Roberto Casale , MD, PhD,  is a specialist in Neurology and  Pain Medicine, former Head a Division  of Physical & Rehabilitation Medicine, at Foundation Maugeri, IRCCS, Italy. He is currently Scientific   Director at Opusmedica, Patients, Care &Research a NPO organization, Italy

He actively researched on physiopathology of pain, fatigue and pain related disability.

He started his career at the Dept. of Clinical Neurophysiology of the University of Pavia, and then at the Service of Clinical Neurophysiology at the Foundation Maugeri in Montescano where he applied neurophysiological  tests and measurements to the rehabilitation process.  

He was research fellow at the Pain Unit, Nuffield Dept of Anesthesiology in Oxford at that time in Abingdon. He was also at the Shalgrenska Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden to learn microneurography.

In the second half of the 70s he was involved in clinical research on FES (functional electric stimulation). From that use, modifying stimulation parameters, he started his long-time interest on pain control using TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) as well as other physical therapies as powerful modifiers of neural plasticity. 

His clinical research studies were mainly focused on patients with CRPS, fibromyalgia, fatigue and phantom limb pain as aspect of maladaptive plasticity.

He is still active in teaching. For more than 10 years he was Director of the EFIC Pain School on Neuropathic pain. Actually, he holds the European School on “Pain Rehabilitation and Pain-related Disability” , Piacenza, Italy, under the appointment of ESPRM and UEMS PRM Board & Section

He established  and still has international collaborations with researchers all over the world.  He authored over 100 articles in international Journals. 

Presentation title: Neural plasticity. At the junction between pain and rehabilitation medicine.