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Alan R. Cohen, MD
Business Meeting Minutes
AANS/CNS Section on Pediatric Neurological Surgery
Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007, 5 p.m.
Loews Miami Beach Hotel
Miami, Fla.
The meeting was called to order at 5 p.m. by Jeffrey Wisoff, MD, chair
Approval of Minutes From Spring 2007 Meeting - Al Cohen, MD, Secretary
Moved for approval and accepted by acclamation.
Financial Report - Bruce Kaufman, MD, Treasurer
The Pediatric Section remains in very favorable financial balance. Total assets,
as of Nov. 20, 2007, are $827,195, representing an increase of $97,295 from the same time last year. Currently the short-term investment account is doing better than the long-term account. It was projected that the annual meeting in Miami would run an estimated deficit of approximately $20,000 from the Epilepsy and Latin American symposia. Dues remain unchanged at $100 for Active members and $50
for Associate or International members.
The section has committed to about $100,000 of various expenditures (fellowships, contributions, meetings) over the current budget year. This amount was felt to be reasonable given the surplus in our accounts and the money accumulated from the annual meetings of the last two years. A similar amount of money could be available for discretionary spending in the coming budget year.
Membership Committee – Mark Proctor, MD
New members proposed for election at the business meeting were Daniel Guillaume, MD, and David Shafron, MD. Both were approved by the Executive Council. They were brought to a vote by the membership and approved.
Nominating Committee - Rick Abbott, MD
The following two individuals were proposed for Member-at-Large: James Drake,
MD, and Michael Handler, MD. Both were approved by the Executive Council. Their
candidacy was brought to a vote by the membership and approved.
Annual Meetings
Miami 2007 -- John Ragheb, MD
There has been a record attendance with 356 medical registrants at the current meeting. The Pre-Meeting Epilepsy Symposium was well-attended and the feedback from the participants was very positive. The Latin American Symposium followed the section activities.
Spokane 2008 -- David Gruber, MD
The meeting will be held Dec. 2-5 at the Davenport Hotel, 10 South Post St., Spokane, Washington 99201 (800-899-1482, 509-455-8888, 509-624-4455 FAX). The Davenport opened in 1914 and underwent a multimillion dollar renovation 10 years ago.
Boston 2009 -- Lily Goumnerova, MD
The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Hotel on the Charles River in Cambridge.
Future Meetings -- Tina Duhaime, MD
Proposals have been received for the following cities for future meeting sites: Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, St. Louis and Amelia Island.
Traveling Fellowship Committee - Al Cohen, MD, for Mike Scott, MD
Two Resident Traveling Fellowships were awarded at $2,500 each. Eylem Ocal, MD, a resident at Yale, will go to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Namath Hussein, MD, a resident at the University of Arizona, will go to Detroit Children's Hospital (Wayne State).
Two International Resident Traveling Fellowships were awarded at $5,000 each (this award is open to non-North American residents-in-training or to neurosurgeons within five years of residency completion). Yu-Cheng Chou, MD, of Taipei Veteran's General Hospital will spend three months at Children’s Hospital, Boston. Tania Leyva Mastrapa, MD, chief of the Pediatric Neurosurgical Section of the Cuban Society of Neurology and Neurosurgery, will spend three months at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (Ottawa). Andre Kuzmin, MD, of the Ural State Medical Academy in Yekaterinburg, Russia, was selected to be an alternate, proposing a three-month fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital. In discussion it was noted that Dr. Leyva Mastrapa had elected not to take the fellowship. Therefore the second international fellowship was awarded to Dr. Kuzmin.
This year there were four applicants for the Resident Fellowship and eight applicants for the International Fellowship.
Education Committee -- Paul Steinbok, MD
Dr. Steinbok gave a brief PowerPoint presentation and noted that the two areas
of focus have been education for pediatricians and international education.
Phil Aldana, MD, completed a survey on topics for education of pediatricians
with about a 40 percent response rate. Respondents prioritized topics of interest
in decreasing order as follows: craniosynostosis and plagiocephaly, hydrocephalus/shunt/ETV,
occult spinal dysraphism/tethered cord, Chiari 1, brain tumors, head injury,
and spasticity. Dr. Jallo has conducted a survey of international activities
by members which will serve as a resource for members considering international
activities. This will be on the Web site soon. Both surveys were felt to be
very successful.
| Involvement with the ISPN: |
Beijing, China
Havana, Cuba
Casablanca, Morocco |
December 8–9, 2007 (Tomita, Steinbok, Ventureyra)
June 9–11, 2008
December 18–20, 2008 |
Involvement with FLANC:
The section cosponsored a course in Barranquilla, Colombia, Oct. 28-31, 2007, with four faculty from the section: Mark Souweidane, MD, Paul Steinbok, MD, Dale Swift, MD, and Jeff Wisoff, MD. The meeting was chaired by Gabriella Zucarro, MD, president of FLANC. There were 71 attendees (40 neurosurgeons, nine residents, and 22 non-physicians), all from Colombia. A Latin American course is planned for northern Chile in September 2008.
Dr. Steinbok encouraged section members to participate in international courses, noting that it required hard work and a significant time commitment but that the experience was highly valued by past participants and the chance to help those less fortunate was greatly appreciated. He took down a list of interested section participants and asked others who were interested to contact him via e-mail at psteinbok@cw.bc.ca.
New Business
Dr. Wisoff noted that there were two proposed workforce studies, one conducted
by Susan Durham, MD, of Dartmouth and one to be conducted by Brandeis University,
to assess reasons why individuals choose to go into pediatric neurosurgery
or other specialties. Dr. Durham reported to the Executive Council that the
pediatric neurosurgery workforce has been relatively stable since 1998, with
an average of nine fellows graduating per year, but only five to six of them
going on to achieve ABPNS certification. Approximately one-third of the ACPNF
fellowship graduates do not belong to the Pediatric Section.
Dr. Wisoff reported that two new ad hoc committees have been formed. The Research Committee (Kestle, chair; Duhaime, Gupta) has been charged to find ways to promote pediatric neurosurgical research and stimulate resident trainees to develop an interest in pediatric neurosurgery. The Transition of Care Committee (Rekate, chair) has been working on plans to assist pediatric neurosurgical patients in the process of obtaining care for the conditions for which they were treated in infancy and childhood.
Several new positions have come open on standing committees. Individuals interested in serving on committees were instructed to contact Dr. Wisoff or Dr. Cohen.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Alan R. Cohen, MD
Secretary
©1998-2008; American Association of Neurological Surgeons /
Congress of Neurological Surgeons
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