2016 Kobe, Japan Annual Meeting

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It is our great pleasure to announce the 44th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN), which will be held in KOBE on October 23-27, 2016.

This is the third occasion for the Japanese Society for pediatric Neurosurgery (JSPN) to host this important meeting in Japan. The first annual meeting of ISPN was held in Tokyo hosted by Professor Matsumoto S in 1973, and 30^th annual meeting was held in Kyoto hosted by Professor Sato K & Professor Oi S in 2002.

In recent years, we are seeing tremendous changes such as the application of molecular biology to pediatric CNS tumor and congenital malformation, technical development of imaging diagnosis and advancement of prenatal diagnosis and tratment. These changes might bring a new era of breakthroughs and advances in diagnosis, treatment, management and ethics of pediatric Neurosurgery. In order to open up this new era, world–wide cooperative study will become more important, but we have to achieve this aim by respecting differences among us, differences of cultures, races and countries. Therefore, the theme of this annual meeting will be “Collaboration, honoring diversity”.

Kobe is a city having a unique style with an exotic atmosphere. It has flourished as an international port since old days and its culture has been greatly influenced by foreign cultures. And Kobe is also famous for its surprising recovery from the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake on January 1995. And noteworthy for us, KOBE is the birth place of Japanese society for pediatric neurosurgery

We will do our best to make ISPN 2016 an unforgettable one for all the participants. We hope that you will enjoy the exciting scientific and social events that we are now planning.

We sincerely look forward to see you in Kobe.

Mami Yamasaki MD,PhD

President of 44^th Annual Meeting of the ISPN

The Japanese Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery

AIJINKAI Healthcare Corporation, Takatsuki General Hospital