President's Welcome

Newsletter from the President of WFNS

May 2008

 

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

Let me start by saying how proud I am to be the President of such a dynamic and generous World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.

 

When I took the Presidency of the WFNS in Marrakech, in my maiden speech, I said that during the next fours years I would focus my time and energy on education and ethics in neurosurgery, the quality of life of all patients, support to our member societies, as well as to neurosurgeons in whichever country they may live and in particular, to those in the poor developing countries.  During the two years and a half of my presidency, I have visited 28 countries and participated in 48 meetings.  I have also invested much time and energy in implementing tolerance and respect of identity and in favouring personal relationships between neurosurgeons living in conflict areas, therefore showing that the WFNS can contribute towards peace, love and respect of one another whatever their religion, race or colour may be. This has been achieved, thanks to the excellent team who are working with me in the WFNS and I express my most sincere thanks to each and every one of them.

 

As you know, education and training is the main concern and activity of the WFNS, in which a lot of time and money is being invested, mainly in the developing countries. Through education, we can bring together many people of different nationalities, backgrounds and beliefs and we can fight against exclusion.  Through education and training, we can easily transmit to the younger generation our knowledge, experience, skills and our wishes for the future of neurosurgery in their hands.   

 

WFNS established an Education Committee back in 1971 with Dr A. Asenjo as Interim Chairman, followed by Dr William Mosberg as Chairman from 1973 to 1989, the Chairman for the longest period so far in history.  The very first Educational Course was held in Taipei in 1987.   Dr Lindsay Symon, during his Presidency from 1989 to 1993, decided to restructure and reorganize the Committee and its activities and in particular to change the norms with regard to its financing, by reducing the costs to a minimum not only for the benefit of WFNS but also for the benefit of the local organizers.  Dr Armando Basso was a very dynamic member of the Committee and involved as many Latin American countries as possible in its activities.  He also organized the first Educational Course in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1991.  Dr James Ausman was Chairman of the Education Committee from 1993 to 1997 and arranged many Courses worldwide, to be succeeded by myself from 1997 to 2001 and Dr Maurice Choux from 2001 to 2005, who also took us to many poor and developing countries, where he held fantastic Courses.  From June 2005 until now, Dr Atos Alves de Souza is the new Chair of the Committee and it is incredible how he has increased the number of Courses in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe, with great success.   When I see the programme until summer 2009, I note that the many activities and the valuable contribution of the WFNS, in favour of the developing world is simply unique, permanently growing and a fantastic investment which we can all be proud of.

 

Dear Friends, we should continuously remind ourselves that, in the developing world, a million brain and spinal cord accidents happen every year and leave patients dead or heavily handicapped for the rest of their lives.  Furthermore, non-diagnosed and non-treated brain tumours account for several hundred thousands of new cases every year.  The number of disabled children resulting from a neurosurgical illness, account for forty percent of the population in the developing countries.  This is the main reason why WFNS decided to create a Foundation that would help in accomplishing its aims and activities in education and the promotion and implementation of Neurosurgery, where no access to the population exists, in order to be able to treat them.  This is a huge humanitarian project, which needs the help and support of everybody, in order to be able to succeed. I thank all the colleagues and all the members and trustees of the Foundation, with a special mention for the President of the Foundation, Prof. Armando Basso, who have spontaneously expressed their wish to participate in this great endeavour and challenge.  I express my deep gratitude to all sponsors, national and international societies of neurosurgery, industry and many individuals who have made a special donation to our Foundation.

 

I also wish to emphasize the fact that 246 young neurosurgeons belonging to the developing world, were  able to participate to our Interim meeting held in Japan in November last year, without any cost.   Prof. Tetsuo Kanno, with the help of Prof. Yoko Kato, succeeded to offer them travelling, housing and attendance to the meeting, completely free of charge.  I cannot find enough words to express my admiration and gratitude for such an exceptional achievement, which will remain in the history of the WFNS.   Prof. Kanno, please accept our warmest congratulations and our very deep gratitude for all you have done for neurosurgery and for the young neurosurgeons, in particular.

 

Our new fashioned Interim Meeting in Nagoya was very successful thanks to the perfect organization, the quality of the scientific sessions and the important decisions taken by the Executive Committee.   At that Meeting, Prof. Peter Black was nominated President-elect by a large majority.  Warmest congratulations Peter - I am sure you will be a great President of WFNS.   

 

Seoul won the bid for the 2013 WFNS World Congress of Neurosurgery, by a very high majority and so may I extend our warmest congratulations to our Korean friends.  May I further emphasize that I have no doubts about the success of our future Congress to be held in Seoul, Korea in 2013.  I was impressed by the number and quality of excellent bids for our Congress, which is the proof of the vitality of the WFNS.   May I further inform you that we now also have a new Chairman of the Nominating Committee, Prof. Helmut Bertalanffy.  He met with the members of his Committee in Chicago last April and everything is now running well.  I have appointed Dr Scott Robertson as the new Fund-Raising Committee Chairman.  In a short time, Scott has shown incredible dynamism.  I have also appointed Pépé (Dr. José Gerardo Martin-Rodriguez) as Chairman of the Honorary President’s Committee.  I think it is important to rely on the wisdom of our Past & Honorary Presidents for some delicate matters.  Also, at our EC meeting in Nagoya, we nominated 12 new full member societies and may I welcome all of them to the Federation and may we look forward to fruitful collaboration between us all!  The WFNS has now more than 100 full member societies – which is great and more than 30.000 neurosurgeons represented in our Federation, through their societies!  We also have to prepare some modifications to our By-laws and the Chairman of the Constitution & Bylaws Committee, Dr Peter Black, is working on proposals that will circulate on time to our full member societies, before the next World Congress in Boston, where I hope to see all of you.

 

I am pleased to announce that our next Interim Meeting after Nagoya will be held in Brazil, at Pernambuco in 2011.  It is the second time that WFNS takes a Meeting of this kind to Latin America.   The Interim Meeting will be hosted by the Brazilian Society of Neurosurgery and the local organizer will be our current Assistant-Secretary, Dr Hildo Azevedo.   I have every confidence that our Meeting there will be a great success.   

 

I am lucky to have an excellent team around me and I thank everybody, with a special mention for Dr Gail Rosseau who is working so hard to modernize and rearrange our new website, which is modern, attractive and very informative for us all.  I also wish to express my most sincere thanks and recognition to Mrs. Janette Joseph who is always available and who is permanently taking such good care of us and the Federation.

 

I am, personally, very delighted to see how our 53-year old WFNS remains fascinating and attractive.  Therefore, I am confident for the future of the WFNS, for the success of our World Congress of Neurosurgery to be held in Boston in 2009 and for the respect we all give to our engagements: education, training, promotion of neurosurgery, tolerance and support of the developing world. You may rely on my willingness to invest more of my time and energy during the second part of my mandate, in order to maintain our Federation at the highest level possible.

 

With very best wishes to all of you, my friends,

 

 

Jacques Brotchi, MD, PhD,

President, WFNS