From the Secretary

Alan R. Cohen, MD

This Joint Section Is Jumpin'

Greetings colleagues—the AANS/CNS Section on Pediatric Neurological Surgery has a lot going on.

At the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting in Chicago this spring the section will host a symposium moderated by Sarah Gaskill, MD, on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 30. The session will feature Jack Walker, MD, who will deliver this year’s Matson Lecture at 3:15 p.m. The section’s business meeting will follow the session.

At the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting in Orlando this fall the section will host two programs, the Treatment of Spasticity in the Pediatric Population, and Arrested Hydrocephalus. The hydrocephalus symposium will be the section’s first foray into integrated medical learning, or IML, the state-of-the-art technique that was introduced to rave reviews at last year’s CNS meeting.

The International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery will meet Oct. 12–16, 2008, in Cape Town. Rick Abbott, MD, will preside over the meeting. See the article in this issue of ShortCuts for meeting details.

The section announces two new ad hoc committees. The Research Committee (John Kestle, MD, Tina Duhaime, MD, and Nalin Gupta, MD) has been discussing formation of a research fellowship in pediatric neurosurgery along with a consultation service (statistician or research expert) to assist individuals in getting projects up and running. The Transition of Care Committee (Hal Rekate, MD) was created to develop strategies for treating adult neurosurgical patients who are in the process of obtaining care for the conditions for which they were treated in infancy and childhood. Hal is looking for members to work with him.

The mission of the Pediatric Section is to advance the specialty of pediatric neurosurgery, and we welcome and encourage new membership applications. Please check out our new Web site at www.pedsneurosurgery.org to learn about section activities as well as the procedure to apply for membership. We invite current members, particularly new members, to become involved in section activities. Any members wishing to participate in section committee activities should contact Jeff Wisoff, MD, section chair (jhw1@nyu.edu), or me (alan.cohen@uhhs.com).