At the 2008 Seminario Internacional en Neurociencias in Quito Ecuador, the American physical therapist Nicole Falcone (founder and director of the Pedi Habilidad rehabilitation program in Tena Ecuador) approached neurologist and director of CIEN Dr. Patricio Sebastian Espinosa about the possibility of providing neurological consultation on her patients. These patients, she explained, had no access to neurological care and no means to go to Quito to receive care, but were suffering from seizures, developmental disabilities, cerebral palsy, and migraines among other neurological issues.  Dr. Espinosa accepted the challenge and, after a year of preparation with Ms. Falcone in collaboration with medical student Aaron Berkowitz, came to Tena in March of 2009 with two EEG technicians (Mel Murphy and Kathleen Principe and their assistant Bill Principe), one donated EEG machine (from Cadwell Laboratories), and a team consisting of 3 additional neurologists (Sydney Cash (MGH), Dominic Fee (UKY), and Blanca Vazquez (NYU)), a neurosurgeon (Karin Swartz (UKY)), two internists (Christopher Shanahan (BU), Denise Dvorquez (Guayaquil), a pediatrician (Ann Kao (MGH)), a US medical student (Aaron Berkowitz (JHU), and several medical student volunteers from Quito - Universidad Cristiana Latinoamericana (led by Oscar Pacheco medical student - president of the class).

The neurology mission was founded in 2009 through a partnership with Nicole Falcone, MPT, of PediHabilidad Rehabilitation Program (www.pedihabilidad.com), a non-profit organization founded to establish rehabilitation services for the pediatric population with disabilites at Hospital Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra in Tena Ecuador.  The mission is organized each year in coordination with PediHabilidad and The Integral Rehabilitation Center at Hospital JMVI. 

Who We Are:

Centro Internacional en Neurociencias, Inc is a non-profit organization providing free medical care in Tena-Ecuador since 2009, the organization has been recognized as non-profit on February 14, 2011  in the USA . We are a tax exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) .

In addition to medical care, we have provided education and training to primary health care workers and physicians in  neurological problems,  epilepsy diagnosis and,  management. Additionally we have provided education to patients, families, primary responders about epilepsy.