Abstract
Being kept on track
I was honoured to join the IHS Board of Trustees as a Co-opted Member in 2009 and as an Elected Member since 2011. I would like to quote some Board Walk statements by current and former members of this Board. Peter Goadsby defined himself as ‘a Neurologist – proudly interested in Headache’; Stefan Evers said about headache medicine: ‘I have been working in this field (for many years) and I am still surprised by how fascinating it is … You cannot say this for many other fields in neurology’. These quotes lead us to be proud of our field of medicine. There are some other statements that focused on one of the main goals of IHS, namely education, that I would like to emphasise. Cristina Tassorelli intended to ‘spread the word’, to disseminate breakthroughs and advances so that doctors and sufferers everywhere in the world could be reached’; Allan Purdy: ‘My main interest in IHS over the years has been in teaching and education’. David Dodick: ‘the priority in the field of headache medicine is to optimise the access and quality of patient care by providing fundamental education to providers’ and Alan Rapoport: ‘My main goal over the next 2 years is to greatly increase headache teaching and learning around the world during my term as President’.
As for me, I am in full agreement with my colleagues. As a matter of fact, during my career, I have been deeply involved in the teaching and education of headache medicine, not only as chief of the Outpatient Unit at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School, but also as President of the Brazilian Headache Society and Latin American Headache Society. During the last 2 years, besides participating in many headache meetings all across Brazil, I have visited Chile, participating in the Headache School run by Dr Nelson Barrientos, and taught in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Colombia and Bolivia. In all these countries, I was able to meet with doctors speaking ‘IHS language’. More recently, we organised in Brazil a Consensus on the Treatment of Chronic Migraine, and last November published an update on the guidelines for the treatment of the acute migraine attack.
So, I intend to keep on track, working in the fruitful mission of trying to teach headache medicine in the part of world I live in.
Making the money work harder
The Migraine Trust, London WC1B 4HP (c) Wellcome Library, London
I was honoured to be appointed to the role of Honorary Treasurer for IHS in September 2010. I joined The Migraine Trust as Chief Executive in March 2006 after several decades in the voluntary sector working in the health sector in the UK, Africa, Asia and Latin America. I had enormous respect for the Migraine Trust, having used their excellent information for my family and was pleased to play a part in taking the organisation forward and making it more accessible to the many millions of people affected by migraine in the UK.
The Trust appointed me as a director of EHMTIC ltd in 2007.
I chaired Headache UK (an alliance of charities working in the headache field) from 2009 to 2013 and have just stepped down as Secretary to the Board of the European Headache Alliance after 6 years.
I am currently a Council member of the British Association for the Study of Headache (BASH).
My interests have been in charity governance and in particular the importance of the control of financial aspects of the organisation concerned. My task is to ensure that the finances of IHS are on a sound footing and stay that way. I want the finances to be transparent and therefore easy for the non-financial mind to understand.
My priority is to look after the funds and secure the financial future of the Society.