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Sonntag International Spine research Fellow
Barrow Neurological Institute
Dr. Temesgen Assefa is currently a Sonntag International Spine Fellow at Barrow Neurological Institute working on different spine research projects.
Dr. Temesgen was born and raised in a small rural town called Mekane- selam in Ethiopia. He is the 6th child of the ten children for his parents. He joined elementary school when he was 6 years of age. Dr.Temesgen was an outstanding student since grade 6 and held the first rank in all grades after that and won different awards during school contests. He enjoys playing volley ball and sport activities since his childhood.
Dr.Temesgen was the top scorer in his school in Ethiopian General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (EGSECE), a nationwide exam in Ethiopia that is given to students after final year of secondary school education. Then in November, 2006, he joined university of Gondar, one of the oldest medical school in Ethiopia, found in North West part of the country. He did his internship in University of Gondar hospital and graduated with distinction in July 2012.
After graduation, Dr.Temesgen started working as a general practitioner and lecturer in Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia. He was teaching medical students and other health science students, mentoring and advising medical interns in Bahir Dar University, college of medicine and health science for 02 years. He was also serving as a clinician, diagnosing and treating different medical and surgical patients in this University hospital.
Dr. Temesgen then joined Addis Ababa University, the oldest university in Ethiopia, for neurosurgery specialty training in Black Lion Specialized Comprehensive Hospital in January, 2015. He was an active neurosurgical resident in the college and was able to acquire sufficient knowledge and skills in neurosurgery. He performed more than 700 neurosurgical procedures most of which were unsupervised. When he was a chief resident, he had a chance to travel to Christian Medical College in south India where he stayed for 03 months and received further neurosurgical training and exposure to modern medical technologies. Dr.Temesgen completed his neurosurgical training in December 2019.
Prior to his current fellowship position, Dr.Temesgen was working as an assistant professor of neurosurgery in Bahir Dar University for 2 and half years. He has performed nearly a thousand operations on patients most of whom are traumatic brain and spine injury patients. He mentored General Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery residents in the college and was a research advisor of chief residents. He taught medical students and other health science students. Dr.Temesgen was also a local principal investigator for Global Neurotrauma study which was done by University of Cambridge and contributed valuable data for the research. He is an active member of Society of Ethiopian Neurological Surgery Professionals and Ethiopian Medical Association. Dr.Temesgen was active in organizing blood donation and he is a regular blood donor and promotes blood donation in the community. After serving in Bahir Dar University for 2 and half years, he traveled to the United States of America, state of Arizona for Spine research Fellowship.