Prof. Kailash Bhatia, Professor of Clinical Neurology at the Department of Clinical and Movement Neuroscience of the Institute of Neurology, UCL, Queen Square, London, was voted in as President-Elect of the European Academy of Neurology on Tuesday, 2 July 2024, at the 10th Annual Congress of the European Academy of Neurology in Helsinki, Finland.
Prof. Bhatia may be a newcomer to the EAN Board, but he is no stranger to the EAN organisational structure, having been a co-chair of the EAN Coordinating Panel on Rare Diseases and served as the special EAN liaison for the EAN/IAN (Indian Academy of Neurology) collaboration in 2021-22. He has also been closely involved in the EAN’s fellowship programmes, accepting and training many fellows from various countries at his department, and has taken part in numerous EAN schools and workshops.
Speaking to EAN TV on the final day of the congress, the new president-elect had the opportunity to discuss his view of the EAN’s progress, the initiatives he would like to continue, and the areas of focus he has in mind for his two-year term and the presidency that awaits beyond that.
“I am honoured and privileged to be the President-Elect of the EAN, and I realise the big responsibility on me in this new role,” said Bhatia. “I will work closely with the new president – Professor Elena Moro – and the newly elected board to support the activities and the initiatives which are considered as priorities, and I really look forward to participating in this in the near future.”
When asked about the aims and issues he has in mind for his role, Bhatia pinpointed the principle of inclusivity, noting that he would like to see a more level playing field across Europe in multiple respects.
“With the big developments we have in research, it is very important that these are relayed to all in Europe. This applies to the research side; it applies to education, and one of our biggest jobs is education”, he said “Europe is really amazing with regard to the amount of research and science we do, but often this is behind borders, and we have to think about cleverer ways of being able to tap into these research results for the common good, from both the point of research but also about delivery of the findings.”
On the subject of the EAN’s ongoing initiatives, Bhatia focused on the society’s emphasis on brain health in recent years as a thread that he would like to perpetuate during his time on the EAN Board.
“One of the important things for me is the EU Brain Health Initiative and I would like the phrase ‘nurture and protect your brain’ to become a mantra throughout Europe – perhaps throughout the world. Brian health is wealth, and this is something I think we have to reinforce both to the community and to the population, but also via advocacy to the policy makers.”
Finally, he noted his intention to continue and strengthen collaboration with other international neurological organisations, institutions, and other brain related societies.
“We are already very successful with collaboration with multiple societies and institutions, and I would obviously like to perpetuate those; even increase the strength of those,” he said. “There are certain areas which I’m interested, such as rare neurological disorders, so collaborating more with the ERN, the Africa sub-section, and EFNA, for example. Also, given my background from India, and given the population in India and the great number of neurologists there, perhaps we can even tap into places which we haven’t tapped before.”
Watch the full interview with Prof. Kailash Bhatia on our EAN TV Farewell Show from EAN 2024: EAN TV 2024: Farewell Show Tuesday on Vimeo
Get to know our new President-Elect even better: watch our interview with him from the EAN Congress 2022 in Vienna, where he delivered the Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard Lecture on ‘The translational clinician: big gains from small observations’: EAN 2022: The Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard Lecture interview with Kailash Bhatia
