Though it seems a while ago now, I hope you all had a good break over the mid-winter/Christmas period, or over the southern summer. This year promises to be a busy and interesting one for IFCN.

ICCN2026 Cartagena
We have had a high number of good quality symposia proposals, and so are confident of a programme combining excellent clinical neurophysiology practice with some outstanding scientific sessions. 
With this in mind, we are excited to announce that the deadline for abstract submissions has been extended to 23 February. This year, we are excited by the return of the option of submitting abstracts for consideration of oral presentation, with prizes for the best in Cartagena. In addition, trainees who submit abstracts can submit for a travel grant, if eligible. Abstract Submission Info

Fellowships
Readers are reminded that IFCN has an open call for Fellowships available annually to candidates to enhance their skills in a specific area not currently available to them in their home country. The aim is to support training throughout the world and to support individuals to learn areas of clinical neurophysiology not available more locally. Candidates will learn techniques and gain experience they can transfer to their home institution and colleagues.
For more information and how to apply IFCN Fellowship Program

Masterclass
IFCN starts its 2026 Masterclass program with Dr. Marc Nuwer this month. Dr. Nuwer, one of our past-Presidents and who is the first IFCN named Mark Hallett Plenary lecturer for ICCN2026 in Cartagena, will lecture on “IOM over the Years” on Valentine’s Day, Saturday, February 14, 2026, at 11:00 (EST). In this lecture, he will review the early years of IOM, with an emphasis on evoked potentials. If you would like to attend, please register HERE

ICCN 2030
Time never stands still and we are always planning ahead. While IFCN is focusing on the forthcoming 2026 congress, we are beginning the search for a home for our 36th International Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology in 2030. If your society is interested in hosting for ICCN 2030, please contact the IFCN Secretariat at kzaiss@ifcn.info
Relevant considerations include the geographical distribution of ICCN’s in past years, accessibility and attractiveness of your city to our global community. The goals are to have an excellent scientific and clinical congress, a rich social programme and to end with a financial surplus. The last few ICCNs have been in Jakarta, Indonesia, 2024, Geneva, Switzerland, 2022, and Washington USA, in 2018. Since the next one is in Rotterdam in 2028, (now that ICCNs are on a two-yearly cycle), member societies outside the EMEAC Chapter are especially welcome. The one condition is that your society must be in good standing with IFCN, i.e. has paid its dues! 

ExCo Officer Nominations
Nominations are being sought for the election of IFCN Officers for 2026-2030. The Officers will be elected in July 2026 by member societies in good standing, for a term of 4 years. Officers will begin their service in September 2026, following the IFCN Congress in Colombia. For a description of roles and responsibilities of each position, and the nomination process, click here IFCN 2026 Election information Nominations close on March 20, 2026.

Visiting Professor Programme and Globa Outreach Initiative. Dhaka
Lastly, I mentioned several workshops supported under this programme in my last letter. Recently there has been one more. As part of its Global Outreach Programme, the IFCN supported a workshop on nerve conduction studies/electromyography (NCS/EMG) organized by the Society of Clinical Neurophysiology of Bangladesh (SCNB) and IFCN on the 8-9 November 2025. 

The NCS/EMG workshop, the first of its kind in the country, was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The workshop trainers included local experts from SCNB, Prof. Dr. Sk Mahbub Alam, Prof. Dr. Hasan Zahidur Rahman and Prof. Dr. Rajib Nayan Chowdhury as well as trainers from IFCN, Dr. Rajiv Wijesinghe (Australia) and Prof. Dr. Nortina Shahrizaila (Malaysia).
The programme included lectures, case-based demonstrations and hands-on practical sessions. The workshop was well attended by local neurologists, including young trainees, and received excellent feedback with requests for similar teaching programmes to be held in future. 
 
The faculty, participants and industry sponsors of the workshop
When we asked people in low- and middle-income countries how IFCN might best assist education they asked for high quality teaching close within their own country, with access to local and international experts. This, and the previous workshops are excellent examples of this, and we hope the initiative will grow. Thanks to all involved.

