It is a long journey for some to Jakarta but was well worth it for those who were there for the ICCN. Before the congress symposia and lectures there were two days of well attended and very well received teaching courses and workshops over the whole range of clinical neurophysiology. The congress itself had fifty symposia, again over a wide range of subjects. Our three plenary lectures were highlights. Professor Kees Stam gave his on the clinical neurophysiology of brain networks, and how they might be implicated in brain function and disease, focussing on sophisticated analysis of EEG. One hundred years after the first recordings of EEG by Berger, the technique continues to develop and possibly surprise. Professor Josep Valls-Sole, a great servant of and educator for IFCN for many years, gave his lecture on ‘Voluntary actions and reflex reactions’ showed how many movements depend on the building blocks of reflexes. Professor Satoshi Kuwabara gave a wonderful lecture on ‘Nerve conduction block and safety factor for impulse transmission,’ having done much of the seminal work in this area.
At the other end of people’s careers, we are grateful to our publishers, Elsevier, for sponsoring the awards for the best papers by trainees published in our journals. Peter Bakker from Elsevier was present for the awards which were accompanied by lively lectures by the two winners, Dr. Linda Heskamp, 2023 Mary Brazier Young Investigator Paper Award recipient for her paper Heskamp L, et al, (2022) ‘In vivo 3D imaging of human motor units in upper and lower limb muscles.’ Clinical Neurophysiology 141: 91–100 and Dr. Francesca Ginatempo, 2023 William A Cobb Young Investigator Paper Award recipient for her paper Ginatempo F, et al, 2023. ‘Abnormalities in the face primary motor cortex in oromandibular dystonia.’ Clinical Neurophysiology;151: 151-106.
Elsevier Award winners Francesca Ginatempo (left) and Linda Heskamp (centre), with Professor Robert Chen, Editor-in-Chief, Clinical Neurophysiology.
In addition to being a celebration of teaching, hands on experience and academic excellence, each congress has an IFCN General Assembly. My president's report began by honouring those esteemed Clinical Neurophysiologists that are no longer with us. I outlined the many committees that make up IFCN and the work that they have been doing before considering where our money comes from and goes. Our income comes from society subscriptions, (10%) and from royalties from the journals, (90%). Roughly 80% of our expenditure is on running IFCN, (management and ExCo), funds to chapters and to research and educational fellowships, (not counting funds for ICCNs). In 2024 IFCN added a new SIG, IFCN Society of Neuromuscular Imaging and welcomed four new societies: Algeria, Latvia, Bangladesh and Lithuania who were accepted at the last General Assembly. Our ExCo chairs of the education and research committees spoke of their work, while Thananan Thammongkolchai spoke of the YNN and Professor Aatif Husain detailed the finances of IFCN which are robust and healthy following a rise in our investments (and he omitted to add, due to his treasurer's expertise).
Recently IFCN has established a Low Middle Income Country Educational taskforce which hopes to address some of the key short comings in the areas of training, staff & equipment in LMIC’s. IFCN also awarded nine Educational Scholarships and three Research Fellowships in 2024 totalling $100,000, many recipients being in LMICs. The Research Committee has been working on increasing the visibility of research support and enhance educational tools for research methods.
The progress of IFCN’s two journals, Clinical Neurophysiology and Clinical Neurophysiology Practice was considered by their editors, Professors Robert Chen and Margitta Seeck. They have had encouraging years with CLINPH having an impact factor of 3.7 and CNP a high impact factor for a young journal of 2.3.
The focus of the General Assembly was the three presentations for the host of ICCN 2028, which were placed early in the GA so voting could take place during it. The bids were from the Dutch Clinical Neurophysiology Society, the Portuguese Society of Clinical Neurophysiology and Sleep Medicine, and The Romanian Society of Electrodiagnostic Neurophysiology. All made excellent presentations, showing off their host cities, venue and programmes to good effect. For the first time delegates voted in-person and virtually. At the end of the meeting the winner was announced. The ICCN 2028 will be in Rotterdam and hosted by the Dutch Clinical Neurophysiology Society. Congratulations to all of the societies and their hard work on the presentations.
The Young Neurophysiologist’s Network changes officers every two years. The incoming Co-Chairs are Giulia Navarro from United Kingdom and Gerardo Quinones from Mexico began their new roles in September of 2024. Our thanks to Ricardo Kienitz and Orsolya Gyorfi, outgoing officers, for their work though we hope to keep them active within the IFCN.
It was not all work. The opening ceremony involved a neurological ukelele band, two dancing troops and the banging of a gong. There was a welcome reception in the Jakarta Conference Centre (JCC), and a gala dinner in the nearby restaurant. This was on the Friday, which I learnt is Batik Day, so our male hosts wore batik shirts, as did your president, (handmade by my wife). The JCC's layout was particularly suited to our needs, with lecture halls at each side and a large space in between where poster sessions took place and which also sited our sponsors and manufacturers , so we all walked through the exhibition in between lectures. Particular thanks to Professor Manfaluthy Hakim, convener, and Drs Winnugroho Wiratman, secretary, Meidianie Camellia, treasurer and Fitri Octaviana, chair of scientific committee. It was the first time the ICCN had been to South East Asia and their hard work over years and months was crucial in its success.
Some of the team. Members of the Indonesian Neurological Association behind ICCN2024.
A reminder that ICCN 2026 will be held in Cartagena, Colombia and hosted by the Colombian Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine (ACME).
The handover. Professor Hakim (right), convener ICCN2024, and Professor Gutierrez (left), co-chair scientific committee ICCN2026.
One final piece of news from Jakarta is that with regret the remaining officers accepted the resignation of Professor Tina Shahrizaila from her office as secretary. We hope her passion, energy and hard work will continue guiding the development of the IFCN outreach project to low and middle income countries. ExCo agreed to approach Professor Jorge Gutierrez to replace her as secretary and is delighted he has accepted with immediate effect. Joining ExCo at this time will also facilitate his working on ICCN2026 in Cartagena, Colombia.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Cole