Abstract
Annual Report 2013
I am pleased to report on a very active year for IHS during 2013.
Cephalalgia had another successful year. The 2012 impact factor increased a little to 3.485, and Cephalalgia is now ranked 41 out of 190 clinical neurology journals. An App suitable for iPad and iPhone was released over the summer and has been very well received; the App was the first such one available for a headache journal.
Membership numbers continued to increase during 2013, and we ended the year with 1,377 members, 55% of whom are members through their Affiliate Society. There are also 184 Associate Members, specialists living in the 100 developing countries who receive free access to Cephalalgia and the IHS website. We welcomed two new Affiliate Member Societies; the Estonian Headache Society, who joined in March, and most recently the Bulgarian Headache and Pain Society in October.
A new Adjunct membership category was introduced in 2013 to enable membership of people not eligible to join as Standard members, e.g. professional lay people working in headache and people working for pharmaceutical or device companies who are involved with headache disorders.
The elections for the elected members of the Board of Trustees were successful; 29.7% of IHS members voted and David Dodick was elected as President-elect, and Rami Burstein, Lars Edvinsson and Arne May elected Trustees. Four members of the Board retired – Messoud Ashina, Allan Purdy, Norihiro Suzuki and Cristina Tassorelli – and we thank them for their work on behalf of the society.
The ICHD-3 beta version was published in the July issue of Cephalalgia and is freely available online through the IHS and Cephalalgia websites. The Chairman has urged all headache specialists to use this version and send any relevant comments to the Chairmen of the Working Groups, who can be found on the IHS website. Final publication is expected during 2016 when the World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Diseases, edition 11 (ICD-11) codes will be incorporated.
Work also continued with the WHO on the ICD-11, where IHS is represented by Jes Olesen. An IASP task force ‘Pain Diagnoses in ICD-11' has been established on which IHS is represented by Stefan Evers and Shuu-Jiun Wang.
IHS sent Visiting Professors to the Dominican Republic, India and Argentina. In 2014 Visiting Professors will teach in Serbia, Dakar-Senegal and Estonia. The 2nd IHS Master School in headache was held in Japan in March, attracting 150 Asian delegates. There was a 2-day course in March, which was followed by a period of personal study and a final examination.
IHS offered one fellowship in 2013, and also three peri-IHC short-stay scholarships to physicians from developing countries. These three visited three specialist clinics in the USA for up to 6 weeks and also attended the IHC. IHS also sent a headache specialist from Cameroon to work in Belgium with Jean Schoenen for 3 months under the new Headache Pioneer project.
The Juniors' committee offered 19 travel grants to juniors from as far afield as Ethiopia, Colombia, Cuba and Ukraine to attend the IHC. During the congress they also organized their first Headache Excellence Tournament in collaboration with the AHS juniors; this session, chaired by Peter Goadsby and David Dodick, offered juniors a platform to present their data during a short talk and discussion and was a resounding success. The juniors also awarded two poster prizes and held their annual forum.
The highlight of the year was the IHC, held in Boston in June in collaboration with the American Headache Society. The congress attracted over 1,000 delegates from all over the world, and they enjoyed a varied scientific programme with highlights including the IHS Special Lecture on ‘Clinical neurophysiological research in headache syndromes', given by Jean Schoenen of Belgium, and the Cephalalgia Award Lecture, given by David Borsook, USA, for his lab's research on migraine imaging. Prior to the congress there were six teaching courses, covering various topics to give headache specialists the skills they need in their daily practice.
In 2014 we will continue with our educational activities. A pilot International Headache Academy, again organized in collaboration with our colleagues from AHS, will be held at the Mayo Clinic, AZ, USA. This educational programme will focus on clinical and research aspects of headache medicine with a goal to raise the level of education and improve patient care while attracting young clinician scientists to a career in headache medicine. If the pilot is successful, and funding permits, we will repeat the academy in Europe, Asia and South America. We will also continue our Visiting Professor project, and work will begin on the 3rd Master School.
During 2014 work will begin in earnest on preparations for the IHC 2015 to be held in Valencia. The Scientific Programme Committee is chaired by Messoud Ashina and Andrew Charles, and if you have any suggestions for the programme please do let us know.
We thank our members for their continued support and look forward to another successful year.
Walking with the IHS on basic mechanisms in headache research
In 1975 I was invited to the Migraine Trust in London to give an overview of my thesis on sympathetic and parasympathetic, 5-HT and histamine mechanisms in the cerebral circulation. This event triggered my association with the field of headache and my continued association with the International Headache Society (IHS) and the European Headache Federation. In the following years we discovered all the neuropeptides that are currently discussed in relation to the cranial circulation and, furthermore, mapped their origin, distribution and much of the function. Another key event was finding the trigeminovascular reflex with calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) as the main mediator (with James McCulloch and Rolf Uddman). When I presented this at a meeting in 1986, I first met Peter Goadsby. He further enthused my interest and for almost a decade we collaborated on finding the role of neuropeptides in headache disorders.
My current focus in the field of headache is basic studies on CGRP and CGRP receptors and their association with the other signal molecules such as PACAP, glutamate, and inter alia. We ask questions on inflammation and the consequences of expression of receptors and cytokines and, logically, aim at discovering novel therapeutic principles. Since the start I have had a great time in my profession, moving from basic science to clinical application in the headache field, and I plan to continue.
As a Professor of Internal Medicine and director of a laboratory at Lund University at the Biomedical Centre, and as founder and institute head of the Glostrup Research Park in Copenhagen, I have a fair number of excellent colleagues who can assist me in trying to uncover fundamental aspects of migraine. I am fortunate, for almost two decades, to be the Chairman of the Swedish Migraine Society, thus having an appreciation of the clinical aspects of primary headache disorders, and in a position to approach the problem of headache from a variety of angles. Our laboratory uses cellular and molecular methods to approach the mechanisms, and a number of students have made their thesis in our projects. As headache disorders have a huge impact on socioeconomics and patients, international collaboration is an important aspect in our research if we are to maintain a position in the forefront of research. The work of the IHS serves to strengthen the research, education, and clinical facets of headache medicine. I feel lucky to be a part of such an important organization, and I look forward in continuing to do all that I can as a member of the Board of Trustees to ensure its ongoing success.