put into my neurological opinions).

It was an extremely important experience, affording me the opportunity to improve my knowledge and my skills helped by the best stroke experts, enabling me, after returning to our Stroke Unit at the National Institute of Neurology and Neurovascular Diseases in Bucharest, Romania to implement all the new approaches to healthcare for stroke patients and – why not- to enlarge the number of doctors in the stroke team and start together some more serious stroke research projects.