By Wolfgang Grisold, MD, Steven L. Lewis, MD and Laura Kennedy
Wolfgang Grisold
The Education Committee of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN) continues its mission to foster neurologic education worldwide via a number of ongoing projects and new initiatives. In January 2014, Dr. Steven Lewis (U.S.) became the new Chair of the Education Committee, following the extremely productive and successful tenure of Co-Chairs Dr. Stephen Sergay and Dr. Wolfgang Grisold. Current membership of the WFN Education Committee, which most recently met at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia on April 28, 2014, includes, (with each name listed with their countries of residence): Sarosh Katrak (India), Cynthia Comella (USA), Morris Freedman (Canada), Riadh Gouider (Tunisia), Alla Guekht (Russia), and new members Bo Norrving (Sweden), Teresa Corona (Mexico), Dasheveg Shuren (Mongolia), Therese Sonan (Ivory Coast), Mostafa El Alaoui Faris (Morocco), Daniel Truong (USA), Erich Schmutzhard (Austria), and Trustee Representatives Wolfgang Grisold (Austria) and Gallo Diop (Senegal). The Education Committee functions smoothly within the WFN under the administrative support of Laura Kennedy, Education Project Coordinator.
Some of the ongoing projects of the Education Committee include the monitoring and awarding of educational grants, including the Junior Traveling Fellowships. This year, 28 neurologists from low or lower-middle income countries were awarded Junior Traveling Fellowships to attend international congresses, including the World Stroke Congress and the joint EFNS-ENS congress.
The accreditation of Teaching Centers continues, with the goal being to provide high-quality fellowship training centers to fulfill educational needs in specific regions of the world. Current accredited training centers are located in Trujillo, Peru, and Rabat, Morocco, the latter being the most recently accredited site. Dr. Mohamed Albakaye from Mali was recently chosen to be the inaugural fellow in Clinical Neurophysiology at the Rabat Teaching Center under the supervision of Pro. El Alaoui Faris at Mohamed V. Souissi University. There is ongoing review of letters of interest and applications for accreditation from other potential Teaching Centers worldwide.
Steven L. Lewis
In addition to accreditation of Teaching Centers for year-long fellowships, the WFN and the Education Committee have an ongoing Department Visit program, where neurologists can visit training programs for shorter educational visits. The Department Visit Program in Turkey hosted 4-week visits this past academic year by Dr. Abdullahi Ibrahim and Dr. Yahaya Olugbo Obiabo, both from Nigeria, who visited the Cerrahpasa School of Medicine in Istanbul, and the Gazi University Faculty of Medicine in Ankara, in addition to attending the Annual Congress of the Turkish Neurological Society. Plans for a number of additional Department Visit programs in various regions of the world are in various stages of discussion and development at this time. Austria has just signed the agreement for this program and will host two visitors from Africa.
The Continuum: Lifelong Learning in Neurology program is a longstanding and very successful joint AAN/WFN project, whereby 400 copies of Continuum, the official Continuing Medical Education Journal of the AAN, are donated by the AAN to the WFN for distribution to 45 countries for Continuum-based teaching conferences. The WFN continues to monitor this project closely, with updates twice yearly to the Continuum Editorial Board, with ongoing discussions about ways to even further enhance this important program.
Laura Kennedy
Finally, the Education Committee is also working on a recent proposal to develop and draft a worldwide neurology training curriculum, which may be of benefit not only to the WFN Teaching Centers but also to any neurology training program. We also look forward to the potential for increased cooperation with the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) in this and other educational initiatives including eBrain.
The Education Committee looks forward to continuing its many ongoing programs and pursuing new independent initiatives as well as synergies with other organizations, all to foster and improve the quality and reach of neurologic education globally.