Lastly I hope it is permitted to mention an article which readers may have read on our website. Memories of Mark. Personal reflections by those in IFCN who worked with Mark Hallett, (by David Burke, Robert Chen, Andrew Eisen, Marc Nuwer, Walter Paulus, Paolo Rossini, John Rothwell, Eric Stålberg, and Jonathan Cole) has now been published, (Clinical Neurophysiology, 184, 2026, 2111590, ISSN 1388-2457, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2026.2111590. Though primarily to celebrate Mark’s work in IFCN, it reminds us that while science and medicine may appear rather academic intellectual pursuits, they are always nurtured better with mutual appreciation and friendship.  

Warm wishes,
Jonathan Cole

General Assembly in memorium

Each year IFCN is obliged to have a General Assembly to relate its activities over the year to member societies. It is a relatively formal affair, with ExCo members giving short summaries. We also remember members of the IFCN who died during the year. This year we lost two much respected peripheral neurophysiologists and neurologists, Austin Sumner and Peter Dyck. Then, just before the GA, the death of Professor Mark Hallett was announced. He will have been known to many readers and had an extraordinary record of publication and of service to neuroscience. We are fortunate he did so much for IFCN including being Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Neurophysiology and our President. His obituaries can be seen in that journal, on our website and in other journals too. We will not see his like again.

I would also like to mention the recent and unexpected death of Jeremy Bland, a colleague I knew for many years, who many will know from his remarkable work on carpal tunnel syndrome and  for neuromuscular imaging. He was recipient of a Distinguished Researcher Award by the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine in 2021.

General Assembly business meeting

In my short talk at the GA, I mentioned IFCN’s activities in its chapters, six committees, eight special interest groups and our Young Neurophysiologists’ Network, scholarships for Education and Research, Global Outreach initiative, Journals and congresses. I also mentioned that in the spring ExCo met to consider our strategy and priorities for the next year or so. Our interests were grouped together as education, research, special interest groups, congresses, our journals, with governance and finance supporting them.

Our Treasurer Aatif Husain was able to assure members that our finances remained in good health, both because of good returns from our investments and prudent management. Similarly, our Editors-in-Chief were optimistic about our two journals. Their Impact Factors may have dipped lightly of late, but this is part of a wider trend. Reports on education and research focused on fellowship winners who came from a wide range of countries, with many from low and middle income countries. Our masterclasses, of which there are six per year, continued to be successful with an encouraging number of new attendees to each.

Readers will know that the IFCN is a federation whose members are its societies. The GA voted to admit two new members, the Belgian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology  and the Association of Clinical Neurophysiologists and Medical Geneticists of the Republic of Uzbekistan.  Many congratulations to those societies. In addition, individuals from member societies can also sign up for full access to IFCN web based material on line. If you are a member of these two societies and interested in this then please contact the IFCN Secretariat at info@ifcn.info.

Global Outreach program

It is very gratifying to hear of workshops taking place under our Global Outreach Initiative and Visiting Professor Programs. This year there have been successful meetings in May in Tripoli, Libya, in July in Lima Peru. More recently there were meetings on EMG and NCs at the University of Namibia in November for 25 delegates 27^th – 29th November and in Dhaka, Bangladesh with the the Society of Clinical Neurophysiology of Bangladesh (SCNB) in collaboration with IFCN on the 8^th -9^th  November 2025.  The Dhaka workshop trainers included local experts from SCNB, Mahbub Alam, Hasan Zahidur Rahman and Rajib Nayan Chowdhury as well as trainers from IFCN, Rajiv Wijesinghe (Australia) and Nortina Shahrizaila (Malaysia).

Global Outreach in Namibia. Attendees and faculty, Imen Kacem, Melody Asukile, Kate McMullen, Jo Wilmshurst

Global Outreach in Dhaka, Bangladesh; faculty, industry and delegates.

