We are delighted to introduce to you our new Senior Physician Dr. med. Rebeka Hughes. Together with Medical Director Prof. med. Andreas Luft and Deputy Medical Director Dr. med. Leopold Zizlsperger, she is part of cereneo’s medical team and provides the best possible treatment and care for all of our patients.
To learn more about Dr. Hughes, we have asked her a few questions. Please read the interview below.
What makes neurorehabilitation such an interesting field to work in and how is this translated into your own function?
»Neurorehabilitation is a very interesting field for me, because I get to observe improvements of patients due to the multimodal therapy offered for a long period of time. This is the most important difference between working in a neuroreha-bilitation facility and working in an acute setting. It is fascinating to see the neuroplasticity of the brain making tremendous progress in patients possible.»
As a physician, how do you measure the success of a patient?
»I measure the success of a patient on the basis of the progress that he or she is making during neurorehabilitation. It feels especially rewarding when they achieve their goals set at the beginning of their recovery. When a patient achieves to relearn how to walk after coming to us in a wheelchair or when they manage to eat solid foods again, after coming to rehab with a feeding tube, these are huge successes in my eyes.»
What makes a good team?
»A good team consists of professionals who have a good professional working relationship, which means that all team members do a good job and that they work together. Here, ‘working together’ should also mean that each member gives their personal input to the issue at hand.
In a centre for neurology and rehabilitation such as cereneo, teamwork is very important: Doctors should work closely with other team members such as nurses and therapists, while always having the patient’s interests at heart.»
What experiences outside of medicine have you found useful for your medical career?
»For my medical career, I found traveling to different countries useful, for example travelling to the US. My husband is American and he has family members in rehabilitation and nursing homes there, so I got to visit those facilities and see the differences between ours here in Switzerland and there. I also do a lot of sports, like wing tsun kung fu, swimming and hiking, and I think that this is also a very important aspect which keeps me fit and balanced.»
What are you looking forward to, working at cereneo?
»Since starting on the 1st of April, 2019, I have been really excited to be working at cereneo. We provide a very unique concept in the treatment of stroke recovery and neurorehabilitation patients, especially regarding the therapy concept that is offered and tailoring it to each and every patient’s needs.
Furthermore, cereneo also has a very good team and work environment and I find it especially fascinating that there are people working here from so many different countries, which in my opinion brings a lot of diversified ideas to the whole concept.»
