We have recently had a wonderful meeting in Rio under the leadership of Francisco Salomão and the presidency of Gordon McComb. It was a proud moment for me to receive the traditional poncho from Gordon and I accept this honour by our society colleagues with all humility. The highlight of our activities remain the annual meetings and I am quite sure that we will have a great meeting in historic Izmir next year. We must thank Saffet Mutluer, who has taken up this responsibility at a late stage after Yusuf’s unfortunate death.
The society is being served extremely well by our executive board and I take this opportunity to thank the past as well as new team members. As the organization has acquired a critical mass and with professionalization of our basic functioning, we are now ready for bigger challenges. Our mission statement has given us the task of promoting children’s health throughout the world by encouraging transmission and exchange of neuroscientific information and techniques. Our Education committee is doing a wonderful job by organizing courses at various levels in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We would expand these activities in the future by starting fellowships for young pediatric neurosurgeons from developing countries and create more opportunities for them to attend our annual scientific meetings and to become members.
The ISPN guide, being developed by Rick Abbott along with many of our members, has become a great resource and will help not only our members but neurosurgeons everywhere interested in pediatric neurosurgery.
I am sure that the new team members will have several ideas to take our society activities further and I would encourage all other members for their feedback and suggestions.
Sincerely yours,
Chandrashekhar Deopuari