Be Alert

In all this mention of activity, I should also caution people against ‘over-activity’ which we are made aware of not infrequently. It is not rare for me or our management to be made aware of scams sent to individuals in IFCN asking for urgent help and a money transfer to me as President or other Officers. There is little we can do about this except remain vigilant and to underline that we would never send such a request. The emails often have tell-tale errors too, but may prey on people’s good intentions so please bear this in mind.

Spanish interlude

In late October I was invited to Grenada for a meeting of the Spanish Society of Clinical Neurophysiology and the Spanish Society of Neurological Electrodiagnosis (SELECNE), to talk a little on artificial intelligence and future developments in peripheral neurophysiology. But I suspect I was asked principally to take part in a discussion about technician training. In Spain this does not exist formally, and the Society had assembled a working group to explore how to do this and had asked advice from colleagues in Portugal, Italy as well as the UK.

The UK has a well-developed organization of Health Care Scientists,  which is rightly independent of medical colleagues and the British Society for Clinical Neurophysiology. However, setting up a profession where it does not exist may need clinicians’ support. Recently our co-chair of the Education Committee, Lynn Liu, together with colleague Clio Rubinos has launched a poll to try to understand how technician education and practice are conducted around the world. Any society or person who would like, please fill it in.  SURVEY

The Spanish meeting was packed, vibrant and of an excellent standard. The Gala Dinner was not in the middle of the congress as usual but at its end, so people had to stay another night to attend. That did not seem to matter; the elegant restaurant, set in the woods below the Alhambra, was full to bursting, with the upstairs dining room echoing to members’ chatting. At the end of the meal, beyond midnight in the Spanish way, everyone trooped downstairs to dance the night away.

Spanish Gala; a young neurophysiologist (and neurosurgeon?), and our table for dinner.

Asia-Oceania Chapter Congress

In November the executive committee attended the 8^th AOCCN in Taipei, Taiwan. It was a pleasure to meet so many new colleagues, especially the Taiwanese organisers who had evidently worked so hard to make the congress such a success. Many areas of clinical neurophysiology were covered with enthusiasm and great expertise. My main recollections are of the discussions about artificial intelligence and the use of MR guided transcranial high frequency ultrasound for the treatment of Parkinson’s, and other conditions. 

Any congress allows us to work together but also relax in each other’s company. This being Asia the evening dinners were enhanced by liberal amounts of karaoke, with the local committee of experts, led by the Sinatra-like Professor Jeffrey Chen, completely outclassing those members of ExCo and others from afar whose enthusiasm and bravery far outpaced their singing ability.  Our thanks to Professor Chen and his committee for assembling a great meeting academically and socially, and congratulations to him on becoming new President of the AO Chapter.

Readers if you ever feel fatigued by life or, heaven forgive, tired of neurophysiology I recommend going to a meeting. If anything like the Spanish or Asia/Oceania Congress, members’ enthusiasm for our subject and sheer joy will soon refresh your soul.

Another year is nearing its end. I hope many of you are saving the date for next year’s ICCN in Cartagena, September 8^th-12^th. There was an excellent number of symposium proposals which the scientific committee has been working very hard to include guaranteeing a first rate programme both of symposia but also teaching courses. Please be aware that ICCN Abstracts are open for submission and that Registration opens December 15, 2025 ICCN 2026 . For those in the northern hemisphere enduring winter’s long nights and cold days, think of Cartagena where it will be hot, sunny and lively.

With my best wishes and those of ExCo to you all at this holiday season,

Jonathan Cole

Welcome to the first northern hemisphere fall/autumn letter. There is a lot to mention since members have been very active over the summer months, from the first course sponsored by our Global Outreach initiative in Latin America to the recent European Congress. This allows the letter to be full of photographs for a change. I will also cover events in the next year for your diary. 
Global Outreach Course, Lima, Peru. 
The Peruvian Society of Neurology, the Outreach group of the Education Committee and the IFCN Latin American Chapter recently hosted the first international course on Nerve Conduction and electromyography in Lima, Peru. The course drew an impressive 162 virtual participants, including professionals and specialists from both national and international backgrounds. One hundred and four did the NFC knowledge assessment for certification. Though the majority of participants were from Peru many other regions were also represented. Forty participants completed practical training sessions, with supervised exercises and demonstrations of electrophysiological techniques, case discussions, and examination of patients. Neuromuscular ultrasound was introduced as a complimentary tool to ENMG through a demonstration class of two hours. 

