Poster in PDF
The International Course on the Hand |
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| Dear colleague,
The International Course on Rehabilitation of the Hand will take place for the fifth time in Bodrum, Turkey. After having organised a Hand Symposium in 2005 it was decided to return to the concept of a genuine Course. The first three hand courses were very successful and many lecturers and participants have spent a wonderful time in Bodrum. The course is aiming at health care professionals involved in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with hand problems of various origins. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation doctors, Plastic-, Hand- and Orthopaedic surgeons, Orthopaedists as well as Rheumatologists, Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists are invited to attend the course. Besides the multidisciplinary approach the main advantage of the meeting is that people from several countries and from several backgrounds meet and exchange ideas and opinions and return home with new enthusiasm and new inspiration. The course really wants to contribute to a better understanding between cultures in Europe in the widest sense, improve the level of knowledge and skills of the health care professionals, with the ultimate goal to improve the treatment of those patients that suffer from hand problems. As chairman of the 5th International Course on Rehabilittion of the Hand I invite all friends from Europe and the host country Turkey to come to Bodrum and join this interesting meeting. There will be a discount of 50€ for members of ESPRM. Please visit our website www.vitalmedbodrum.com more information, a regularly updated preliminary program and a registration form. Prof. Henk J. Stam, MD, PhD, FRCP, PMR Specialist President of the European Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine |
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MEMBERS, this is the public part of this website |
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| For the members only part
you need to register. If you have already registered you may access to
the "restricted area" of the website, discounts on courses, congresses and
participation in discussion forum can only be obtained after filling in your
“member activation form”. Your e-mailadress and password will give
you access to confidential information in the “members only” section.
Members with a registrated
username (your e-mailaddress) and password may receive information from
the ESPRM directly. Lists of addresses or e-mails will be treated
confidentially and will never be made available to other organisations,
individuals, companies, etc. Already registrated but forgot your password? The ESPRM covers most national societies of PRM in Europe. Each national society provides two delegates for the general assemblee (refer to national delegates list to contact your national delegate). All PRM doctors who are member of a national society that is associated to the ESPRM are automatically an individual member of the ESPRM. Every national society is responsible for the communication between ESPRM and the individual members. In order to provide information to individual members the ESRM will cooperate with the national delegates who will forward ESPRM messages to the individual members. If individual members want to get in contact with the ESPRM they may contact their national delegate or send an e-mail to info@esprm.org. General information will also be given through the official website: www.esprm.org Membership fee: individual membership is free Benefits The executive committee will negotiate discounts as:
Up to date information on research and clinical posts/fellowships and on research founding will be sent to members of the ESPRM. The website will provide interactive discussion platforms that are only accessible to individual ESPRM members |
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Mission and vision |
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Mission The mission of the ESPRM is to be the leading scientific European Society for physicians in the field of physical and rehabilitation medicine and to improve the knowledge of fundamentals and the management of activities, participation and contextual factors of people with a disability. ESPRM Bridging the gap between research and clinical practice in PRM Vision The ESPRM intends to support the idea that research is inextricably bound up with clinical practice in PRM. Clinical practice will only improve when research provides new diagnostic and therapeutic tools and procedures and delivers evidence of the medical and economical efficiency of PRM. On the other hand, research definitely needs clinicians to define priorities, to raise the most relevant questions, but also to cooperate with researchers, to coach and support patients that are involved in projects and to implement the results of research afterwards. Therefore, the ESPRM wants to be a bridge between clinical practice and research in order to enhance the communication between these domains and ultimately optimalize the treatment of our patients. |
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The ESPRM and Research in PRM |
