Abstract
IHS in 2020 – Honorary Secretary’s report
2020 was a challenging year for us all; however, IHS was able to continue with its activities and in particular enhanced our website and online learning centre. The most important activities are listed below. Any comments are welcome (see my email address at the end of this report).
IHS Strategic Planning meeting
Just before COVID-19 restricted travel, the IHS Board and key opinion leaders met in Copenhagen to discuss strategic objectives for the society. Prior to the meeting, all attendees completed a survey to establish what the society should strive to achieve over the next 2 to 3 years and beyond, and the results were discussed by the full group. Several key areas on which to focus were agreed, including the need for IHS to have a more global focus and forge stronger relationships with organisations outside Europe and North America, focus on online educational initiatives, and educate the next generation of headache specialists. Working groups were established to take these initiatives forward; work has been delayed due to the pandemic but will hopefully be re-initiated in 2021.
IHS website/online learning centre
We were very pleased in June to launch our new website and new branding, which was developed by a marketing company in the UK. There are also accompanying websites in Spanish, Chinese and Russian.
Within the website is the newly revitalised Learning Centre, which includes educational videos and podcasts on different aspects of headache and facial pain. All videos are available with English, Spanish and Chinese subtitles. We have also held quarterly webinars on various subjects and the recordings of these are also posted. Most of the content is for IHS members only, and if you would like to gain access it is easy to join IHS through the website Membership page.
IHS is also grateful to our partner societies who have granted permission to include links to their online meeting presentations.
The Core Curriculum has been revised and translated into Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (including traditional Chinese), French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
IHS thanks the Education Committee and all who have participated and contributed to the learning centre content.
IHS educational activities
The IHS Education Committee has continued other activities; two Visiting Professor meetings took place in Mexico and Bangladesh prior to the worldwide travel restrictions. For the first time, the Education Committee offered a Visiting Professor Plus programme, where in addition to the standard format of teaching at a meeting, one Professor will stay at the centre for 1–2 days to work more closely with the local doctors. This meeting, planned in Moscow, has been deferred until travel is again possible.
IHS electronic media
Under the guidance of the two Electronic Media Committee Co-Chairs, IHS has enhanced its online profile through the social media channels and the society is now more active than ever before, highlighting society news and general headache medicine advancements on a daily basis. Thanks are offered to all the Committee members who work daily to ensure the IHS has a strong online presence.
Guidelines
The IHS “Guidelines of the International Headache Society for Controlled Trials of Preventive Treatment of Migraine Attacks in Episodic Migraine in Adults” (1) was published in July in Cephalalgia, and “Health technology assessment for the acute and preventive treatment of migraine: A position statement of the International Headache Society” was published in January 2021 (2).
Guidelines on neuromodulation in migraine have been submitted for publication. Work is continuing on guidelines on idiopathic intracranial hypertension, cluster headache, post-traumatic headache and registries on real life data.
All IHS published guidelines and ICHD translations are freely available on the IHS and Cephalalgia websites.
Cephalalgia and Cephalalgia Reports
IHS was delighted to see the Cephalalgia impact factor for 2019 rise a little to 4.868 (2018: 4.438). Cephalalgia is now ranked 30 out of 204 in Clinical Neurology and 53 out of 271 in Neuroscience journals.
Cephalalgia Reports, the open-access silhouette title to Cephalalgia, providing an international forum for original research papers, review articles, clinical perspectives, case reports, technical reports and short communications, was launched in 2018 and now has published over 80 articles. The publication is now listed in SCOPUS and DOAJ.
Please consider publishing your research or views in Cephalalgia Reports. The journal actively encourages high quality papers in emerging observations with translational potential not yet realised, reports limited to regional relevance, which may validate and add to existing studies, RCTs with negative outcomes, confirmatory studies, technical reports, articles with a more clinical emphasis, pilot trials which may stimulate therapeutic innovation and scientifically rigorous pathophysiological and pharmacological studies.
Please visit the Cephalalgia Reports website if you would like to submit your work to this exciting publication.
Grants and fellowships
IHS was pleased to continue to award grants and fellowships to junior colleagues in 2020.
IHS Fellowship
Alejandro Labastida Ramirez, Mexico: Research title: Crosstalk between sex hormones and amylin signalling in the trigeminovascular system. Institution: King’s College London, UK – mentor: Jan Hoffmann.
Christina Deligianni, Greece. Research title: Opening of ATP-sensitive potassium channels induce cluster headache attacks: A randomized clinical trial. Institution: Danish Headache Center – mentor: Messoud Ashina.
Both will start their research in 2021.
IHS Headache Trainee Programme
Yessika Rojas, Colombia. Institution: São Paulo Headache Center, Brazil – mentor: Mario Peres. Started February 2021.
Pannathat Soontrapa, Thailand, and Aliaa Wan Sulaiman, Malaysia. Institution: King’s College London, UK – mentor: Peter Goadsby. The visits are deferred until travel is possible.
IHS Short-Stay Scholarships
Renato Arruda, Brazil. Institution: Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London, UK – mentor: Anna Andreou.
Faraidoon Haghdoost, Iran, and Garik Yeganyan, Armenia. Institution: Danish Headache Center, Denmark – mentor: Rigmor Jensen.
Aliya Yakubova, Russia. Institution: Danish Headache Center, Denmark – mentor: Messoud Ashina.
Nooshin Yamani, Iran. Institution: King’s College London, UK – mentor: Peter Goadsby.
The visits are deferred until travel is possible.
Membership
In 2020, unfortunately, membership numbers fell – this was anticipated as it is a non-congress year, but we believe was also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that members will keep their membership active – we rely on member support to run the society’s activities and programmes. IHS is increasing its member benefits with new online education and activities.
Thanks
All these activities and achievements would have been impossible without the help of Board members, Committee Chairs, and other IHS members who do a great deal of voluntary work to ensure these activities are professionally executed, and without whom the society could not function. On behalf of the society I extend my thanks to them, to the IHS administration and finance teams, and to the congress organiser. In particular, without the invaluable support of our secretary, Carol Taylor, IHS would not be so active and successful.
More detail on the activities highlighted above can be found in the Newsletters on the IHS website. IHS welcomes comments or proposals for IHS activities – please email me with any suggestions you may have.
Farewell
This is the last Board Walk I will write for Cephalalgia in my position as Honorary Secretary, since I will leave office in September this year after 10 years in service. It was, and still is, a pleasure and a privilege for me to work for you and for our Society. Thank you.
University of Münster and Krankenhaus Lindenbrunn, Lindenbrunn 1, 31863 Coppenbrügge, Germany.
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