Bulletin - September 2008

IAPA Bulletin

Bulletin news from the IAPA Honorary Secretary – September 2008.

On Monday morning the sun was shining and while enjoying the pure Italian espresso, which is nowhere, as tasty as in Ferrara I let my thoughts wander. The XIV International Symposium on Audiological Medicine, organised by Alessandro Martini had ended the day before and I am sure I speak for all the over 300 participants when I express my gratitude to professor Martini for organising such an excellent conference and to all the eminent moderators and speakers contributing to the meeting.

Perhaps there is not only a reason to recall the Symposium, but also to report on the work of the IAPA Executive Committee (EC). Especially, since we are now mid term since we were elected at the IAPA General Assembly in Mexico in 2006 – and surely it have been eventful two years.

We who were elected in 2006 for a period of 4 years are the President Linda M Luxon, Vice-president Lionel Collet, Honorary treasurer Konrad S. Konradsson, Honorary treasurer Elina Mäki-Torkko, Past-president Jose Barajas de Prat and the co-opted members: Manfred Gross, Mohamed Hamid and Dafydd Stephens. The organiser of the next IAPA International Symposium, Mariola Sliwinska-Kowalska, as well as the editors of the journal Audiological Medicine Alessandro Martini and Valerie Newton are members of the EC as well.

When elected as vice-president Lionel Collet informed us that he would be running for the office of rector of the University of Lyon and if elected he did warn us that this office would take most of his time. As we congratulate Lionel to his election as rector we regret that his work at the university has indeed prevented him from taking an active part in the work of the Executive Committee just as he feared might happen.

The IAPA EC has met four times since Mexico: In London, UK in December 2006, in Lund, Sweden in May 2007, again in London in January 2007 and now recently in Ferrara, Italy.

A topic frequently returning to the agenda of the EC is the collaboration with our sister specialty, Phoniatrics. Since 2006 representatives from IAPA and the European Union of Phoniatricians (UEP) have met twice: in February 2007 and in May 2008, both times in Berlin, Germany. This collaboration has resulted in a Letter of Intent signed by the presidents of both associations. The Letter has been since been ratified by the EC’s of both associations as well as the recent IAPA General Assembly in Ferrara. The Letter is posted on the IAPA website (www.iapa-online.org). According to the Letter, both organisations intend to support each other. They therefore propose to:

• Invite all members of both Associations to their conferences
• Introduce a link between the websites of the two organisations
• Inform each other about research projects, which might be performed together.
• Accept the journal “Audiological Medicine” as the key Journal for members of both organisations
• Propose the subscription to Audiological Medicine be part of the membership arrangements of both Associations
• Request their members to support the activities of both organizations in research, education and health care.
• Send one delegate to the board meetings of each other. This delegate is invited to take
part in the board meetings at her/his own expense and without the right to vote.
• She/He will be accepted as a consultative guest and authorized representative of the other organization.

It is also agreed that both organizations represent medical disciplines, which are not yet recognised as independent specialities in all European countries. Both organizations are in contact with and in negotiation with the UEMS in order to be accepted as independent specialities in the European Union. In three major countries in Europe the two specialities are already joined into one speciality of Audiology and Phoniatrics. These countries are: Poland, Italy and Germany.

Consequently there was a strong feeling at the recent General Assembly, which was held in Ferrara, Italy that the EC should work swiftly for closer cooperation between the two associations UEP and IAPA and to actively propose the joint speciality of Audiology and Phoniatrics as an independent medical speciality in Europe.

The EC has participated in the work within the framework of the ENT-UEMS. Katherine Harrop-Griffiths has attended the meetings in Austria and Cyprus as an invited representative on behalf of the European Section of the IAPA. Much of the work as been devoted to the curriculum of the speciality of Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery and what audiological elements should be included in their training. Unfortunately, there has also been a request from the president of the ENT-UEMS that Audiological Medicine should be defined as a sub-speciality of ORL H&N Surgery and he as asked IAPA to contribute to a curriculum for such two year training.

Recently there have been requests from several countries, including China and Sub-Saharan Africa that IAPA should propose a core curriculum fro the speciality of Audio(vestibular) Medicine. To ensure such a broad input as possible the EC officers have met with representatives from the national associations of audiological physicians in Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Italy and UK on two occasions. There was then a meeting with representatives from several countries in London in May last spring where the document was finalised.

This core curriculum of Audio(vestibular) Medicine will be produced during the next meeting of the ENT-UEMS in Tromsö, Norway in October. The IAPA will then be represented by the President Linda M Luxon and Katherine Harrop-Griffiths.