Congratulations to all, especially those who completed their assessment, and a huge thank you to Dr. Jose Manuel Matamala, Dr. Paulo Kimiad, Dr. Ana Lucila Moreira, Dr. Claudia Paz, Dr. Peggy Martinez, Dr. Carmen Paradas, Dr. Andres Nascimento, Dr. Jochen Hackembruch, Dr. Carlos Rangel and Dr. Jorge Gutierrez for their time and dedication to this program.

It is hoped that this was the first of many such courses, located close to places where clinical neurophysiology is less well established. The African Academy of Neurology (AFAN) will be hosting the next visiting professor program on November 27- 29, 2025. The regional teaching course for Sub-Saharan Africa on NCS/EMG Workshop will be held at the University of Namibia School of Medicine.

Masterclass

We are pleased to announce that Professor Andrea Antal, from the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology University Medical Center, Göttingen, Germany will present our next Masterclass, on Saturday, October 25, 2025 8:00 AM (EDT). She will present on “Low intensity transcranial electrical stimulation in the clinical practice: what works, what fails”. Her expertise in this area is second to none. If you are working in TES this is essential and if not then this lecture is still recommended given Andrea’s expertise and enthusiasm. TO REGISTER

IFCN affiliated course

A Quantitative EMG and Neuromuscular Ultrasonography Teaching Course will be held October 25-27, 2025 at Aarhus University, Denmark. The workshop will be aimed at clinical neurophysiologists in training and neurologists who already have broad experience in routine neurophysiological techniques who are looking to expand their practical skills and theoretical knowledge in both modalities. We are thrilled to welcome once more a distinguished faculty; Professor Erik Stålberg, Dr. Bjørn Falck, and Dr. Eman Tawfik.
For more information and to register : REGISTER

General Assembly

The IFCN General Assembly will be held virtually on November 6, 2025 at 7:00 AM (EST). The GA is the most crucial meeting of IFCN, consisting of Society delegates, IFCN leadership and interested parties from all its member societies. This is an opportunity for IFCN Member Societies to be informed of the past years' activities and accomplishments of IFCN. The IFCN Officers will report on what the IFCN has been doing over the last year and mention ideas for the coming one. 
IFCN Member society delegates are invited to attend. Please contact Kim Zaiss at  kzaiss@ifnc.info for additional information.

ICCN Cartagena, Colombia, September 8th-12th 2026

The ICCN will be held in the Convention Centre, on the seafront and close to the old colonial  town in Cartagena. It will feature signature educational courses, pre-congress workshops teaching courses, symposia and the IFCN’s three plenary lectures which have been named once more after great figures in our history; The Adrian Lecture in human neurophysiology, The Jasper Lecture in central clinical neurophysiology and the Kugelberg Lecture in peripheral clinical neurophysiology. There will also be a track of teaching sessions in Spanish. 
Presentations will be given by leading experts in the field while poster presentations will give everyone an opportunity to highlight their latest work conducted at clinical neurophysiology.  The planning for ICCN 2026 is in full swing. Early this month Jorge Guterriez, Aatif Husain, Kathy Uy, from EDI Management, and I visited Cartagena to look over the convention center and inspect hotels, and venues for the Gala Dinner and other social events. We found time to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ grave and a newly restored wooden bull ring assembled several storeys above ground and surrounded by a mall, but otherwise our days were packed trying to plan ahead to make the ICCN the best we can. 
The scientific committee, co-chaired by Jorge Guterriez and Hatice Tankisi is excited about the large number of symposia submissions already received – with time for more. The committee will be taxed to decide between them.We are looking forward to opening the call for abstracts in mid-October. Already however, the level of interest is most encouraging.

