Dear Colleagues – The vast majority of media these days concerns the COVID-19 pandemic – and the April issue of the Newsletter opens with the letter from President Franco Servadei and Committees Chair David Adelson that was posted on the WFNS website March 5. This updates their previous letter (included in the February Newsletter) extending the prohibition of WFNS-sponsored in-person courses and conferences through July 31. Hopefully many of you participated in the survey of neurosurgery and COVID-19 by Prof Fontanella and colleagues that had a link posted on the WFNS website until the survey closed earlier this month. Accurate data can be a vaccine against uncertainty! The following reports on neurosurgery and the COVID-19 pandemic have been published in Journal of Neurosurgery:
Please check the News link on the WFNS website www.wfns.info for the latest postings on the COVID-19 pandemic – and also, if appropriate, submit your update on neurosurgical aspects of the pandemic to centraloffice@wfns.info. To present a positive aspect for the time when the current physical isolation and virtual social integration is replaced by both physical and virtual global neurosurgical integration, an overview of twinning programs between developed or high-income country (HIC) centers and developing or low- and middle-income country (LMIC) centers is next. Following an introduction to twinning programs by Robert Dempsey, descriptions of the following are included: - the African C-CNS-ESCAR twinning program with centers in Norway, India, and Spain - the Uganda-Duke (USA) twinning program - the Zambia-University of Cambridge (UK) twinning program - the Ukraine-Toronto (Canada) twinning program - the Myanmar-Henry Ford (USA), Myanmar-Bern and Lugano (Switzerland), and Myanmar-University of Cambridge (UK) twinning programs We look forward to reporting on other twinning programs in future Newsletters. Following are announcements of WFNS-sponsored conferences from August - December 2020: - 2020/8/20 to 22: ICRAN Bangalore - 2020/9/24 & 25: Ethics and Neurosurgery Leiden - 2020/10/18 to 22: EANS Belgrade - 2020/10/27 to 30: MANS Cairo - 2020/11/5 to 8: International Symposium Karachi - 2020/11/14 to 19: CLAN Guayaquil - 2020/11/19 to 22: ISMINS Surabaya - 2020/11/20 to 22 AASNS Neurotrauma Biratnagar - 2020/11/27 to 29: Serbian Neurosurgical Society Belgrade Obviously these conferences will depend on the COVID-19 situation later this year. The WFNS Newsletter Editorial Board wishes neurosurgeons worldwide a safe experience in these very challenging times. Now more than ever the neurosurgical community can demonstrate unity and mutual support, as well as positive interaction with our fellow healthcare professionals in all disciplines. Mohammad Raji Mahmud Laura Lippa Angelos Kolias Roxanna Garcia Hira Burhan Russell Andrews Amro Al-Habib
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