Welcome to the April edition of the President’s Corner, our eanNews series, in which I answer your questions about the EAN and its many activities.
We again received an interesting variety of questions this month. You can find my answers below.
Please look out for posts appealing for your questions for next month’s President’s Corner, or feel free to submit them at any time via email.
As always, I look forward to receiving and answering your questions!
Best wishes
Elena Moro, EAN President
What would your best advice be for an upcoming neurology resident? What to focus on?
What you ultimately choose to focus on should be a personal decision, but I can offer some suggestions and advice.
I think that it is important to be always curious, open minded, humble, collaborative and connected. Our discipline is evolving fast, thus requiring attention, skills, compassion and positive attitude. It is important to choose a mentor to have some support during the residency.
As someone taking your first steps into a career in neurology, the EAN annual congress provides an unparalleled opportunity to explore different subspecialties and get a taste for the areas that are appealing to you. You can dip in and out of sessions at any time and watch on demand even after the congress is over, so you can really take your time to delve deep into what attracts your interest. Therefore, I invite you to take part in the incoming 2025 EAN Congress 2025, even if only virtually.
To stay tuned and connected, I urge you to join the EAN Resident and Research Fellows Section (RRFS). Student and RRFS members of the EAN can get virtual registration for the congress free of charge, but participating onsite in person brings additional benefits that are difficult to place a value on. We have made onsite registration as affordable as possible for students and residents, with tickets starting at just €94 for students and €276 for residents if you register before 16 April! The RRFS always organises a variety of great activities at the congress, including special sessions, local hospital visits, and social events like the extremely popular Meet Your Neurology Network event. All these activities offer young neurologists and trainees an invaluable chance to get together and exchange their professional and personal experiences – something that can come in extremely useful when you are making big decisions about which path to follow.
Is there a way to still present something at the Helsinki congress, or is the submission closed?
What a well-timed question! Although regular abstract submission for the 11th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology in Helsinki closed in January, we have a special submission window for research findings that were not yet known or fully available at the time of the standard abstract submission. This Late Breaking Abstract Submission window is now open until 28 May!
If you have new and original work that has not been – and will not be – published anywhere else before EAN 2025 starts, then this is your chance to be a part of our great congress and present in person in Helsinki.
For more information, please visit the abstract submission page of our congress website, here.
What has been the most rewarding moment of your career so far?
There have been several rewarding moments, so it is rather difficult to answer you. I will cite two: 1) When I became a medical doctor, and 2) When I became the EAN President!
What recent advances in neurology have you been the most excited about?
I am surely excited with the enormous advances in biomarkers to better improve diagnosis and early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, the advances in immunomodulating treatments, especially in multiple sclerosis, and the genetic treatments of rare neurological disorders.
Since neurology and its subspecialties are advancing fast, I would recommend to read the Paper of the Month and monthly Research Highlights on eanNews, as they are extremely helpful for keeping on top of exciting new developments in neurology, with recent papers selected from the scientific press and analysed by our own experts from the EAN Communications Committee every month.
