EAN News

EANpages: How do you see the role of the Scientific Committee within the overall work of the EAN? Antonio Federico (AF): The Scientific Committee (SC) is one of the most important EAN committees since its role is to coordinate the activities of the 31 Scientific Panels (SP) and has thus a close relationship with the EAN members. Its role is the promotion of scientific activities and of collaborations within the different European countries.

Dear Colleagues, I hope that you are all looking forward to the 2019 EAN congress in Oslo, and that you are planning abstracts to submit! On October the 16th I attended an inspection visit of the congress venue, along with Franz Fazekas our president, Erik Tauboll chair of the local organizing committee, members of the EAN office team and representatives from Industry partners that are sponsoring our congress.

For November 2018, we have selected: Oh KW, Noh MY, Kwon NS, et al. Repeated intrathecal stem cells for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Ann Neurol 2018;84:361-373. Stem cell research is a hot topic in motor neuron disease/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (MND/ALS) both for clinicians and patients. Whilst recognized as an important area of promise for developing future therapeutics in neurodegenerative disease, it has been much hyped in the media, and dissecting the scientific research on the subject from the many unproven approaches advertised to patients by commercially motivated companies can be challenging.

Bulgaria is located in the Southeast of Europe, in the northeast part of the Balkan Peninsula, bordering the Black Sea. It occupies an area of 111,000 km² and it is a European, Balkan, Black Sea and Danube country. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a population of 7.15 million people. Bulgaria’s first constitution was adopted in 1879 and was one of the most democratic constitutions of its time despite the previous almost five centuries of destroyed statehood.

The Sixty-eight session of the World Health Organisation Regional Committee for Europe took place in Rome, Italy (16 – 20 September, 2018).                   Health ministers and high-level representatives of the 53 Member States… Continue Reading

How do you see the role of the Communication Committee (CC) within the overall work of the EAN? In principle, communication is at the basis of the functioning of a society, both within, and with partners or the various publics. The main communicators of a society are its president, the members of the board and, the executive director. The CC is more a think tank, an initiator, a follow-upper, and a workhorse tackling all the various communication agenda.

How do you see the role of the Education Committee within the overall work of EAN? Prof. Hannah Cock (HC): Education is fundamental to the vision of EAN. Education underpins the sharing of knowledge and excellence. It also forms a substantial part of the annual congress, and offers numerous other opportunities to bring members together including our regular schools and other teaching courses and e-learning resources.

Prof Gunhild Waldemar (GW): Prof. Winblad, from EADC’s point of view, how is the research into dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease in particular, highlighted or addressed in the Swedish national dementia strategy launched so recently? Will it positively influence the ongoing research? Prof. Bengt Winblad (BW): Sweden launched a ”National Dementia Strategy” May 24, 2018. A general disappointment was that one of the countries leading much of research in care, epidemiology, clinical and basic research did not even produce a Dementia Plan like the other Scandinavian countries and most other EU countries.

Dear EAN-Members, Dear colleagues and friends, I hope that you all had a wonderful and relaxing summer, and that you have regained the energy needed for being successfully back to work after vacation. I always enjoy when the speed and intensity of daily activities reduce a little over summer, and I am sure that such times are also important for rethinking projects, developing new ideas, and enhancing our creativity.

    by Prof. Dr. Serefnur Ozturk and Burak Tokdemir   The Republic of Turkey is a country with an extraordinary history and the home of 80 million people. As one of the three countries in the world that span… Continue Reading

In 2 weeks, my sabbatical period in the United States, which started in April 2018, will come to an end. The word sabbatical comes from “Sabbath,” which in the biblical Old Testament was described as, “In the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath of complete rest …” Today in Academics, it is obviously not simply rest. For me it was a break after 23 years of an uninterrupted hospital and university activity, 17 of which as chair or vice-chair of large neurological departments.