Abstract
IHS’s international remit
As soon as I completed my training in neurology in 1977 in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, and started practising as a neurologist, I observed the huge number of people who suffer with headache and realised how poor my training had been in the subject. I was asked to create an outpatient clinic in the Ribeirão Preto University Hospital; I worked there until 2006 and collaborated in the training of successful headache specialists.
I served for three terms as President of the Brazilian Headache Society, and for two terms as President of the Latin American Headache Society. Most of my career has been devoted to headache education throughout Brazil and Latin America. I have served on the IHS Membership and Education Committees for many years; I was co-opted to sit on the IHS Board of Trustees in 2009 and elected as a member in 2011. With the Brazilian and Latin American Headache Societies, I have been working successfully in helping to increase the number of IHS members from Latin America.
The Brazilian Headache Society has just facilitated the first IHS Headache Master School in Brazil, a challenging project aimed at creating headache specialists in regions in the world where they are badly needed. With the guidance of such headache education experts as Allan Purdy and Alan Rapoport, a two-day course was held in São Paolo in September 2011. Online learning is ongoing, and a second course will be held in May 2012, to be followed by a final examination. The school attracted 117 delegates, mostly from Brazil, and their response to the school has been very encouraging.
Carlos Alberto Bordini
Faculdade de Medicina Barão de Mauá, Brazil
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Promoting young scientists in the headache field: a priority for IHS
I was honoured to join the IHS Board of Trustees and act as liaison for the scientific committee in September 2009.
I have been actively involved in headache research since 1995 and have authored over 150 papers, abstracts and book chapters on headache topics. Currently, I am a director of the Human Migraine Research and Clinical Trial Unit at the Danish Headache Center in Copenhagen, and my main research interest includes experimental models of migraine, functional neuroimaging and clinical trials. As a former citizen of the Soviet Union, I also have a particular interest in improving the scientific standard of research in this region and other developing countries, and to translate that knowledge into better patient treatment. I have been engaged in several educational activities, including the organization of the International Headache Summer Schools and scientific workshops in Denmark and Azerbaijan.
As a clinical scientist I was pleased to join the IHS Scientific Committee and actively participate in such initiatives as the evaluation of IHS fellowship applications and discussing topics for the International Headache Congress (IHC) held in Berlin in June 2011. I also organized a pre-congress symposium on ‘Human and animal models for migraine and cluster headache’. The symposium was particularly successful in giving young headache scientists an opportunity to share their research as invited speakers.
In the coming months I will be involved in organizing and hosting the 1st Headache Meeting for future headache leaders in Copenhagen. In my opinion, promoting and engaging young headache leaders in IHS committees, and giving them the opportunity to present their research achievements during workshops and congresses, will motivate them to stay in the headache field, and I will continue working to make this a priority for IHS.
Messoud Ashina
Danish Headache Center and Department of Neurology Glostrup Hospital Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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