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| Historical background In 1965 a group of national societies of PRM decided to cooperate on a European level and founded the European Federation of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (EFPM&R). This Federation aimed at improving education, defending professional interests and stimulating research. One of the most concrete accomplishments of the EFPM&R was a biennial European Congress. The most recent (14th) congress took place in Vienna, 2004. Future congresses will be organized in Madrid, 2006, and Bruges, 2008. In the late nineties it became clear that a Federation structure was not the most effective structure to reach the goals. Physical meetings twice a year of the delegates of the national societies were not adequate in a time of e-mail, Internet and fast developments in the field of PRM. In the past decade the main interest of the EFPM&R has shifted from a general to a more focussed area. The European Board of PRM and the section of the UEMS had become more active in the regulation of resident training, continuing medical education, site visits, examinations and professional affairs. The EFPM&R gradually started to concentrate on the rapidly growing field of research and development in PRM. Organization of research Research in PRM is still a little bit underestimated and underdeveloped, despite huge potential benefits both for PRM as for general medicine. The reasons for this situation are organizational and psychological. The organizational aspect of research relates to the fragmentation of research activities and the slowness of communication between researchers. Projects range from small student/resident studies to European scale international projects. Funding of projects is often limited in terms of money and time. Most projects are retrospective and concentrate on available patient groups. Prospective, randomized controlled trials, epidemiological and more fundamental research are less frequent. Reports on the results of research are by definition late; unsuccessful projects will not be reported and favorable results will at best be published months or years later in a congress, symposium or scientific journal. The most important step that has to be made to improve the level and amount of research in PRM is to organize a platform for communication for all participants in research activities in Europe. Information about future and current projects, about funding and grants, about protocols, questionnaires, measuring devices and exchange-programs must become available and easily accessible for clinicians, researchers and managers. Only in this way we can prevent fragmented, redundant projects and stimulate communication and cooperation between individuals and groups before projects start instead of after projects have been finished. Relevance of research The psychological side of the underestimation of research in PRM can be explained by a wrong appreciation of the importance of research and the limited scope of many clinicians of the broad spectrum of different research questions that are relevant in PRM. They consider research as a hobby, or pastime of certain privileged colleagues. They also believe that research is a threat to their daily practice because it supposedly tries to prove that certain treatments are ineffective. The ESPRM has the ambition to change the attitude towards research. The vision of the ESPRM is that research is not only about evidence based medicine. Research is necessary to understand the basics of rehabilitation such as how individuals or muscles or the central nervous system adapt to or recover after trauma or disease. Research gives insight in the incidence and prevalence of disabilities, in determinants of restricted participation or in the prognosis and natural course of a disorder. New technologies emerge and should be adapted for use by disabled persons. Rehabilitation technology is one of the most important and promising research fields today and in the future. The costs of health care and of rehabilitation services will increase and politicians will force health care providers to restrict their expenses and to show that they organize this care efficiency. We will be reliable partners in the discussion with patients, with politicians, ministries of health and insurance companies only if we base our arguments on sound figures and on evidence and only research can provide us with a strong position in the public arena. The new European Society of PRM In 1999 the executive board of the EFPM&R decided to drastically change the course and to adapt the statutes and bylaws. The name of the Federation was changed into European Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ESPRM) and the most important of the new organization is the focus on research and an individual membership of all physiatrists that are member of the national PRM societies. Membership of the ESPRM is free of charge and offers the opportunity of updated information about courses, congresses, exchange funding, etc. Also reduction of prices of books, journals and congresses will be negotiated. The ESPRM will establish an interactive electronic platform (www.esprm-org) where information can be found on research projects, on grants and funding. Discussion on clinical and scientific subjects between clinicians and researchers will be stimulated. The ESPRM is convinced that only in this way the development of research in PRM can be stimulated and brought to a level that one of the most important specialties in the future deserves. How to become a member of the ESPRM? Only individual members of national societies in Europe/specialists in PRM can become individual member of the ESPRM. They are automatically subscribed unless they insist on being deleted from the membership list. Changes of name, e-mail address, etc. can be communicated through a special form on the