M Bercovitch
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Biography
Michaela Bercovitch is the director of the Oncological Hospice in Sheba hospital, Tel Hashomer, Israel and a lecturer at Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine. Dr. Bercovitch was born in Romania, Bucharest, where she graduated from medical school as MD in Pediatrics. In 1987 she emigrated to Israel and after two years training in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics she continued her medical practice in the Oncological Hospice. In 1998 she initiated a 2 year comprehensive postgraduate course of Palliative Medicine for doctors. She is involved in the education of medical students, nurses and doctors across Israel. Her research fields include pain control, impact of high dose opioids on patients’ survival, development of clinical auditing tools and a hospice oriented clinical database. She is the author of the chapter discussing treatment of pain with TENS (Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine), and other chapters addressing euthanasia, non-pharmacological treatments for chronic pain, the role of the physician near death, and the effect of patient-setting on the work of the team. Dr. Bercovitch was a member of the Directory of European Association for Palliative Care (2007-2016); Served as the Chairperson of Israeli Palliative Medicine Society (2002- 2016) focusing on the recognition of Palliative Medicine as a sub-specialty and its inclusion as a government-funded treatment. Along the years she has actively participated in the conception and promulgation of the first Israeli law regarding the dying patient.
Abstract
Abstract : Hospice: Where will the future of the Hospice lead us?