Journals

In my February letter I highlighted our past and continuing Handbook series, published in our journals. But it is also appropriate to mention our two journals for their own sake and the wide range of material published under our Editors-in-Chief, Robert Chen and Margitta Seeck. The range of material is huge and the standard high. For instance on our website Robert’s choices are at present on; the mediating role of feeder connections in the relationship between brain network efficiency and episodic memory in amnestic MCI; the characteristics of ipsilateral corticomotor pathways in people with cervical spinal cord injury; and agent-guided AI-powered interpretation and reporting of nerve conduction studies and EMG (INSPIRE), a hot topic indeed. 
Clinical Neurophysiology Practice has increased its submissions by 131% and its acceptance rate by 85% this year. Its Cite Score and IF have also improved, when some other journals have slipped a little. Papers just published include ones on; Home-Based sensing of the nervous system with clinical neurophysiology technologies, which is an IFCN handbook chapter; a comparison between sleep-deprived, and melatonin-induced sleep electroencephalography in children of different ages; and a review paper on  EEG focal delta slowing in focal epilepsy.

Asia-Oceania Congress, November 2025.

A reminder that out last chapter congress of the year will be the Asia Oceania Congress in Taipei, Taiwan, November 21 - 23, 2025. IFCN ExCo looks forward to attending.  

ECCN London September 2025

The site of the ECCN, Central Methodist Hall, looked out to Parliament Square, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Its main lecture hall hosted the first meeting of the UN in 1946. The delegate number hugely exceeded expectations with some teaching courses being standing room only, and there was excellent feedback from both delegates and the sponsors/manufacturers who are so important to us. People will have their own highlights. I enjoyed the Plenary Sessions, with Professor Geraldine Boylan opening, talking on her lifetime’s experience of neonatal epilepsy in intensive care. Professor Ulf Ziemann gave the Hagbarth Lecture on his extraordinarily precise work on TMS and closed loop stimulation, and Professor Margitta Seeck gave the Lopes Da Silva Lecture on epilepsy, from EEG to imaging and prediction. Then, on the last day, Professor Adam Zeman intrigued everyone with his work to delineate both transient epileptic amnesia and aphantasia (absence of the ability to conjure visual images). 
The scientific and other organization was excellent, the food was good and, unusually perhaps, the sun shone (some of the time). Thanks to colleagues from both EMEAC and BSCN, scientific committee co-chairs Andrea Antal from EMEAC and Ronit Pressler from BSCN and the convener, Jacquie Deeb from BSCN and Hatice Tankisi for EMEAC. 
The Gala Dinner was held in the Governor’s Hall of St Thomas’s Hospital just across the Thames from Parliament. It included a short sub-Shakespearian sketch by members of the host society dressed as Elizabethans in costumes from the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the best UK pantomime tradition  it included a community song. It certainly took the audience by surprise and seemed to be well received. 





Lastly some years ago the chapter initiated an award recognizing outstanding service to the EMEAC chapter. This year the Stålberg Awardees were Professor Hugh Bostock, Professor Ann Ali Abdelkader Hanafy, who may be the first awardee from Africa and Professor Ivan Rektor. The awards were given out at the opening of the congress by Professor Stålberg himself.  

Warmest wishes,

Jonathan Cole

Whether it is our congresses, on-line video library, Masterclass or learned reviews and research papers in our two journals, IFCN is primarily about education. So, our IFCN  Fellowships are an important part of our activity. This year we received an exceptional number of highly quality applications from around the world, which we hope reflects the health of our specialty and that our awards are perceived as being well suited to the needs of our trainees. The Education and Research Committees therefore faced a particularly challenging task in deciding on the awards. The process was rigorous, with applications both scored for various factors and then compared both for their own promise but also geographic and other considerations. I am delighted to announce that the following have been awarded Fellowships. 

