Welcome to the Website on the World Federation of Neurology!

This website and our newsletter World Neurology provide information and updates on the activities of the WFN.

Society news

We want to welcome our 124th member, the neurological society of Chad, and we are glad that another society from Africa joins the WFN.

For a WFN membership, the minimum number of neurologists for each country to join are 5 neurologists, but for countries with less than 5 neurologists, individual membership is possible (Please contact the London office for details).

The elections for the new board of the WFN were held electronically and the results announced at the hybrid Council of Delegates (COD) meeting in Montreal:

The electronic voting results from the COD are: Pr M. Wasay (Pakistan) was elected a trustee and will follow Pr M. Freedman (Canada). Pr Richard Stark (Australia), as the treasurer, will be replaced by Pr M. Freedman (Canada). We thank Pr Freedman for his activity as a trustee for the past period, and also thank both coopted trustees Pr Riadh Gouider (Tunisia) and Pr Marco Medina (Honduras) for their incredible input in the past 2 years in particular to the needs of the regions.

The trustees have decided to use the possibility of two coopted trustees for the next administrative period until the COD 2024. I am glad to report that Pr Minerva Lopez Ruiz (Mexico), and Pr Maria Benabdeljlil (Morroco) have accepted our invitation to be coopted  trustees for the period 2023/2024 until the next COD meeting in 2024. We look forward to working with the new members of the board, and thank the outgoing trustees.

I also want to thank all persons who applied for the open positions and were not successful in this task. Please keep supporting the the WFN!

The World Congress of Neurology in Montreal

The WCN 2023 in Montreal  was co-hosted with the Canadian Neurological Society ⧉. It was the first hybrid congress of the WFN and had 2,300 persons on site and 1,300 online, with a total number of 132 countries participating. This is an enormous reach and we are glad that this also allows us to bring the congress and neurological content to countries who were not able to attend for reasons such as financing, visa, or other. The scientific program was excellent, and the content will be available on the website 3 months after the congress.

The field of neurology is developing and changing. The 2 year cycle between the WCN is too long to keep updates and education at the very last level. The WFN has decided to develop a WFN virtual interim Meeting in between the congresses, entirely dedicated to update, education and teaching courses. The first meeting will be launched in fall 2024.
It is important for the WFN as well as all member societies to dedicate attention to the global need of CME and CPD to keep practicing neurologists updated and aware of new developments. CME/CPD needs to be free from industrial influences and must reflect the scientific  and evidence based aspects of the field. All WFN WCN congresses are accredited by UEMS EACCME ⧉, which also have an automatic accreditation with the AMA ⧉ and the Canadian Royal Society ⧉.

Education is one of the main activities of the WFN, and, in addition to our ongoing spectrum from congress bursaries, Junior Traveling Fellowships (JTFs), department visits, and teaching centres (wfneurology.org/education), we think the concept of advocacy and leadership needs to be increasingly promoted in lower-middle and low-income countries.  We will develop and share this task with the AAN ⧉, who have been organising a successful leadership program (Palatucci Advocacy Leadership Forum ⧉ or PALF) over the past years, and will develop a joint global advocacy leadership program from 2025 onwards. It will consist of several virtual components and 2 face-to-face meetings at our congresses. Access and participation will be very competitive and applicants will have to engage in a project.

The scientific program and the plenary lectures at the WCN were very well selected   and  covered many fields of neurology, the input of our Specialty Groups and also jointly with subspecialties such as the World Stroke Organization, Movement Disorder Society , International League against Epilepsy, Peripheral Nerve Society,  as well as other specialties such as psychiatry and neurosurgery. These joint sessions are a positive and reciprocal way forward to communicate with subspecialties and other specialties.

One of the strength of our program was the strong commitment to  promote joint projects with the WHO, in particular the IGAP ⧉,  educational aspects and educational models worldwide, the inclusion of young neurologists and also a plenary lecture on patient issues, a patient day, and creation of patient forums, as well as the 10-year celebration of the WFN Training Centres, among others. This number of organisational and educational meetings (26) emphasised the global direction of the WFN  and the strong wish for interaction and collaboration. The present international developments, in particular the WHO initiative of the IGAP, essential medicines, and rehabilitation give our field a strong momentum, and we have to continue joint pathways and avoid division of interests and goals.

Global world leverage

As a scientific society we perceive that the number and intensity of worldwide conflicts increases. This will also increase the number of casualties of humans of any parties, from civilians toward military personnel. We emphasise that the WFN commends violence of any kind  and  makes aware of human suffering and in particular of inflicted neurological damage and conditions. The lesions of the brain, the spinal cord, the peripheral nerves  and muscle, and different types of pain syndromes will require a large workforce to diagnose and treat and hopefully rehabilitate and also provide permanent help and care for disability and  chronic neurological conditions.

Chronic pain syndromes and neurological sequelae of amputations will need neurological attention in the near future, and these have been well described in the past world wars.
The WFN has reached out to world psychiatry ⧉, world neurosurgery ⧉ and world neurorehabilitation ⧉ to create a joint platform on neurological, psychiatric, neurosurgical effects of war and future ways for therapy and neurorehabilitation.

Conclusion

We  continue our global activities with the WHO and the UN ECOSOC for the promotion of neurology, and  look also forward to our next World Brain Day 2024 which will continue our global activities with the WHO and UN regions.

Neurology, brain health, the increased awareness of disabilities, and the important content of IGAP will be used to promote and advance neurology worldwide.