International Congress in The Capital of Scandinavia
The 18th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders was hosted this year in the beautiful city of Stockholm, Sweden on June 8-12, 2014. As the city known for hosting the Nobel Prize winners, Stockholm was the perfect location for delegates to learn about the latest research, and perspectives in the field of Movement Disorders and to network and collaborate with colleagues. Everyone’s participation made for several highlights during the week:
- 4,500 total people registered (including press and exhibitors)
- 86 countries represented
- 100 travel grants awarded by MDS
- 196 faculty members participated in the Scientific Sessions
- 1,558 posters accepted
- 34 late-breaking posters accepted
- 17 MDS study group abstracts accepted
- 4 therapeutic plenary sessions
- 9 plenary sessions
- 24 parallel sessions
- 8 teaching courses
- 24 video sessions and skills workshops
- 16 guided poster tours
- 28 companies exhibited
- 23 representatives from the press attended
Under the direction of Dr. Victor Fung, the Congress Scientific Program Committee (CSPC) made every effort to ensure that the science for the 18th International Congress was diverse and educational. The 2014 Scientific Program incorporated therapeutic plenary sessions, plenary and parallel sessions, teaching courses, video sessions, skills workshops, controversies, blue ribbon highlights, poster sessions and guided poster tours. There were 13 sessions focused on this year’s theme of “Emerging and Experimental Therapies,” which gave participants an educational and comprehensive overview on the subject.
A unique session was introduced this year to the Scientific Program called, “Late-Breaking Clinical and Scientific Topics Relevant to Movement Disorders.” This parallel session was designed to help participants understand and appreciate the latest clinical and scientific discoveries relevant to movement disorders, as well as understand the role of new clinical discoveries for basic science and understand the role of new basic science discoveries for clinical progress.
Also of note was the Movement Disorders Grand Rounds Parallel Session. In this interactive session, volunteer patients with a known complex movement disorder were presented to one of four movement disorder “experts.” This year’s experts included Bastiaan Bloem (Netherlands); David John Burn (United Kingdom); Beom Jeon (Korea) and Claudia Trenkwalder (Germany). The patient’s history and clinical findings (including video of the movement disorder) were presented by the expert, who then reviewed the history with the patient and highlighted and demonstrated the neurological signs to the audience. The expert’s job is to generate a differential diagnosis and management plan which can be critiqued by his/her fellow experts, the audience and the chairs. The final diagnosis and learning point were then presented after the expert and audience discussion was finished. The session showed how a movement disorders expert takes a clinical history and performs a movement disorders examination of a patient to generate a diagnosis and a management plan.
The always popular video challenge was held on Wednesday night with Masters of Ceremony Anthony Lang and Kapil Sethi. A world-renowned panel of Movement Disorders experts including Victor Fung (Australia); Orlando Barsottini (Brazil); Daniel Healy (Ireland); Björn Holmberg (Sweden) and David Riley (U.S.) guided participants through unique Movement Disorder cases. The cases were presented by representatives from Movement Disorder Centers around the world and discussed by the Panel of Experts. Awards were given for the most interesting and challenging cases. The goal of this session was for attendees to learn from a series of unusual, very interesting patients and see how senior experts approach these types of challenging cases.
At the opening ceremony, President Matthew Stern distributed the following awards:
Honorary Member Awards:
- Anthony Lang, OC, MD, FRCPC, Toronto, ON, Canada
- William Weiner, MD, Baltimore, MD, U.S., President’s Distinguished Service Award:
- Esther Cubo, Burgos, Spain
The International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS) would like to extend their gratitude to faculty, supporters, exhibitors and delegates for traveling to Stockholm and for helping make the 18th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders another successful meeting.
Mark your calendars! MDS is already planning for the 19th International Congress in San Diego, California, June 14-18, 2015. Please visit our website for details regarding 2015 Congress at www.mdscongress2015.org or contact the International Secretariat at congress@movementdisorders.org with any
questions.