In order to promote IAPA and our speciality the EC decided in 2006 to support and promote short seminars on selected audio-vestibular topics of current interest. The purpose was to increase the value of being member of IAPA and to increase the interest of becoming one, especially in countries where IAPA is hardly represented. The most suitable time for these seminars was found to be in the early or late summer – hence the name IAPA Summer School.

It was decided that the first IAPA Summer should be in Scandinavia to support the membership in these countries as the national associations of Denmark and Sweden had previously decided to collectively join the IAPA. The seminar was organised by Konrad S. Konradsson in Copenhagen, Denmark in October 2006. The main topics were Auditory Processing Disorders and Recent Advances in Vestibular Diagnostics with Linda M Luxon and Doris Bamiou as main contributors. The Summer School was supported by the company GN Resound and was well received with more then 80 participants.

The next Summer School was in Berlin last April and organised by Manfred Gross. The main topics had been previously chosen by the Scandinavian membership: Early diagnostics of hearing impairment in babies and Auditory neuropathy. Among the contributors were Jose Barajas, Tony Sirimanna, Katrin Neumann and Tobias Moser. The seminar was very well received although there – unfortunately – only was limited participation from Scandinavia. The Oticon Foundation supported the seminar.

The IAPA EC recently discussed the future Summer Schools and proposed that the Sumer Schools in 2009 and 2011 would be organised by Mohamed Hamid in Alexandria/Cairo, Egypt and Cleveland, USA, respectively. The Summer School in 2010 would be in Beijing, China and organised by Qi Jing.

The organiser of the Anniversary XV International Symposium in Audiological Medicine in 2010 will be Mariola Sliwinska-Kowalska. The conference will be in Krakow, September 26th to 29th. The main topics of the conference will be Diagnosis and early auditory rehabilitation of hearing-impaired children and Advances in implantation in audiovestibular medicine as decided by the EC and the Symposium organiser. Professor Sliwinska-Kowalska informed that she intended to invite representatives from the AHEAD III project to participate in the conference and to arrange a Round Table on the subject: Assessment of hearing in the elderly: ageing and degeneration - integration through immediate intervention.

The IAPA General Assembly later accepted the proposals above and voted that Audiovestibular manifestations of systemic diseases would be the fourth topic.

The conference in Krakow will commemorate the 30th anniversary of IAPA, but the Association was established there in 1980 in exactly Krakow, Poland.

The report of the Honorary treasurer at the General Assembly in Ferrara was a sad one, not because of the finances which seem to be on the safe side, but because it seems that the IAPA membership is decreasing. This is sad since the membership has steadily been on the rise for the past years. At the General Assembly the EC was criticised for not accepting membership payments by credit card and it was stated that since paying through the banking system was costly and cumbersome, this would be a main reason for members not paying their dues and thereby falling off the list. It was decided that the EC immediately should start working for accepting membership payments by credit cards.

The IAPA website was thoroughly renewed several years ago and has recorded several hundred visitors daily in the last year. The EC feels that the website is an important to maintaining contact with the membership. I order to upgrade and modernise the website IAPA has signed a contract with the company SeifHaven in New York, USA. The present website will be redesigned and is is the aim of the EC that each 3 months new information will be posted on the site, including a regular newsletter from the President.

As all the posts of the present officers of the EC will need to be filled at the next IAPA General Assembly in September, 2010 in Krakow, Poland it is important that the membership actively contributes by nominating officers for the posts in good time before the meeting. The EC welcomes all suggestions and nominations which should be forwarded to the Honorary Secretary whose e-mail address can directly accessed on the IAPA website (iapa_secretary@mac.com).

In Ferrara the IAPA EC unanimously agreed to appoint one of the founding fathers of IAPA, Dafydd Stephens as an Honorary member of IAPA for life. Alessandro Martini informed Stephens of this decision at a ceremony at the University of Ferrara when Stephens, together with Agnete Parving (also an Honorary member of IAPA) and Remy Pujol were awarded the Copernico Prize for their scientific achievements in the field of audiology.

On behalf of all EC officers I express my sincere gratitude to Dai Stephens for his devotion to Audiological Medicine though the years, for his pioneering work when founding the IAPA almost 30 years back as the first Honorary Secretary and for his relentless commitment to the association. Professor Stephens has always been an active member of IAPA including his 5 years as President of IAPA.

We, the members of IAPA, all thank Dai Stephens for his efforts in promoting Audiologcial Medicine all over the world and we welcome his continuing efforts as an active IAPA Honorary Member and the ambassador of our speciality for life.

I conclude this report by thanking all members of IAPA for the cooperation during these last two years and I look forward to work with you during the next two, as I also look forward to meet as many of you as possible at the next International IAPA conference in Krakow, Poland in September 2010.

Ferrara September 22nd 2008

Konrad S. Konradsson
IAPA Honorary Secretary