Sajjad Muhammad

2018
From: University Hospital Bonn, Germany
Finnish nickname: Saku

My experience as a Helsinki Ehrnrooth Fellow

Clinical Skull-base & Vascular Microneurosurgery Fellowship in Helsinki is a unique fellowship with in Europe that provides excellent platform for the young Neurosurgeons to acquire technical skills in complex procedures including skull base pathologies and neurovascular diseases including surgical clipping of intracranial aneurysms.

Department of Neurosurgery in Helsinki under the chairmanship of Prof. Mika Niemelä provides very inspiring environment to improve both surgical skills and clinical/translational research. Helsinki neurosurgery is a high volume centre with 3500 procedures per year covering the whole spectrum of neurosurgical diseases providing a wide range of exposure to his fellows. Moreover, clinical fellowship provides excellent opportunity to perform clinical research of a high level.

I am very lucky to be selected for this newly established clinical fellowship. The application procedure does not need any references and selection is purely based on CV making it very competitive.

My experience in Helsinki is very positive and inspiring. Being the only clinical fellow, I get whole attention from all the consultants. I have the opportunity to assist and partially operate any surgery. Usually, I can attend two major surgeries every day, that is a huge number. All consultants are committed not only to neurosurgery but also to their patients, caring always for the surgical outcome and wellbeing of the patients. The neurovascular team has a great attitude to teach tips and tricks for successful surgeries. I have got a great support from chairman to conduct clinical and translational research projects. The kind of support he provides is excellent to produce good publications in a short period of time.

I feel that it is a life changing experience being a clinical fellow in Helsinki. I am very happy and thankful to Prof. Mika Niemelä and his whole team for providing me the excellent opportunity. I would recommend everyone to apply and find his luck.