Document Download: World Neurology - May-June 2025

Published by Ascend Integrated Media LLC, Kansas, USA

From the editors

Steven L. Lewis, MD, Editor, and Walter Struhal, MD, Co-Editor

From The Editors

Welcome to the May-June 2025 issue of World Neurology. In this issue, Prof. Wolfgang Grisold, president of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN), updates readers on many exciting WFN activities, including the upcoming special Council of Delegates (COD) meeting and our ongoing advocacy and educational initiatives. These include World Brain Day 2025 in July and preparations for the XXVII World Congress of Neurology (WCN), which will be held Oct. 12-15, 2025, in Seoul, South Korea.

Drs. Aida Suárez-Gonzalez, Morris Freedman, Thomas Bak, Adesola Ogunniyi, Gladys E. Maestre, and Raj Kalaria provide their detailed report on the Dementia and Brain Aging in Low-and Middle-Income Countries symposium that was held Dec. 3-6, 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya. This issue also includes reports from three young neurologists who were recipients of WFN Junior Traveling Fellowships. Each attended important international conferences and presented their research.

In the History column, Drs. Peter J. Koehler and Nadeem Toodayan provide a well-illustrated report on the First International Neurology Congress that was held in 1931 in Bern, Switzerland. It was the forerunner to the World Congresses of Neurology (WCN), and their report is nicely timed in anticipation of the upcoming WCN in Seoul.

Dr. Chandrashekhar Meshram reports on the Orange City Aarogya Film Festival for Health Awareness that occurred in March 2025, in Nagpur, India. The article features many nice examples of the media coverage of this successful and unique two-day event.

This issue also features a heartfelt In Memoriam for Prof. Dr. Jan van Gijn, a neurological legend, written by Prof. Peter J. Koehler and Prof. Marianne de Visser.

We again thank all neurologists and neurologic trainee readers in all regions of the world for their interest in the WFN and World Neurology. We also look forward to your celebrations of World Brain Day (WBD) 2025, Brain Health for All Ages, on July 22, 2025. We hope to receive illustrated reports from around the globe about the many and varied WBD activities for future issues of World Neurology.

Finally, we look forward to seeing many of you at WCN 2025 in October in Seoul, South Korea. As a reminder, late-breaking abstracts remain open until July 21, 2025.

Highlights

President's Column

• WFN in Action Around the World ⧉
  By Wolfgang Grisold

  I want to welcome the readers of World Neurology, the newsletter of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN). I am happy to report on activities since our last issue...

WFN Training Center Report

• Report on My Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship in Rabat, Morocco ⧉
  By Dr. Khalifa Ababacar Mbay

  I am pleased to report on my training experience at the WFN Training Center in the Clinical Neurophysiology Department at the Hôpital des Spécialités, in Rabat, Morocco. The training was sponsored by the World Federation of Neurology (WFN).

  I started my internship in a well-organized department with a regular schedule in which I alternated electroneuromyography (ENMG) and electroencephalogram (EEG) practice from Monday to Friday. I did ENMG four times a week, with a minimum of four patients per day. This was under the supervision of professors and assistant professors who defined the protocols and validated the techniques and results...

• Film Festival Raises Awareness of Health-Related Issues ⧉
  By Dr. Chandrashekhar Meshram

  The Orange City Cultural Foundation (OCCF), in collaboration with the P.M. Shah Foundation, Nagpur Municipal Corporation, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, CineMontage, and Saptak Napur, organized the Orange City Aarogya Film Festival on March 29-30, 2025, in Nagpur, India.

  This initiative, a brainchild of Dr. Chandrashekhar Meshram, president of the OCCF and trustee of the World Federation of Neurology (WFN), was the first health-focused film festival in central India. The idea was to create health awareness in the general public and inspire people to do good work on health-related issues...

• From Nairobi With Commitment ⧉
  By Dr. Aida Suárez-Gonzalez, Prof. Morris Freedman, Dr. Thomas Bak, Prof. Adesola Ogunniyi, Prof. Gladys E. Maestre, and Prof. Raj Kalaria

  Dementia and Brain Aging in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, a symposium held Dec. 3-6, 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya, marked another milestone in global efforts to advance equitable brain health. Hosted at the Safari Park Hotel, the event brought together more than 200 delegates from Africa and the world, representing a wide spectrum of researchers, clinicians, and policymakers. The setting underscored the meeting's purpose: to center the voices, knowledge, and experiences of those working within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where the burden of dementia is growing rapidly...

Junior Travelling Fellowships

• Poster Presentations, Neurology and Art, and More ⧉
  By Dr. Dulari Gupta

  This was my first AAN meeting. It was the largest meeting I have attended, with 14,500 participants and 24 halls where sessions were being held. Initially, the scale of the meeting was overwhelming, but I was advised to attend sessions I was particularly interested in and view any sessions I missed online. Since I am doing my PhD on artificial intelligence (AI) in stroke prediction, I attended all the sessions related to AI...

• Learning New Skills for Movement Disorders ⧉
  By Dr. Purushottam Singh and Dr. Cheshta Arora

  As recipients of the 2025 Junior Traveling Fellowship Award from the World Federation of Neurology (WFN), we were privileged to attend the Asia-Oceanian Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Congress (AOPMC), held March 21-23, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan. It was an enriching experience that offered valuable academic and professional insights. It not only provided exposure to cutting-edge research, but also enabled meaningful networking with peers and experts.

  The conference was a three-day educational journey where we learned new skills related to movement disorders, our primary area of interest. The program included a wide range of sessions, such as keynote addresses, oral presentations, poster sessions, and panel discussions. We also had the opportunity to interact with international faculty and gain useful insights on our work...

In Memorium

• Prof. Jan van Gijn (1942-2025) ⧉
  By Peter J. Koehler and Marianne de Visser

  Prof. Jan van Gijn, a legend in the field of neurology, died on April 3, 2025, in Utrecht, the Netherlands. He was born on July 22, 1942, during World War II, in Geldermalsen. He went to medical school at the University of Leyden. After completing his studies there, he went to the Dijkzigt Hospital (now Erasmus University Medical Center) in Rotterdam to start his residency in neurology...

History

• The First International Neurology Congress in Bern ⧉
  By Peter J. Koehler and Nadeem Toodayan

  The 27th World Congress of Neurology will be held in October in Seoul, South Korea. You may wonder when, where, and how the congress came about and the history of the meeting. The first International Neurology Congress took place in 1931, but bringing it to life was not an easy task...