Dr. Michaela Bercovitch lives in Israel, near Tel Aviv and she is active in Tel HaShomer’s Oncological Hospice, Beit Friedman, part of Sheba Medical Center as a medical doctor and Research and Informational Coordinator.

Dr. Bercovitch is also a member of the academic staff, functioning as a lecturer, at Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine.

Dr. Bercovitch was born in Romania, Bucharest where she finished her school and received her MD in Pediatrics. In 1987 she emigrated in Israel and after two years training in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics she decided to continue her medical activity in the Oncological Hospice.

Since 1998, she was nominated as Research and Informational Coordinator and since the same year she has began her academic activity organizing the most comprehensive postgraduate course of Palliative Medicine in Israel of two years, including clinical training, at the Continuing Medical School at Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv. She is also involved in the education of IV-th year students- organizer of the first short course in the country “Introduction In Palliative Medicine”. Dr. Bercovitch has also organized a course of Palliative care for nurses under the patronage of Ministry of Health and is active in a multiple activities of teaching physicians and nurses all over the country.
Recently was asked to organize 40 hours of Palliative Medicine for the Meuhedet sick fund.

Her research activity includes studies and publications about pain control, the use of high doses of opioids for pain relief and their impact on the patients’ survival. Moreover she developed various clinical auditing tools and a unique (in Israel) hospice oriented clinical database. During the last three years she was involved in a number of international research projects. Recently she wrote for the latest edition of the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine a chapter about treatment of pain with TENS, and some chapters in other medical books about Euthanasia, other non medical treatments for chronic pain, about the role of the physician near death, and the effect of setting on the work of the team (chapter of an Oxford Ed book published on September 2006). During the last year she conducted two research projects in the subject of the psychological problems of patients and families during the incurable illneses.

In year 2000 Dr. Bercovitch was the Secretary of the Committee that organized, with the support of EAPC, the international Congress of Palliative Care In Different Cultures in Jerusalem.

In 2003, she was elected as the Chairperson of Israeli Palliative Medicine Society; she also functions as the Israeli EAPC contact person. In this capacity her activity is focused towards the recognition of the Palliative Medicine as a specialty/sub specialty and its inclusion in the list of the government funded treatments and health services. Furthermore she organized a commission for palliative medicine Clinical Standards elaboration in association with the Israeli Medical Association, Israel Cancer Association and Ministry of Health and also with the assistance of Stephan Connor the Vice President of NHPCO, US. Recently Dr. Bercovitch has actively participated in the conception and promulgation of an important Israeli law regarding the dying patient, which specifies, for the first time in Israel, the patient’s lawful right to chose to benefit from hospice care and palliative medicine at the end of life.

During the years Dr. Bercovitch organized a lot of meetings in the country to promote the Palliative care in Israel, and in 2000 she was the main organizer of the Congress Palliative Care in Different Cultures, in Jerusalem.