Executive Page

The European Academy of Neurology has introduced a new feature for our congresses and I would like to explain the ideas behind. Congress participants expect to be exposed to many features during the congress of the EAN. This includes cutting edge science, exiting news about the causes of neurological diseases and related translational research, new talents in the field reporting their latest research and modern teaching covering the many aspects of the neurologists practice. One other item was lacking so far: They also want to see the giants of our field who have done and are still doing innovative research and are known to be the best teachers.

The purpose of EAN is to promote excellence in Neurology in Europe and among other topics the bylaws have detailed this ‘to increase the … standards of neurological services, to support neurological research and to be an organ speaking for neurology as the major medical specialty caring for patients with neurological disorders’. A very important structure of the Society to continuously fulfill this mission are the 31 scientific panels of EAN. These panels did exist already within the former Societies EFNS and ENS but they were organized differently. As they have received some reformation I would like to briefly outline their current function and why this reorganization was necessary.

The year 2016 is beginning in many places with wonderful progress for neurology. But we should not forget that many of our colleges are working under the hardest imaginable conditions. The war in the middle east taking currently place in Syria, Iraq and neighboring regions is the most brutal and unhuman war which this region has ever suffered. I am writing about Syria but the situation is similar in the neighboring countries. The United Nations estimated at the beginning of 2015 that 220,000 people had been killed in Syria, but other monitoring groups put the death toll much higher. The people living in this region are constantly exposed to violence from all sides, the educational system suffers vita minima and regular jobs are a fiction for most people. Besides all direct military actions people suffer from unexpected explosions or killings for no reasons when walking on the road. Children and women are subject to violence through many and mostly unthinkable ways. Particularly young men fear of getting arrested at military barriers for recruitment and getting killed after a few days in front lines. There is a strong movement to Turkey or Lebanon and meanwhile to Europe. While Syria had 22 Million inhabitants in 2011 before the war currently almost 10 Mio of them are refugees abroad or have moved from the rural areas to the safer cities. The economic situation is also catastrophic as the inflation is grossly affecting all parts of the Society. While 1 US $ equaled 60 Syrian pounds (SP) in the past it equals now 250SP. Black market economy is increasing the suffering in particular of the poorer population. Physicians working in government services earned 400-600$ in the past but are now just between 50-75$ due to inflation and therefore also their families suffer.

The European Academy of Neurology was founded just 18 months ago and is becoming increasingly accepted as a hub for scientific knowledge and premier education (please see the EAN movie). This is reflected in the number of neurologists and trainees who join the EAN as members. To remind you: EAN has close to 25 000 associated members from 47 national European Member Societies, but accepts neurologists wanting to upgrade their membership as individual members.

Many political decisions within the health system are critical depending on the number of patients affected by a particular disease group and hence which discipline of medicine is responsible for the care of these patients. This applies for budgets for health care, number of beds for a particular disease group, overall budget for a discipline within a hospital, budgets for out- or inpatients care, but also percentage of research money which goes into particular fields of medical research. Also, the general public counts on these measures because mortality, morbidity and costs of disease are important to determine the importance of a disease group and usually, the higher the numbers the more important is the disease.

Neurology is a young and rapidly expanding field. This has many consequences - and ideas about a possible centrifugal development of neurological specialities are among them. Two major factors are facilitating the separation of sub-disciplines from neurology.