Abstract
Looking Back on a Special Two Years
As I look back at my Presidential Term, which will end during the IHC in Valencia in May, I am happy to report that the IHS is doing more than ever to promote high-level headache education to physicians in many countries of the world leading to better care for our patients. When I attended the first meeting of the IHC in Munich in 1983, I could not have foreseen that I would be leading this great society over 30 years later.
The IHS has had three successful Headache Master Schools in Brazil, Japan, and India. After the Indian meeting a few hundred Indian doctors joined the IHS and many also joined the headache section of the Indian Headache Academy. We have two more Master Schools pending, The African School being held in Turkey in conjunction with Gazi University and the Chinese Master School in Beijing. If the IHS has the funds, there will be a Master School on a yearly basis. There were two excellent International Headache Academies for young, future headache leaders in Scottsdale, Arizona and Leiden, The Netherlands. We have had a joint meeting for up-and-coming headache and pain specialists held jointly with IASP.
Two countries have recently formed a headache society and joined the IHS, Bulgaria and Iran, and I plan to visit both countries soon. The IHS has given out clinical fellowships, scholarships and travel grants and increased our general membership.
There are now both Android and Apple apps for Cephalalgia and the journal is flourishing under the guidance of Editor David Dodick.
Our Board of Directors is composed of excellent and committed members from around the globe, three of whom will be leaving and three more coming on after the election. I am leading a Task Force to explore Improving Headache Awareness Around the World with Fumihiko Sakai.
Allan Purdy, in his new job as Chairman of the Education Committee, is planning a high-level strategic planning session for the Board, to refine goals and plans for the next 5–10 years.
Plans are set for a successful IHC in Valencia in May. We have more young people doing the teaching than ever before. The Presidential Symposium will be quite exciting and very different from the past few years, and the extraordinary speakers and special topics will be kept under wraps till the event.
I would be remiss if I did not point out the marked difference in the level of headache research today compared to the day the IHS started. Much of the superb current research has been done by members of the present Board. The headache world is in a very different place compared with 30 years ago.
On a personal note, in addition to being very involved with the IHS on an almost daily basis, I am a Clinical Professor of Neurology at UCLA in Los Angeles where I enjoy my teaching fellows and residents as well as seeing private patients in Santa Monica. I have been traveling frequently, going to meetings around the world and in fact I am writing this in Chiangmai, Thailand, during the ARCH5 meeting where 15 Asian countries are represented, even Laos and Myanmar. When I can arrange personal time for myself and my family, I try to see and keep in touch with our three children and seven grandchildren spread across the US.
At the AGM in Valencia I hand over the Presidency of the Board of Directors to David Dodick at the AGM in Valencia and the Education Committee will be handed off to Allan Purdy. Those two Canadians will do a fine job keeping up the good work of the IHS and moving it further forwards, faster to new heights. In these 2 years, it has been my main objective to educate doctors around the world, which has already lead to better patient care, a critical goal. The IHS also fosters scientific research of the highest caliber, which is needed for our understanding of how the brain works and helps us to answer the most basic questions in Headache Medicine. It has been a special 2 years for me and I will enjoy sitting back and watching and helping my Canadian friends continue the great work of the IHS.