World Federation of Neurology

Formation	July 1957
Type	Non-profit Organization (NPO)
Headquarters	Chester House, Fulham Green, 81-83 Fulham High Street, London, SW6 3JA, United Kingdom
Membership	123 National Neurological Member Societies
President	Prof. Wolfgang Grisold
Website	wfneurology.org

World Federation of Neurology (WFN) was formed in Brussels, Belgium, in 1957, as an association of national neurological societies. It is a UK registered charity^[1] with a mission^[2][3] to foster quality neurology and brain health worldwide through promoting global neurological education and training, with the emphasis on under-resourced parts of the world.

History

WFN was founded during the Sixth World Congress of Neurosciences, and at the First International Congress of Neurological Sciences, held in Brussels in July, 1957.^[4][5][6]

The original idea of the WFN arose during a dinner in Antwerp in 1955.^[4][7] Ludo van Bogaert (Belgium, 1897–1989), Armand Lowenthal (The Netherlands, 1919–2001) and Charles Poser (Belgium, 1923–2010) discussed the formation of a club consisting mainly of neuropathologists (named were Erna Christensen, Aagot Christie Löken, Willibald Scholz, Julius Hallervorden, Hugo Spatz, Georges Schaltenbrand, Ivan Bertrand, Jean-Emmanuel Grüner) and some neurologists^[8] (MacDonald Critchley, Raymond Garcin, Georg Herman Monrad-Krohn). The purpose was primarily to collect reprints and unpublished doctoral theses in a central location (e.g. the Institute Bunge).^[9] As the discussion progressed, they thought that the group should be expanded and that other specialists should also form such "clubs".^[4]

After many talks, invitations were sent for a founding meeting to take place on 22 and 26 July 1957. A draft WFN constitution was prepared by Ludo van Bogaert, Houston Merritt, MacDonald Critchley, Auguste Tournay, Georg Schaltenbrand and Pearce Bailey, with Charles Poser as Secretary.^[10]

The meetings were attended by 38 national delegates representing 29 national societies from Europe, Latin American (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Peru, Uruguay), USA, Africa (South Africa) and Asia (Iran and India):^[4]

Ludo van Bogaert was unanimously elected President of the new organisation. Pearce Bailey became Secretary-Treasurer General. There were four Vice-Presidents: Houston Merritt, Raymond Garcin, Kamil Henner and Shigeo Okinaka.

An informal WFN Policy Committee was formed to consider the future policy of the new organisation. It consisted of WFN members from different countries. Among them were Macdonald Critchley, Eddie P. Bharucha (Bombay, India), Russell N. DeJong (Ann Arbor, USA), Georg Schaltenbrand (West Germany), Francois Thiébaut (Strasbourg, France), Oscar Montes Trelles (Lima, Peru), and Semen Aleksandrovich Sarkisov (Moscow, USSR). Because the term policy had different meanings in different countries, the Policy Committee was re-named the Steering Committee in 1969.^[11]

WORLD BRAIN DAY

The concept of World Brain Day was born over a corridor conversation between Tissa Wijeratne , Mohommad Wasay and Vladimir Hachinski in 2010. It was formelly endorsed at the next Council of Delegates meeting with unanimous voting. WFN birthday, 22 July was seleceted as the Day of Brain, World Brain Day.^[12] Tissa Wijeratne and Prof David Dodick Co-Chair the World Brain during 2023.

WFN Speciality Groups

Van Bogaert and the leadership of the WFN realised the importance of creating groups of international leaders in various fields of neurology. These groups were called Problem Commissions.^[4][5]

During the first years of its existence, the WFN economy of the WFN had been based upon generous support from the NINDB,^{[5][7][13][14]} a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). From 1965, it was clear that no further funding for WFN activities would come from the US Government sources.^[15]

At a meeting of the WFN Executive Committee (later re-named the Council of Delegates), past and present officers of the WFN with Chairmen and Secretaries of the Problem Commissions met in Geneva in July 1966.^[5] The Problem Commissions were re-named "Research Groups" and organised in the new Research Committee.^[4][5] The Secretaries of these Research Groups would now form the Research Committee.

The hope was that each Research Group should bring money to the organisation.^[4][16] A few did, but many Research Groups were unable to support WFN financially. John Walton's idea was that some Problem Commissions – now Research Groups – might develop into international societies that could become corporate members of the Research Committee with the payment of an annual subscription that might improve the economy of the organisation.^[13] This proved to be a great step forward. But it took several years until it worked. In the meantime, the economic situation remained critical.

By 1969, the income of the Research Committee was only sufficient to support the secretarial and administrative expenses of the Committee. No grants were available to the Research Groups to support their activities.^[17]

By 2010^[18] the groups were known as "Applied Research Groups" and in 2019 renamed to Specialty Groups.

World Neurology

Scientific Journals

The WFN scientific journals provides a medium for the publication of original articles in neurology and neuroscience from around the world. The journals places special emphasis on articles that:^[23]

1. provide guidance to clinicians around the world (Best Practices, Global Neurology);
2. report cutting-edge science related to neurology (Basic and Translational Sciences);
3. educate readers about relevant and practical clinical outcomes in neurology (Outcomes Research); and
4. summarise or editorialise the current state of the literature (Reviews, Commentaries, and Editorials).

World Congresses

Before WFN, there was no world organisation of neurology. The idea of an international neurology meeting was born in 1927, when two neurologists, Bernard Sachs (1858–1944) and Otto Marburg (1874–1948) met to discuss the needs for neurologists to come together to discuss neurosciences and progress in neurology.^[4][30][31] The following year, Bernard Sachs wrote to key figures in international neurology.^[32][33]

The first international neuroscience meeting took place in Berne, Switzerland, in September 1931. Bernard Sachs was the Congress President, Sir Charles Sherrington (1857–1952) Vice-President and Henry Alsop Riley (1887–1966) the Secretary-General. The Congress, which was a result of a generous initiative by the American Neurological Association, brought together individuals from 42 countries of several continents.^[31][32][34]

The Berne congress was important because it was the first occasion for neurologists to meet, learn from each other, and exchange views.^[32] But the idea of organising a world-wide club of neurological societies was still 25 years forward in time.^[32] Before the World War II, a usual journey by sea across the Atlantic took about five days.^[35][36][37] Scheduled trans-atlantic flights between the US and London/Europe did not begin until after 1947.^{[38][39][40][41]} Progress in communication would be necessary for the future development of international neurology.

The first international congress of neurosciences in which WFN was involved, took place in Rome in September 1961.^[4][42] The six first congresses have since been included in the sequence of World Congresses of Neurology (WCN), although they took place before WFN had been founded.^[43]

See also

World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies

References

External links

• Official website

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