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News & Views Welcome to the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society, Inc.™ (IFESS) News & Views. Contents: Be ready for future IFESS annual Conferences!!!· Dr. Ian Swain is the Conference chair for the 2004 meeting that will be held 7th-10th September in Bournmouth International Centre, United Kingdom. Further details on the meeting will be available in the nearest future at the site: http://www.salisburyfes.com/. · The IFESS 2005 Conference will be organized in Montreal, Canada. The Conference Chair of this event will be Dr. Mohamad Sawan. · The Board of Directors decided to accept the invitation from Dr. Manfred Bijak to host the Annual Conference in 2010 in Vienna, Austria. This annual Conference will be organized in conjunction with the 10th triennial Vienna International Workshop on FES. IFESS www sitePaul Meadows is doing a superb job in organizing the IFESS home page. Now the page has online data submission, links, lots of educational stuff, and a newsletter. Congratulation to Paul for the design of the home page and excellent material that is posted! Short report from the Australia 2003 IFESS ConferenceWebsite: http://dcconferences.com.au/ifess/The IFESS annual Conference was another success of the Society. Congratulation to the Conference organizers chaired by Drs. Glen Davis and James Middleton, and their associates Henry Rischbieth, Tim Scott, Tone Stepens, and Dianna Crebbin. The “title” of the eight annual Conference was: “From Technology to Market - Bridging the Gap." The meeting was held in the Novotel Twin Waters Resort Sunshine Coast, Australia, 1 -5 July 2003. The Conference Objectives were the following: · To promote interdisciplinary discussion between expert researchers, bioengineers and clinicians in the allied fields of Functional Electrical Stimulation, neuroscience, and neurological disability, and · To provide special interest group workshops for discussion of current topics including technological and physiological barriers to success, recipient views regarding acceptance of FES technology and commercial and regulatory success factors. The technical themes were the following: · Adaptive control strategies using FES, · Command signals, sensors and feedback, · Biomechanics, modeling and human performance, · Neural plasticity and sensorimotor control, and · Pain & spasticity. There were seven keynote addresses: · Michael Craggs: Paralysis lost. The challenge for functional restoration through technical advances. · David J. Anderson: Current and future uses of high-density neural implant arrays for functional electrical stimulation systems. · Ashley Craig: Developing a “hands free” neuroprosthetic system. · Phillip Siddall: Neuromodulation for the management of chronic pain in SCI: is it a better approach to the problem than other treatments? · Simon Gandevia: Driving human motoneurones: recent surprises and possible applications. · Ross Davis: Spinal cord stimulation for multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury. · Michael Craggs: Prospects for complete restoration of bladder function by neuroprostheses. 42 papers were presented in seven oral sessions, and 34 posters were displayed and discussed in the two poster sessions. All of the papers are printed in the Proceedings from the meeting that was distributed to registered participants. Prof. Glen Davis promised a detailed report for members of the Society for those who could not come to the meeting in order to learn more about this excellent event. Workshop “Neurorehabilitation Methods and Systems” at the Vienna EMBEC ’02 Conference, Vienna, Austria, Dec.5-8, 2003.This workshop was organized by Profs. DB Popovic and T. Sinkjær (Aalborg, Denmark) The two panels at the workshop were the following: · T. Keller, Jiping He, and DB. Popovic: Devices and systems for neurorehabilitation - exercise, augmented feedback, electrical stimulation · M. Pinter, T, Keller: Biological Basis for neurorehabilitation - Neuroplasticity Panel members presented the main engineering ideas and their own views on how, where, and when is it appropriate to intervene, thereby augment, promote, and speed up the natural recovery after an injury or disease (cerebro vascular accident, spinal cord lesion). Discussion of problems and questions from the perspective of neuroscience, neurology and rehabilitation medicine about the future of neurorehabilitation was the main issue of the second panel. The outcomes of the workshop will be available in the next issue of the News and Views. FESnet Workshop IV: Spasticity, Rehabilitation and FES in Bristol, U.K, 8th September 2003.Organized by the United Bristol Health Care Trust Education Centre, Upper Maudlin St, Bristol Program of Events · J. Burridge, R. Jones: What we know and don't know about the effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on spasticity: a neurophysiological and clinical perspective · T. Sinkjær: The stretch reflex in gait · D. Pandyan: FES and upper limb spasticity - What is it that we do know! · R. Jones: Essential considerations for patient selection for FES - an open forum working towards developing the guidelines. · D. Ewins: FES in Cerebral Palsy · J. Burridge: FES and BXTA (Botulinum Toxin A) · P. Taylor: Using the same muscle EMG to activate stimulation · D. Wood, R. Hitchock: Measuring Spasticity: the work of the SPASM Project and its relevance to rehabilitation and FES Discussion: Does FES have something to contribute to the management of spasticity? An overview of future FESnet workshops and related events to comeWebsite: http://fesnet.eng.gla.ac.uk1. Workshop: FES Users Day - Birmingham, December 2003 - FESnet intend to present a session on "FES and Pain" 2. Workshop: Therapeutic and functional applications of FES in pediatrics - Provisional date: June 2004 3. Workshop: Topics to be scheduled include "Industry and FES", "FES and Incontinence Management", "FES Rowing" and "FES and Muscle". Annual Conference CD-ROMThe IFESS CD-ROM was developed to disseminate scientific research findings in the field of electrical stimulation to as broad an audience as possible and to make available the collective works of our Society since the formation of IFESS in a simple and easily obtainable format. We hope that you find the information contained herein useful and easily accessible. The CD includes the previous annual IFESS conferences, as well as the proceedings from the Vienna FES workshops from the years 1998 and 2001. The CD-ROM is available for the extremely low price of only $35 plus shipping. For volume purchasing, please contact the editor, Paul Meadows. (paul.meadows@bionics.com) ObituaryIt is with great sadness that we report on the passing of one of our members. Jeanne Teeter of the Cleveland FES Center died on the 15th September after a lengthy illness and courageous fight. She was probably best known to members of the FES Community as the Director of the FES Information Center, which she was instrumental in starting and directed for a decade. She was also a SIG chairman in RESNA, and a strong proponent for the independence of people with disability. Please have Jeanne and her family in our thoughts and prayers. International IFESS Corporate Office:Dr. Manfred Bijak, Ph.D., University of Vienna, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Physics, AKH - Ebene 4/L, Waehringerguertel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria e-mail: m.bijak@bmdp.akh-wien.ac.at; Telephone: +43 1 404001992, FAX: +43 1 40400398 Contact Information in U.S.A: Dr. Paul Meadows, 25129 Rye Canyon Loop, Valencia, CA 91355 USA, e-mail: paul.meadows@bionics.com , Telephone: +1 (661) 362-1755; FAX: +1 (661) 362-1501 Message from the PresidentDear IFESS-Members, Welcome to this Newsletter dealing with current matters and relevant information for IFESS members. The International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society (IFESS) is a young society, whose purpose is to promote the research, application, and understanding of electrical stimulation as it is utilized in the field of medicine through meetings, tutorials, publications, and the exchange of information. IFESS is an interdisciplinary society, which has already made an important impact. The IFESS 2003 conference in Australia in all its aspects fully fulfilled the purpose of IFESS. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Glen Davis and James Middleton and their co-organizers for a wonderful IFESS 2003 conference in Queensland, Australia. I was very impressed by the excellent organization, how smooth everything went, and the quality of the presentations. The special venue on the Sunshine Coast and the many social activities also made this conference very memorable. To further strengthen IFESS and to have clear defined responsibilities the Body of Directors (BoD) at the IFESS 2003 meeting in Australia decided to review our Standing Committees. A committee consisting of Hunter Peckham, Paul Meadows and I were requested to outline relevant IFESS Standing Committees. Below follows our current ideas of permanent IFESS Committees. Association Liaison Committee Shall be responsible for developing policy recommendations regarding the relationship with other societies and associations. Bylaws Committee Has the primary responsibility of managing proposed amendments to the bylaws. All proposed the Bylaws Committee would present bylaw amendments to the Board of Directors. Long-Range Planning Committee shall propose strategic long-term visions for IFESS. Education Committee should monitor quality and insure continuity of educational course that accompanies each meeting. This committer should provide continuity of materials from meeting to meeting. Membership Committee needs to develop methods of increasing and broadening participation in IFESS and increase in membership (including display/booth and participation in other society meetings). Meetings Committee should be made of Ad hoc members of board are current chairs, chair of past meeting, and chairs of upcoming meetings. The meetings committee should report on meeting activity to BoD. The main duty of the said committee is to establish expectation, priorities, and objectives. Development committee needs to develop and implement fund-raising activities of IFESS (as opposed to for annual meetings). Public Information committee should develop and maintain public information, to disseminate information to customers, to support and monitor public information via web and direct inquiry (costs?). Journal committee should promote publication related to FES in Neuromodulation, IEEE Trans. Neural Systems and Rehab. Engineering, and other relevant journals. Fellows and Awards committee should recommend to BoD individual to be nominated for fellows status, develop criteria for society fellows, and help in selecting the Vodovnik Student Award winners (est. criteria, develop “forms”). IFESS is associated with The International Neuromodulation Society (INS) and The Asian Pacific Functional Electrical Stimulation Society (APFESS). The official journal of IFESS is Neuromodulation, which disseminates scientific and clinical information relevant to the field. To strengthen the publication of technical papers within the field IFESS in 2002 also affiliated with IEEE Trans. Neural Systems and Rehab. Engineering. Both journals are offered to members of the IFESS society at attractive rates, and I strongly encourage you to take advantage of these excellent arrangements. I hope to see you all at the next annual IFESS 2004 Conference in Bournemouth. Yours faithfully, Thomas Sinkjær President of IFESS Professor, dr.med.sci., Ph.D., Director of the Center for SMI, Aalborg University |
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