IFCN Fellowships in Education, 2025

Abdulrahaman Zarzor from Iraq will study IONM at Duke University, USA, and then help educate his junior colleagues on this technique on his return. Mercedes Chiesa -Ferreira from Uruguay will study genetic and autoimmune neuropathies at the Ribeiro Preto Center in Brazil. Ekatarine Kurua from Georgia will study advanced EEG techniques and epilepsy management at Necker Hospital in France. Several centers in her home country lack these advanced techniques.  Nargis Usmonova Amanova from Uzbekistan will train at LMU University Hospital in Germany, in IONM to enhance this service once returned home. Our two Educational Africa to Africa winners are Desmond Koffie from Ghana, who will be a clinical epilepsy fellow at Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa focusing on adult electroencephalography and long-term EEG monitoring and Marcelinus Kilanga, from Tanzania, will focus on EEG, EMG, and NCS at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

IFCN Fellowships in Research, 2025

Flavius Bratu, (Romania) will research SEEG signal entropy analysis in postictal state at Service Neurophysiologie de Clinique in France. Masa Kovacevic will travel from Serbia to the Medical University in Vienna, Austria to expand her understanding of stereo-electroencephalography in presurgical epilepsy evaluation. Masaya Togo (Japan) will continue his training in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Science at Stanford University. His research is in neuromodulation therapy for epilepsy. Totsapol Surawattanawong, from Thailand, will continue his work in Kyoto, Japan on advanced wide-band EEG analysis, seizure prediction techniques, and integration of biomarkers in clinical practice. Yukiyoshi Sumi from Japan will continue to study RBD and other neurological sleep disorders in the Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria. 
Congratulations to all the IFCN Fellowship winners. Thanks also to the committee members for their hard work on this.

IFCN Teaching Courses

As you may have seen from our Executive Director Kim Zaiss’s newsletter, IFCN workshops have been taking place. 

1.    Global Outreach Initiative/IFCN Visiting Professor Programme
As one of the activities of our Global Outreach Program, Professor Ayat Allah Farouk Hussein, delivered a workshop including EMG and NCV demonstration in  English and Arabic languages in Libya 27-28th May 2025, Tripoli Central Hospital. There were two days dedicated to EMG & NCV with technical basics, hands-on and Case discussion. Other trainers included Dr. Mohamed E. Eltwayeb, Dr. Mabrouka Alqreeri and Dr. Eman Abdelkarim. 

2.    IFCN Society of Neuromuscular Imaging (ISNMI) SIG Workshop, Ottawa, Canada
This year, the IFCN Society of Neuromuscular Imaging organized their first hands-on neuromuscular ultrasound workshop in Canada, together with  Dr. Shahin Khayambashi from Vancouver and Dr. Grayson Beecher from Edmonton. The faculty included Dr. Omar Khan from McMaster, Dr. Nick Miller from University of Manitoba, Dr. Theo Mobach from University of Calgary, and an international faculty consisting of Dr. Andrea Boon from Mayo Clinic, Dr. Sarada Sakamuri from Stanford University, Dr. Monika Krzesniak-Swinarska from University of Colorado, and Dr. Nens van Alfen from Radboud University Medical Center. It was expanded from 50 to 72 participants to accommodate colleagues from Canada and beyond. Over two days, participants were introduced to basic scanning principles, indications, and evidence for the use of neuromuscular ultrasound in everyday practice, and some more advanced topics such as brachial plexus and small nerve scanning, all supported by case discussions, Q&As and two afternoons of hands-on practice. It was generously supported by the IFCN, Ipsen, Cadwell, Grifols, Canon Medical, and Fujifilm Sonosite and Cadwell.
It is gratifying that the Global Outreach team is planning several further courses this year, in Latin America, Africa and Asia, while the ISNMI is, I understand, planning to put on more of these courses around the world as and when opportunities arise.

