A “National Action Plan 2025” was launched recently by the Danish government, with broad support from most political parties, and a funding of € 63 mill. for 2017-2019.

Dear Prof. Cras, I congratulate you for your election as Chair of the UEMS Section of Neurology. David B. Vodušek (DBV):  It is felt that many European neurologists may not be fully aware of the role of UEMS in general, and the distinctions between SN UEMS and EAN, would you offer your explanation to the readers of the EAN Pages? Patrick Cras (PC): Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes, also called European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), was founded in 1958, shortly after the founding of the European Common Market.  Those of us who feel inspired by the European project will agree that professional standard setting and continuing professional development has an international dimension.  

David B. Vodušek (DBV): UEMS-Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes/European Union of Medical Specialists has already a long experience with accreditation of international CME in Europe. Please inform about the situation of CME in European countries. What are the differences between CME and CPD? Nathalie Paulus (NP): One of the aims of the UEMS has always been to try and harmonise CME/CPD in Europe. In this respect the UEMS regularly conducts surveys in order to explore the state of play of CME/CPD in Europe. The latest survey dates back to 2014.

It is with great gratitude and pleasure that I report my European Academy of Neurology Research Fellowship at the Clinical Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck. This 8-months experience (March-October 2017), performed under the supervision of Professor Markus Reindl, allowed me to join an excellent research center for the study of antibody-mediated disorders of the Central Nervous System.

Thank you for hosting applicants of the EAN Clinical Fellowship. How would you evaluate this EAN educational opportunity? The EAN Clinical Fellowship is an excellent opportunity for young neurologists and trainees, to focus on a specific clinical field, and learn / share experience with centres specialised in that field. It is also rewarding for us to meet young, enthusiastic fellows.

      by Anna Sauerbier       Machine intelligence for the analysis of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/machine-intelligence-analysis-parkinsons-and-alzheimers   European Union announces new programme to improve Parkinson’s diagnosis http://parkinsonslife.eu/european-union-announces-new-programme-to-improve-parkinsons-diagnosis/   Mental Health Europe (MHE) launches ‘Mapping and Understanding Exclusion… Continue Reading

João Cid dos Santos was a Portuguese surgeon (Lisbon 1907-1975) devoted to Vascular Surgery. After graduated at University of Lisbon - Faculty of Medicine in 1933 he moved to Strasbourg to practice vascular surgery with René Lerich.

  The new CME article February 2018: “ECTRIMS/EAN guideline on the pharmacological treatment of people with multiple sclerosis” is online now! Please log-in and browse to the LEARN section on the EAN Website and answer the questions! All e-learning activities… Continue Reading

In 2018 EAN again organised together with ESO the 9th annual knowledge exchange symposium held in Mumbai, India. This year`s symposium took place 6-7 January and brought together a diverse group of speakers with topnotch qualifications in their respective subject… Continue Reading

Thank you for hosting applicants of the EAN Clinical Fellowship. How would you evaluate this EAN educational opportunity? This is a super opportunity for trainees in underserved areas and countries to gain practical and valuable experience of management of Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorder in a pragmatic and systematic manner.

Neurological diseases have a very different frequency. Neurological practice and brain research need to have this in mind. The global burden of disease study has shown that neurologic diseases are the leading cause group of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of all medical disease groups in 2015 with 10.2% of global DALYs. Table 1 shows the age-standardized rates of DALYs, deaths and the prevalence of the different neurologic diseases.1 In this schematic rare neurological diseases are mostly covered within the category ‘other neurological diseases’. The prevalence cannot be estimated based on the available data. However, the number of existing rare neurological diseases is very large. The current website of the NIH lists 1244 neurologic rare diseases which is the largest number among all rare disease groups and covers approximately 60% of rare diseases.2 These more than 1200 diseases produce more than 0.9% of the neurological DALYs world-wide which seems at first glance to be relatively small.

For February 2018, we have selected: Feneberg E, Oeckl P, Steinacker P, et al. Multicenter evaluation of neurofilaments in early symptom onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neurology 2018;90:e22-30. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000004761. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurological disorder affecting motor neurons. The course of the disease is progressive with life span of 3 to 5 years from the onset of the symptoms.

Kyrgyzstan is a Central Asia country of incredible natural beauty and proud nomadic traditions, landlocked and extremely mountainous with almost 90% of its territory being 1500 m above sea level. Its capital and largest city is Bishkek.