Latest Newsletter
President Roger Bayston and the Executive Committee wish you a
Happy New
Year.
Before we get down to the news-
Dates for your diary in 2010:
1 January: Subscriptions due (see message from the
treasurer below).
Friday 12th February: Last date for submission of Abstracts and
Essays for Vancouver meeting.
1st March 2010: Registration opens for Vancouver.
6th June 2010: Last date for reduced registration fee.
6th June 2010: Last date for reserving accommodation at UBC.
7th July 2010: Start date for Vancouver meeting.
From the President: First may I wish all our
members a peaceful and exciting New Year. Thank you to all those
Honorary Members who replied to my message before Christmas, it is
good to keep in touch. I hope that you are all looking
forward to the Vancouver meeting, and are preparing abstracts,
which you should submit online. They have already started to come
in!
The Society's new website <www.srhsb.org> is
up and running under the supervision of our webmaster, Waheed
Ashraf (though some areas are still under construction). Please let
him know of any of your recent relevant publications so that he can
post the reference <waheed.ashraf@nottingham.ac.uk>.
The site is available for abstract submission but is not quite
ready for payment of subscriptions online. Last year's Annual
meeting abstracts are also available. Please let us have your
positive and negative comments on the website so that we can
maintain a high standard.
SRHSB as an international society is concerned with the causes of
neural tube defects worldwide, including poverty and conflict. To
this end we should not knowingly support institutions involved in
unethical investment. We have begun to move our funds to ethical
banks, though this has also been prompted by the growing
instability of some larger banks. Nothing will change for this year
regarding subscription payments but I and our Hon Treasurer, Roger
Strachan, will work during the coming year towards more financially
stable and ethical banking.
Finally, please encourage colleagues young and not - so - young to
join the Society. Flyers advertising the next Annual Scientific
Meeting and the Society are available to download and we encourage
you to distribute these at any relevant local or international
meeting that you attend. We hope to see you in Vancouver!
Annual Scientific Meeting, July 7-10th 2010,
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Please note: the Closing date for
Receipt of Abstracts is Friday 12th February 2010. Abstract
submission must be done through the website.
The 54th Annual Meeting of the
Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida will be
held at the University of British Columbia from July 7-10, 2010 at
the invitation of the Department of Pediatrics, UBC and the
organizing committee headed by Dr. W.J.D Arnold and accompanied by
Dr. Douglas Cochrane (Pediatric Neurosurgery) and Ms. Beverly Irwin
(Nurse Clinician Spina Bifida Program, B.C.'s Children's Hospital).
The Vancouver committee is very excited about hosting the meeting
in Canada for the first time in the Society's history. The
scientific sessions will be held in the Ike Barber Center at the
University of B.C.
Abstract Submission: Authors are encouraged to look at
the new online submission system before the closing
date.
Both members and non-members can submit abstracts for the
Vancouver Meeting by going to: /submit-abstracts/abstract-form.aspx
. Please note that you have to submit the abstract
electronically. Please do not submit abstracts by email. It is
suggested that you prepare a draft of the abstract according to the
instructions using the Microsoft Word template (click the link to
download the template) before you fill in the online form. Use this
draft to paste the relevant sections into the web form and submit.
Save the abstract in Word format on your computer.
Prizes! This year five prizes of £100 each are
being offered; two for best oral presentation, two for best poster
presentation and one President's prize. Please see website for
details.
Registration: An online registration form will
be available through a link on the website from 1st
March 2010. The early registration fee (by June 6th) for
members will be C$500, for non-members C$605 and for accompanying
persons C$360.
Guest lecturers: We are delighted to announce that the
following have agreed to be guest lecturers:
Dr. Benjamin Warf, Boston, on 'Endoscopic treatment of
hydrocephalus in African myelomeningocele infants'.
Dr. Rima Rozen, McGill University on 'Biochemistry and
genetics of folate metabolism'.
Dr. Margot van Allen, Vancouver, on 'Prenatal diagnosis and
folic acid in the detection and prevention of NTDs'.
Accommodation: A variety of accommodation types
for delegates will be available in the Gage Towers, Gage Towers
Apartments and West Coast Suites, situated on the University
Campus, very close to the Ike Barber Center. All the academic and
social venues are within walking distance. Breakfast is included in
the accommodation price and bookings can be made online through the
University of British Columbia at:
/meetings-and-events/vancouver-2010/vancouver-2010-accommodation-.aspx
or by following the link on the SRHSB website.
Bursaries: A few bursaries will be available to
help with expenses for young presenters who have no other source of
funding. Please apply to Hon Treasurer by April 15th 2010.