ICCN 2026 Cartagena

Planning for the congress is well under way.  The ICCN Scientific Committee invites proposals for the scientific symposia sessions for the 34th International Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology (ICCN 2026), which will take place at the Centro de Convenciones Cartagena de Indias Convention Center in Cartagena, Colombia, September 8-12, 2026. The call for Symposia is open until September 15, 2025. For a list of topics and to submit a proposal CLICK HERE. Please visit the ICCN 2026 Website for additional information about the 34th International Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology.
The call for Abstracts for the congress will open later this year, so please look for an announcement.
ICCN Video library

IFCN is thrilled to announce that we have added the ICCN 2024 recorded lectures to the IFCN educational video library. These are available to IFCN members as a beneficial educational resource. To view: ICCN 2024 Recorded Lectures. Note, you must log in with your IFCN username and password to access it.

Chapter Congresses and more…
Please be reminded that the European Congress is coming up in London, September 9th-12th, and is taking place in the Methodist Central Hall, right opposite the Houses of Parliament. The Asia Oceania Congress is in Taipei, Taiwan, November 21 - 23, 2025. The IFCN executive committee looks forward to attending the Congress in Taipei. 
These are our big two congresses but there are many other teaching sessions too numerous to mention. Please keep an eye on our webpage advertising them;IFCN meetings and events calendar.

Lastly, whether in the north where it is summer holiday time, or the south where any break will be a winter vacation, I wish you all a relaxing time if you do take time off over the next couple of months. The next letter will be mid-September, after the European Congress.

With best wishes,

Jonathan Cole

Some of you may remember that in my last letter I highlighted our Handbook series and its current volume which is being written as you read. I am recently back from our workshop assembled from contributors to this and others in Aarhus, Denmark convened by Professor Hatice Tankisi. It makes one realise just how much expertise there is within our community. It also reinforced how important it is to continue the Handbook series, to provide definitive accounts of the many different areas we cover and to publish these in our journals accessibly too all, both to widen access to knowledge, but also it must be said to maintain our journals’ Impact Factors.

As we close another call for IFCN Fellowship applications, it is my pleasure to share that several of our past fellowship winners have published papers. Mario Prado, a 2023 Education Fellowship winner from the Philippines has published two papers, Chronologic Changes in Transcranial Motor Evoked Potential During Anterior Temporal Lobectomy in Patients with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: A SIngle-Center Cross-Sectional Analystic Study, and,  Switching carbamazepine to lacosamide improves gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase levels. Aayeshi Soni, a 2024 Education Fellowship winner from South Africa has published Diagnosis and Management of Adult Status Epilepticus  while Melody Asukile, a 2021 Education Fellowship winner from Zambia has published Long-term seizure and quality of life outcomes of an epilepsy surgery program in Cape Town, South Africa. Congratulations to all and we look forward to hearing from other Fellowship winners about their successes. As you may know we have been tweaking our Fellowships, decreasing the usual time of support but thereby allowing us to support more people from a wider distribution of countries. We also plan to keep in touch with our Fellows to see how their careers develop.

In the last month I also attended the first meeting of the Organising Committee of the International Congress 2026 and the first meeting of the scientific committee of the ICCN2026, co-chaired by Jorge Guterriez and Hatice Tankisi. It is planned to involve our Special Interest Groups as well as our colleagues in Colombia and others in the development of the programme. Please watch for announcements of the calls for Symposia and Abstracts later this year.  And of course, SAVE THE DATE; The 34th International Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology 2026 will be held in Cartagena, Colombia at Centro de Convenciones Cartagena de Indias on 8-12 September 2026.

One of my personal highlights from the Jakarta ICCN, apart from hitting the gong to commence the congress, was a lecture from Professor Nens van Alfen from Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands on Neuralgic amyotrophy. I am therefore delighted that we have persuaded her to give a Masterclass on this topic. The condition is more common and more amenable to (early) treatment than often presumed. The Masterclass is this weekend, on Saturday May 17, 2025. She is a neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist and a great lecturer. So please register and attend the lecture, whatever time it is for you. If not this weekend, then be sure to catch up with it when online.

This month’s letter is short. Time will tell, dear reader, if this is a trend or an aberration.

Best wishes,

Jonathan Cole