Abstract
I am pleased to announce the winner of the International Headache Society (IHS) Fellowship 2010, Dr Christoph Schankin of Munich, Germany. Commencing in 2011, he will work for a year with Professor Peter Goadsby at the Headache Center, University of California, San Francisco, his chosen research topic being ‘the role of the supratentorial neural network in addiction in patients with medication overuse headache in comparison to patients with chronic and episodic migraine’. Nine very strong applications were received for the fellowship, and all applicants have been offered travel grants to attend the forthcoming European Headache and Migraine Trust International Symposium to be held in Nice in October. I would like to thank all applicants for their interest in IHS and offer congratulations to Dr Schankin.
The Third International Headache Classification Committee has been established and will meet in October. The committee is chaired by Professor Jes Olesen, who, together with his expert team, was responsible for the original classification document, Classification and Diagnostic Criteria for Headache Disorders, Cranial Neuralgias and Facial Pain, published in 1988, and The International Classification of Headache Disorders, Second Edition (ICHD-II) published in 2004. The committee is very interested in receiving input not only from members of working groups, but also from the headache community at large. The working groups are listed on the IHS website (www.i-h-s.org) and comments can be sent to the individual chairpersons. The aim is to post a beta version of the entire ICHD-III at the earliest possible time, when feedback will again be requested. An editorial on the ICHD-III by Professor Olesen can be viewed online at http://cep.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/07/02/0333102410375628.full.pdf+html
Preparations for the 15th International Headache Congress (IHC), to be held in Berlin 23–26 June 2011, are moving forward. The congress will unite medical professionals committed to reducing the pain and suffering caused by headaches, and provide the international headache community with an advanced scientific platform for the exchange of the latest information, treatments, care and research for this debilitating disorder. I would like to offer thanks to all IHS members who have sent programme suggestions. The Scientific Programme Committee, chaired by Professor Michel Ferrari, is still interested in receiving suggestions for topics and speakers. You can submit ideas via links on the Cephalalgia home page or the IHC 2011 home page (http://www2.kenes.com/ihc2011/pages/home.aspx).
As I have mentioned previously, we wish to strengthen links with our Affiliate Member Societies, and welcome more national society members as IHS members. Thanks to the endeavours of IHS Trustee Professor Carlos Bordini, 147 members of the Brazilian Headache Society have recently joined IHS via their national society. From January 2011 we will be offering a preferential membership rate to individual members of our Affiliate Member Societies, and I would ask you to urge your national society to be in contact with IHS to find out more about this. Some of our Affiliate Societies are more active than others, and unfortunately several societies, including those of Argentina, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore and Turkey, have not yet renewed their membership in IHS for 2010. We rely on the support of all our members in order to fulfil our purpose to advance headache science, education and management, and to promote headache awareness worldwide.