Social events: These will include a welcome
reception at the Museum of Anthropology, which was designed by the
world - famous architect Arthur Erickson. The Society outing on
Thursday includes a traditional First Nations salmon barbeque
luncheon (vegetarian option available) in the Long House at UBC,
followed by a dinner cruise through beautiful mountain fiords in
spectacular Howe Sound, just a short distance from downtown
Vancouver. The accompanying persons' programme includes a gondola
trip and luncheon at the top of Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver,
a tour of the Japanese (Natobi) gardens at UBC and tour of the city
of Vancouver. The gala dinner will be held at the Cecil Green
House, a heritage mansion situated overlooking Howe Sound. Cecil
Green house is situated on the UBC Campus.
Contact Doug Cochrane dcochrane@cw.bc.ca or Bill
Arnold and Bev Irwin at birwin@cw.bc.ca for further
information.
Travel Information to Vancouver:
All of the major airlines and especially charter airlines fly
into Vancouver. The airlines with direct or with a connecting
flight are Air Canada, American Airlines, Air France, British
Airways, BMI, Continental Airlines, Delta, KLM, Lufthansa,
Northwest, Air Transat, United Airlines and Virgin Airlines; all
fly direct from the UK or Europe. Air Transat has many charter
flights to Vancouver from many cities in the UK and Europe during
the spring/summer and fall. Air Transat is associated with Thomas
Cook Travel. Watch carefully for seat sales!!
An excellent website for information about Vancouver and
environs is through Tourism Vancouver:
http://www.tourismvancouver.com
.There are many day tours to Victoria, on Vancouver Island,
Whistler, and tours from Vancouver to the Rocky Mountains by coach
or train. For information on travel to UBC from the airport please
consult the SRHSB website.
Experimental Hydrocephalus Informal
Meeting: In response to popular request, a pre-
meeting will be held on Wednesday morning. The aim of this meeting
is to give researchers involved with experimental hydrocephalus an
opportunity to present their research in greater detail than time
allows at the main meeting. A shorter version of the same work can
also be presented at the main meeting. The objective is to promote
discussion and collaboration among researchers. Members interested
in attending and/or presenting at this pre-meeting should contact
the Hon Secretary as soon as possible. Abstracts are not required
for the pre-meeting but you will be asked for a title nearer the
time.
Executive Committee: The committee will be
looking for two new ordinary committee members at the next Annual
General Meeting in Vancouver. Anyone interested in serving should
contact the Honorary Secretary.
SRHSB website: Webmaster Waheed Ashraf
has been sending out broadcast email messages to all members from
the automated web-based system (noreply@srhsb.org). By
this means all members will have been sent a membership ID number
and instructions for accessing the members-only area of the
website. Since there is a possibility that some people will not
have received these messages for whatever reason, we would like all
members to check and contact Waheed at waheed.ashraf@nottingham.ac.uk
if they have not received these so the problem can be
rectified.
Subscription payments: A message from the
treasurer, Mr. Roger Strachan. Please reply to:
rogerstrachan@hotmail.com
Dear Members,
Subscriptions became due on Jan 1st 2010. Please read and take
note of the following:
Those UK members who pay by Standing Order can relax, as their
payment was taken at the beginning of January.
UK members who do not have a Standing Order in force will have to
arrange payment by cheque or Credit Card, and I would strongly
advise them to set up a Standing Order, which can now easily be
done through on-line banking.
Those few European members who pay by International Banking Credit
facilities I hope will continue to do so by retaining the facility
in place.
Members paying by Credit Card whose card details from 2008/2009
remain in force will have their subscription taken sometime during
January and February.
Members paying by Credit Card whose card details have expired, or
whose card is declined, will be emailed separately with a request
to fax a new subscription fee payment form.
Members who failed to pay last year, despite reminders to do so,
will be emailed individually requesting payment for 2009 and
2010.
New members, recently elected last year, must ensure that a a
means of paying their subscription has been put in place.
Members who depend on their institutions to pay on their behalf
should check that such an arrangement is in place - dollar cheques
must include the transaction fee of £7, in addition to the
subscription fee of £60.
It is unlikely that the online payment method via PayPal will be
ready for this year.
Bank transfer/ account
details:
Society for Research
into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida
Account
no: 11936305
Sort
Code:
16-14-30
Branch: Royal Bank of
Scotland, Sheffield Broomhill Branch, 184 Whitham Road, Broomhill,
Sheffield S10 2SS, UK.
IBAN GB12 RBOS
1614 3011 9363 05
SWIFT
BIC RBOS GB
2L
Publication of 2009 Proceedings: The
proceedings for the 2009 Belfast meeting were published online as a
supplement in Cerebrospinal Fluid Research vol 6
supplement 1 on 27th November 2009. (www.cerebrospinalfluidresearch.com/supplements/6/S2
). Access to the supplement is free to anyone with Internet access.
The complete pdf file can be downloaded from the journal or the
Society's Website.
