by Claudia Sommer and Theodor Landis
The Teaching Course sub-Committee consists of the following members:
Theodor Landis, Switzerland – Chairman
Members: Anish Bahra, UK (responsible for interactive sessions); Gilles Edan, France (responsible for Spring School); Oleg Levin, Russia; Viktoria Papp, Denmark (representative EAYNT); Erich Schmutzhard, Austria (responsible for the RTC in Sub-Saharan Africa and case-based facilitated workshops); Claudia Sommer, Germany (responsible for news and PR); Marie Vidailhet, France (responsible for hands-on courses)
The TCsC had four face-to-face meetings at the EAN Head Office in December 2014 and February 2015, at the Berlin congress in June 2015, and in October 2015. The major aim of the TCsC is to provide excellent Teaching Courses at the EAN meetings. To this aim, Scientific Panel chairs and members are asked to submit suggestions for Teaching Courses about 18 months ahead for the congress in the year after the next. These suggestions are collected in the Head Office, sorted by subject, and rated by the TCsC members before the face-to-face meeting. This is part of the upcoming Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), aiming to standardise the procedure and ensure that for each Course, its aims, intended audience, and funding arrangements are clear. Furthermore, eligibility criteria, the application and selection process, and the evaluation strategy will, in any future applications rounds, follow these SOPs. This also entails that those who submit proposals will be asked to give more details on the intended course. Thus, it will be obligatory to state the learning aims of the course, give a summary of the content, and mention the competence and teaching experience of the suggested speakers. This will allow the TCsC to better evaluate the proposal, to include new and junior speakers, and to select the best proposals for the next congress. Another change will be the installation of a “5-year-plan” for the TCs. This will allow us to ensure that all major subjects in Neurology are addressed within a 5-year period, and that the minor, but not less important topics, also are covered.
At the October 2015 meeting, the TCsC had the pleasure of seeing the creativity, with which proponents had embraced the new formats, the Interactive Sessions, the Hands-on-courses, and the Case-based facilitated Workshops (see Neuropenews September 2015 for further information). We appreciate the work put into designing these sessions by many of the proposers, and we regretted that we could not accept all, due to time and space restrictions at the congress. However, the success of the new formats will be closely monitored during and after the 2016 Copenhagen Congress, and more slots will be opened for the successful formats.
Teaching Course sub-Committee Meeting October 2015
The demand for TCs is high. At the 1st EAN Congress in Berlin in June 2015, there were 3325 registered participants for TCs or Hands-on-courses, and 2400 for Interactive Sessions. The programme comprise 25 classic TCs, 5 Hands-on Courses, 3 Interactive Sessions, and one European Board of Neurology (EBN) Session during the EAYNT session. At the 2nd EAN Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark 2016, the number of classical TCs will be slightly reduced to allow for more Hands-on-courses, Interactive Sessions, and for the new format, the Case-based facilitated Workshops. There will also be session on subjects like “How to write and publish a paper” and “Successful grant application”. We are looking forward to your feedback on this type of educational programme in 2016!
Further than facilitating the TCs at EAN congresses, the TCsC, with the administrational help of the Head Office, also supervised several educational live events. In 2015, the annual EAN Spring School in Staré Splavy, organised by Prof. Pavel Kalvach and Magda Dohnalova in Prague, had 125 attendees from 29 countries. This year’s topics were Neurotraumatology, Language disorders and Neurooncology. There were also workshops on how to apply for grants, on preparation for the EBN examination, and educational systems in neurosciences, assistive technologies and mobility. If you are interested in learning more about the EAN Spring School, please look here.
Further Regional Teaching courses 2015 are organised by the local chairperson with the help of Julia Mayer from the Head Office. The Course in Lviv, Ukraine was held in late May and despite the political circumstances it was a very successful course with 235 participants from the Ukraine and neighbouring countries. The Course in Budva, Montenegro took place in October 2015. The Task Force “Neurology & Sub-Saharan Africa” and related regional teaching courses (RTC) led by Erich Schmutzhard with the help of Eveline Sipido. In 2014, the 6th RTC SSA took place in Luskana, Zambia with 124 participants from 22 African nations. The 7th RTC SSA took place on in Khartoum, Sudan.
Professor Claudia Sommer works at the University Hospital in Würzburg, Department of Neurology, Germany and is member of the EAN Teaching Course sub-Committee.
Professor Theodor Landis is Chair of the EAN Teaching Course sub-Committee and Honorary Professor of Neurology at the University of Geneva.
