Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Annual Report 2006

  

The board of Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology (NFOG)

President:  Peter Hornnes, Denmark followed by Seija Grénman, Finland in May 2006

Secretary General: Satu Suhonen, Finland followed by Ragnheidur I. Bjarnadottir, Iceland in May 2006

Treasurer: Martin Stjernquist, Sweden

National representatives: Lone Hvidman followed by Helle Meinetz in March 2006 (DSOG), Juha Mäkinen (SGY), Osk Ingvarsdottir (FIK), Rolf Kirschner (NFG), Göran Berg (SFOG).

Other members of the board: Per Olof Janson, Sweden (Acta), Seija Grénman followed by Lars-Åke Mattsson in May 2006 (chairperson of scientific committee), Jens Gudmunsson, Iceland (chairman of educational committee), Marie Søegaard, Denmark followed by Susanne Hesselman, Sweden in September 2006 (chairperson of NFYOG), Søren Brostrøm, Denmark, Denmark (webmaster), Thora Steingrimsdottir, Iceland, president of NFOG 2008.

Internal Auditors: Ditte Trolle (Denmark) and Gudjon Vilbergsson (Iceland), followed by Arnar Hauksson (Iceland) in May 2006 and  Nils-Erik Backas (Finland) deputy internal auditor.

External Auditor: Bo Hendriksen, Aaen & Co

 

Board meetings

During the year 2006, the board of NFOG had 5 meetings. One of them was a telephone meeting in March 2006.  

 

Economy, budget, accounts

The economy of NFOG has been in good balance under the surveillance of the treasurer Martin Sjernquist. The main source of income is the journal of the society, Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica and NFOG 2006 congress.

 

Acta

Per Olof Janson was the chief editor of Acta.  From January 1st 2006 the publisher of Acta  has been Taylor and Francis The impact factor of Acta has been steadily rising reflecting a good scientific profile. New case reports have no longer been accepted whereas already accepted ones have been published. Acta has been gradually changing to the electronic submission system.  The economy of Acta has been favorable. At the board meeting May 23 2006 Reynir Geirsson was nominated as the chief editor of Acta starting April 1st  2007. The award (20.000 DKK) for the most sited paper in 2005 was given at the NFOG 2006 congress to Eva Uustal Fornell and Preben Kjölhede for the article "Factors associated with pelvic floor dysfunction with emphasis on urinary and fecal incontinence and genital prolapse: an epidemiological study".

 

 

Support to education and co-operation

The board of NFOG started the NFOG Visitor Program in 2003 and altogether 17 specialists have visited another Nordic country within this program. In 2006, all 6 specialists who did send in an application received support from the Visitor Program. The visitors were: Jörgensen Finn Sterner, Denmark, Knudsen Ulla, Denmark, Rintala Marjut, Finland, Tihtonen Kati, Finland, Vainio Merja, Finland, and Vääräsmäki Marja, Finland. The feedback on the program has been very positive from all parties. Reports of the visits have been published in national bulletins and on the website of NFOG.

The Baltic fellowship program continued in conjunction of NFOG 2006. The three Baltic Fellows chosen from 18 applicants visited Nordic countries prior to the NFOG meeting. The fellows wer: Eva-Liina Mölder, Estonia visiting Turku, Natalia Vedmedovska, Latvia, visiting Århus and Erge Barcaite, Lithuania, visiting Bergen.

Lillehammer stipendia were given to Jeanne Mette Goderstad, Norway and Catherine Reimers, Norway.

 

 

NFOG Going South and FIGO´s twinning project

The key person of the NFOG Going South project,  Kenneth Björklund died in 2005. In addition, it has been difficult to find financial support to the project. Therefore, Peter Hornnes informed the NFOG board at the meeting on May 22 that the NFOG Going South working group did not find it possible to continue the project. Jerker Liljestrand continues as the treasurer of FIGO and has kept the board informed about the twinning project, where the Swedish colleagues have a key role.  

 

NFOG 2006The NFOG 2006 Congress took place in Gothenburg May 20-23 2006 with over 700 participants.Local organizing committee with Ian Milsom as congress president took care of the arrangements. The feedback on the program was positive.  The scientific committee of NFOG participated actively in planning the program. Altogether 107 abstracts were submitted to the congress.

In the Assembly of Delegates a lively discussion on different topics including the future of NFOG was conducted. NFOG should be made more visible and the money should be used on new activities. The delegates supported the Visitor program and welcomed the decision that it would cover both research and clinical visits in future. The board invited the members to come up with proposals to develop new activities within NFOG. 

 

 

Home pages (www.nfog.org)

Information about NFOG, board meetings, awards, courses, the NFOG thesis registry etc. is accessible on the web site.  Søren Brostrøm has actively followed the use of the website. The presentations of the NFOG 2004 and 2006 meetings and the Hot Topics meetings have been the most frequently visited topics.

 

Committees

Lars-Åke Mattsson followed Seija Grénman as the chairman of the scientific committee in May 2006. Scientific committee  participated actively in preparing the program of NFOG 2006 and chose the  winners of the best oral and poster presentations during the meeting. Tomi Mäkelä, Finland  was chosen as the winner of the Young Scientists Award.  The Nordic thesis registry has been further developed. The scientific secretaries in each member country are the key persons in collecting information. In 2006, the number of thesis registered was lower than previously. Both a lower number of published thesis and suboptimal recruitment were suggested as an explanation. Jens Gudmunsson followed Juha Mäkinen as the chairman of the educational committee in January 2006. The educational committee has been planning  a Hot Topics course,  in Helsinki,  October  4-6 2007. The program was discussed with the NFOG board members at the joint meeting in Iceland in September 2006.

 

NFYOG

During NFOG 2006, NFYOG arranged a presymposium on leadership. In addition data on specialist training programs in different Nordic countries were presented. The next seminar "Is there future for obstetrics ?" was planned during the year. It takes place  in Copenhagen in June 1-2 2007 

 

 

 

General

The aim of the present NFOG board is to enhance clinical and scientific collaboration between the obstetricians and gynecologists in the Nordic countries. The presidents of NFOG have written  columns and news letters to the bulletins of national societies. Developing co-operation in EBCOG (European Board of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) is considered important, too. Special interest of Nordic countries has been improving specialist training and its evaluation. Reports on both EBCOG´s and FIGO´s activities have been included in the agenda of each NFOG board meeting.

 

On behalf of the board of NFOG,

 

May 30, 2007 Turku

 

 

Seija Grénman

Chairman

NFOG