Publication of reviews and research papers:
Research papers can be submitted to Cerebrospinal Fluid
Research (www.cerebrospinalfuidresearch.com/manuscript)
or any other BioMed Central journal (www.biomedcentral.com) for
peer review and rapid online publishing. The article processing
charges (now £995 or $1590 or €1115) will be waived for members
provided they give the following code IN-1384802
(or contact the Hon secretary), when they submit papers. If members
are already exempt through their home institution membership then
the SRHSB code will not be needed.
Lecture tour in India (Roger Bayston)
From left to right: Mark Luciano, Roger Bayston, Don Marcoccio
(Codman)
For one week just before Christmas, Dr Mark Luciano and I
visited India. In a few days we visited hospitals and Institutes in
New Delhi (several times), Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Lucknow.
We spoke at the Neurological Society of India 58th annual
conference (Lucknow) and the 16th meeting of the Chennai Neuro
Society, as well as giving seminars in other hospitals. Mark spoke
on neuroendoscopy and diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus,
and I spoke about infection issues in shunting and external
ventricular drainage. The level of knowledge and standard of
questions and discussion were high. The standard of healthcare in
the Government and private hospitals that we visited was excellent
and we saw both state - of - the - art neuro - imaging and neuro -
oncology equipment including the Cyberknife at the Apollo hospital
in Chennai, and a very impressive government - funded extension to
the neurosurgical facilities with new operating and neurointensive
care facilities at the G. B. Pant Hospital in New Delhi. I was
delighted to renew contact with people who had trained in UK,
including Dr Ajay Sharma, an ex - member of SRHSB, whom I knew in
London almost 30 years ago. The trip was sponsored by Codman, and
we were pleased that Mr P Laxminarain, the Codman President, also
attended the NSI conference as well as visiting his relatives in
Mumbai. At each venue I distributed flyers for SRHSB and the
Vancouver conference, and I hope that we shall see attendees and
new members from India. Regrettably, the schedule was extremely
busy and we saw very little of India except from a car or an
aeroplane, but there is a wide societal gap between rich and poor
in India and the high incidence of neural tube defects and basal
risks for surgical infection arising from malnutrition and co -
infections especially tuberculosis place a complexion on healthcare
that is quite different from that seen in Europe or USA. It is
entirely compatible with the international aspirations of SRHSB
that we engage with societies in developing countries, from whom we
can learn a great deal.
55th Annual Scientific Meeting, Nottingham,
UK, 2011
Arrangements for the 55th Annual Scientific Meeting
are in hand. The meeting will be held at the new, award - winning
Jubilee Campus of the University of Nottingham, at the invitation
of Dr Roger Bayston and colleagues, on 22nd -
25th June 2011. Accommodation is on site. The city and
area offer fascinating cultural, environmental and historical
opportunities, and the University is renowned for its medical and
scientific research, including of course the original invention and
development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Further
information will be posted as progress is made.
Future Meetings of the SRHSB:
2010: Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, July 7-10th, at the invitation of Dr.
Bill Arnold and colleagues.
2011: Nottingham UK 22nd
-25th June at
the invitation of Dr. Roger Bayston.
2012: Utrecht, Netherlands. Pieter Dik has
agreed to host this meeting.
Future meetings of interest to Society members in
2010:
16th Annual Blood-Brain Barrier Consortium
Meeting: The Sixteenth Annual Blood-Brain Barrier
Consortium Meeting will be held March 18 - 20, 2010, at Sunriver
Resort near Bend, Oregon. The meeting is organized in collaboration
with the International Brain Barriers Society (IBBS): Please
contact: Emily Hochhalter at 503-494-0614 or hochhalt@ohsu.edu
The International Children's Continence
Society, in cooperation with Professor Eliane Fonseca,
will be holding the following events in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
March 18-20 2010: Workshop on pediatric urodynamics, biofeedback
and electro-stimulation. ICCS course - Enuresis, daytime
incontinence and other bladder disturbances in childhood.
International enuresis symposium - bedwetting in children; latest
advances. Contact Tryggve Nevéus: Tryggve.Neveus@kbh.uu.se
5th International Hydrocephalus Workshop, May
20-23rd 2010, Crete, Greece, President Dr. Anthony Marmarou
www.hydrocephaluscrete2010.gr
11th National Conference on Hydrocephalus, June
17-20th 2010, Cleveland, USA, sponsored by the Hydrocephalus
Association and chaired by Mark G. Luciano and Stephen M
Dombrowski. www.hydroassoc.org
Barriers of the CNS, Gordon Research
Conference: Barriers of the CNS: Blood/Brain
Interfaces in Health and Disease, will be held June 20-25, 2010
Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH, USA Chair: Gert Fricker Vice
Chair: Quentin Smith. www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2010&program=cns
14th Intracranial
Pressure and Brain Monitoring Conference, September
12-16th 2010 Tübingen, Germany.
Local organizer: Martin U. Schuhmann. http://www.icp2010.eu/
Hazel Jones
Hon Secretary
January 2010
