A message from our IFCN President
This month’s letter is a bumper edition full of much good news, which I am happy to admit, reflects entirely on the efforts of others.
News from our Journals
Firstly, it is a pleasure to welcome Robert Chen to the role of Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Neurophysiology, which is announced elsewhere on our website. He was chosen from an exceptionally able and well qualified field, and we wish him all success over the next years and thank all the other candidates for applying. Thanks also to the appointment committee chaired by Walter Paulus.
We have also just received the new Impact Factors for our journals. As you know these reflect a journal’s esteem and standing and are also important for attracting the best papers in our field. The IF for Clinical Neurophysiology is 4.861. This is the first time it has been over 4, and our comparative ranking compared with our competitor journals has also improved. We have just had our first IF for Clinical Neurophysiology Practice, which is 1.7. This figure depends on how long a journal has been being judged and so is predicted to improve over the next years. These two figures reflect the health of our journals and the considerable work and effort of their editors, Ulf Ziemann and Margitta Seeck.
https://www.ifcn.info/
Education and Research Fellows
IFCN has also just announced winners of the 2023 Education and Research Fellowship. Many congratulations to all those who have been successful.
This year was characterized by its number of outstanding applications for Education Fellowships in the field of epilepsy and EEG, which is why the majority of awards are in this field. Si-Lei Fong is travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Taiwan; from Greece, Simela Chatzikonstantinou is spending six months in Marseille; Alberto Prat, from Chile is studying at Yale, and Antal Dorin Cristian from Romania has a three-month fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. Other aspects of clinical neurophysiology were also recognized, of course. Mario Prado, from the Philippines is studying intraoperative monitoring in Tokyo and Aditya Nair from Vellore, India has a one-year fellowship in non-invasive brain stimulation at Fukushima in Japan.
Research Fellows include Gorkem Sirin who will travel from Turkey to spend 4 months researching threshold tracking at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. Luca Angelini from Italy will study new methods of tremor analysis in Parkinson’s at Radboud University in the Netherlands and Francesco Misirocchi of Italy plans to study new aspects of EEG analysis in comatose patients at the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland
Congratulations to all, and thanks to our education and research committees for their work in making these decisions. I know just how much work and care goes into this. IFCN would also like to thank the hosts of departments for their hospitality and for their teaching. The committees have focused on widening these fellowships to award more applicants from a greater range of countries. We always encourage future applicants to tailor their application to the criteria in our call as specific as possible.
IFCN 2023 Scholarship Winners
Strategic Matters
Those keen readers of this letter with long memories may recollect that last time I mentioned that I would write to Member Societies about our strategic direction and that then I would give details in the present letter. Here goes.
Under Professor Walter Paulus’ presidency, ExCo introduced a number of initiatives. Our ICCNs moved from a four to two-year cycle, we increased on-line teaching resources and added committees for finance and education. The latter then coordinated Masterclasses, altered the educational fellowships to give some shorter lower cost fellowships, and started the Young Neurophysiologists’ Network. We also introduced a way to access educational materials on-line by individuals who signed up on our website, one effect of which was to allow IFCN to build up a data base of individuals. Another major initiative was the setting up of Special Interest Groups, to enable those researching in a given field to meet, exchange knowledge and collaborate where appropriate, under the IFCN umbrella. We also moved our management company from AIM to EDI, which was actually a major piece of work.
At the recent European Congress in Marseille ExCo met to consider strategic goals for the coming years, and it to these I would now like to turn.
Increasing the number of our committees was to improve what IFCN does for its members, but also because, for its size and reach, IFCN was run by very few people. These new committees enable more people to engage in IFCN matters and, we hope, provide more leaders as we move forward. To those existing committees, ExCo therefore agreed to establish a Research committee and a Guidelines committee. In addition to determining which guidelines IFCN will support and endorse, we are also approached from time to time for support for other work, and the committee will assist in this. IFCN will continue to have an open call for Visiting Professorships as well.
The structure of Special Interest Groups is covered in our Bylaws, but we felt further work is needed which is underway. There are also now several ways for individuals to access the IFCN; the traditional way via membership of a Member Society, through membership of a SIG, and via the website, which allows free access to educational material. We plan to tidy this up over the coming period. IFCN has been interested to improve access to clinical neurophysiology training in low- and middle-income countries, focusing on but not exclusive to Africa, and we hope this work will continue.
Many of these initiatives may appear relatively minor, and even dry, but some of the previous changes need time to simmer. As they do, so we will adapt accordingly.
Masterclass
Recently Frances Walker gave an inspirational Masterclass on peripheral ultrasound in nerve and muscle disease, conveying some of the astonishing extra information it provides, especially in relation to our other tests. He also conveyed how active an area it is for research. To listen to the recording: Walker Masterclass Recording. Though based on his Plenary Lecture in Geneva it ranged beyond even that and contains a wealth of questions and answers as well.
ICCN 2024 Jakarta
Last but by no means least, may I remind you that preparations are continuing for the ICCN in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2024. A call is open for submission of proposals for scientific symposia. Please consider submitting proposals and keep looking at the website as the ICCN takes shape.
ICCN 2024 Call for Proposal
Research Calls
Here is a call for submissions for research from the EU Horizon Programme. I realise that for many readers outside our EMEA Chapter this may not be relevant, but we are considering making information available for all chapters as and when we are aware, and this may be a start.
Research Call
The French site may be easier for some: French Research Call
And so,
My apologies for a long letter, but there was a lot of news, and most of it good. The last piece of good news is that though your hard working ExCo will be active over the northern hemisphere holiday season, your next President’s Letter is unlikely to be before mid-September. So, you can enjoy the break from this as well as any vacation.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Cole
