Convergence: Life after brain injury

There is life after a stroke or a disability caused by brain injury or disease. Experts have now called on not just the science of medicine, but the “healing” contributions of arts and culture in the rebuilding of a life after damaging neurological episodes.

Doctors and other experts will gather and talk about the studies they have done that could help shed light on the value of not just focusing on the medicine but also considering the connections with arts and culture that could help patients manage the way they perceive their pain.

It draws on evidence of brain plasticity and hence neurorehabilitation through drawing, music and even dance and sports (like underwater sports) therapies.

The Conference is aptly called Convergence Blending Science, Culture and Art in NeuroRehabilitation. 

Neurorehabilitation is a subspecialty field fusing neurology (adult and pedia) and rehabilitation medicine specialists. Its advocacy is on disabled individuals who had suffered stroke, traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy in children, movement disorders, nerve and muscle disorders, epilepsy and memory disorders.

Many times, specialists zeroing on acute stroke or acute brain injury care, and attention to the disability are left to the sidelines. This field of neurorehabilitation addresses this issue because indeed there is life after a stroke or after the disability. Many new things could be done now from gadgets to behavioral modification.

There will be a total of 42 speakers, among them the president and founder of the Philippine Society of NeuroRehabilitation (PSNR), neurologist Dr. Raymond Rosales, who has done numerous researches throughout his career on neurorehabilitation, and another neurologist, Dr. Joven Cuanang, medical director of St. Luke’s, who everyone knows, walks the great traditions both in the medical science and the arts.

“Convergence” is the first meeting of the PSNR as well as the 2008 East Asia Regional Meeting of the World Federation of NeuroRehabilitation, to be held at Marco Polo Hotel, Cebu on March 27-29.

It is a tripartite meeting hosted by the Philippines, Thailand and Hong Kong neurorehabilitation societies, but is dedicated to East Asian countries.