web-site www.esprm.org Agenda of the ESPRM 2005-2010 The first aim for the near future is to establish a web-site that will serve as a platform of communication of all specialists and residents in PRM in Europe. Secondly we will have to build up mailing lists of all individual members. To reach this goal the cooperation of the national societies is vital. The ESPRM must have a direct way to communicate to the individual members without any delay and costs. Thirdly the scientific level of the biennial congresses will have priority in the coming years. The topics in the congress should be more focussed and the contributions should have a better quality. Cooperation with the European Board hopefully will result in more CME-contributions such as demonstrations, hands on courses and workshops. Lastly the ESPRM has the ambition to play a role in the preparation of applications of European Research programs. The future of PRM does not depend on government, insurance companies, politicians or other professionals, but only on our own ambition and determination to organize ourselves and to improve the quality of our patient care, our education and our scientific level. |
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Members of the Executive Committee of ESPRM
– 2007-2011 |
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President Dr. G.A. Giustini Prof. Alessandro GIUSTINI, MD, PhD Battifolle la Cinguetta n.35 I – 52100 Arezzo ITALY Tel: +39 0588 92231, +393473807592 Fax: +39 0588 92232 alessandro.giustini@ntc.it a.giustini@riabilitazione-volterra.it Past president Prof. Henk STAM, MD, PhD, FRCP Dept. of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam P.O. Box. 2040 NL – 3000 CA Rotterdam THE NETHERLANDS Tel: +31 10 463 31 80 Fax: +31 10 463 38 43 h.j.stam@erasmusmc.nl Treasurer Prof. Dr. Med. Christoph GUTENBRUNNER Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation HannoverMedical University Carl-Neuberg-Strasse 1 D-30625 Hannover GERMANY Tel: +49 511 53 24 124 Fax: +49 511 53 28 124 Gutenbrunner.christoph@mh-hannover.de General Secretary Prof. Elena Ilieva, MD, PhD Head of the Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine Medical University Hospital, Plovdiv Peshtersko shosse 66 Bulgaria 4002 Tel 00359 32 602 9 Mobile 00359 888 425 87 elena_md@yahoo.com Prof. Alain DELARQUE, MD, PhD CHU Timone Medicine Physique et de Readaptation Medicine du Sport 13 385 Marseille cedex 05 F-13005 FRANCE Tel: +33 4 91 38 56 01 Mobile 00336 08 42 65 60 Fax: +33 4 91 38 46 12 adelarque@ap-hm.fr Prof. A. Pedro CANISTA Rua Marta Mesquita da Camara, 110 A3 4ºEsq 4150-485 Porto PORTUGAL Tel: +351 226 171 280 Mobile: +351 919 360 635 Fax: +351 256 910 369 pedrocanista@netcabo.pt Deputy -treasurer Prof. Alvydas JUOCEVICIUS, MD, PhD The Center of PM&R Vilnius University, Medical Faculty Santariskui 2 Vilnius LITHUANIA Tel. +370 5 236 51 70 Fax. +370 5 236 51 73 Alvydas.juocevicius@sam.lt Deputy secretary Sasa Moslavac, MD Spinal Unit, Spec. Rehabilitation Hospital HR-42223 Varazdinske Toplice Croatia Tel +385 42 630 224 Cell. +385 98 9253 150 sasa.moslavac@vz.t-com.hr |
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Board, Society and Académie: who is who? |
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| In Physical and
Rehabilitation Medicine the diagnosis, treatment and counseling of patients is
our core business and our main goal. In order to reach that goal doctor s in P&RM must dispose of a large amount of knowledge and experience. While experience can only grow by daily use of knowledge in clinical practice over the years, knowledge has to be sought actively and has to be provided by teachers or handbooks. The results of learning and the level of the acquired knowledge must be tested and knowledge must be kept up to date; teaching, examination and continuing medical education are the main activities of the European Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Knowledge is not available just like that. New insights and new facts have to be found. New strategies and techniques must be designed and tested. Research is the main interest of the European Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. The scope of research is broader than one expects at first sight. Research is expensive and personnel and materials have to be paid for and without proper funding there is no research activity. The competition for grants is strong and it is easier to convince funds to put money into cancer and aids research than in chronic diseases you do not die from. Many projects must be carried out in several clinics to reach adequate numbers for proper statistics. Co-operation costs extra time and is sometimes difficult to organize and to maintain. After successful research the outcome has to be published and implemented in practice. Journals and congresses are the traditional means to spread the result of research. Today internet is a challenging new medium to bring scientists, doctors, government and companies together. Clinical practice and research both have also ethical and philosophical aspects that must not be neglected. The goal of the Académie Européenne de Médecine Physique et de Réadaptation is to study these ethical and philosophical questions and to spread ideas and viewpoints that result from their conferences. |
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Goals of the European Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine |
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The goals of the ESPRM are:
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