Training for Neuronavigation in JDWNR Hospital

Dr. Maschke trains staff of JDWNR Hospital

The young doctor Dr. Svenja Maschke is specialised in the use of neuronavigation devices. At the moment she is training assistant doctors and technical personnel at the JDWNR Hospital Thimphu in the use of such a device.

During the highly intensive three-week training in Bhutan, the required software skills are to be trained and enhanced in order to be used in the operating theatre. Another major objective is to pass on the knowledge to further interested assistant doctors and technical personnel.

Neuronavigation is like a GPS tracking device, the set-up of which, however, needs to be personalized for each patient. For a planned surgical operation, it is decisive to identify the exact location of the damage.

Preparing for the training in JDWNR Hospital
Dr. Maschke prepares for the training in JDWNR Hospital

The device allows to precisely establish both location and size of the tumour and thus the chirurgical intervention can be reduced to a minimum

intervention. Also, during the surgical operation, the device indicates at all times how deep the surgeon has to go. This allows a highly secure and precise intervention.

Dr. Maschke thoroughly prepared her stay in Bhutan. Based on anonymised data and images of real patients she can teach how to professionally prepare and perform biopsies and in particular tumour resections in the area of the head. Theoretical information and practical exercises provide the trainees with the necessary knowledge and security that they have to apply in every neurosurgical intervention.

The work of Dr. Maschke, thus, complements and further deepens the knowledge, which had already been acquired previously through the assistance of the JDWNR Hospital by the Friends of Bhutan Association Austria.