The Istanbul Congress was held June 13-17, 2009, with 85 countries, and approximately 3,000 registrants. The Board of Governors approved electronic voting for the Committees, Task Forces, President’s Cabinet, Executive Committee and the Board of Governors. The quorums and timelines, as well as default positions for each were established. These changes will facilitate decision making within the organization. The Organizational Task Force, under the direction of Dr. John Melvin, is continuing to reduce the size of the governance group to make our decision making more streamlined.
ISPRM approved the writing of two “white papers”. The first describes the current structure of PRM in the provision of rehabilitation services in low resource settings and discusses how ISPRM can support the work of PRM physicians in these areas. The second is a review of PRM’s role in rehabilitation service provision in recent disasters, and discusses the lessons learned and outlines how the rehabilitative perspective can be enhanced in organizations involved in the disaster response.
We approved Berlin as the site for the 2015 Congress. The 2011 Congress will be in Puerto Rico, and the 2013 meeting will be held in Beijing. The 2010 interim Board meeting will be in Limassol, Cyprus, September 29-October 2, 2010. ISPRM is discussing moving to an annual Congress format and approved the concept of a Congress meeting “blueprint”. The abstracts topic list will be published in the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine (JRM)—this will be our only official journal in 2010. We are studying the concepts of sponsored and endorsed journals.
The concept of ISPRM special interest groups was approved, as was the minimum resident curriculum with respect to spinal cord injury and acquired brain injury. Our Education Committee will work on minimum resident curriculum with respect to stroke and musculoskeletal conditions. This information is on our website.
Joel A. DeLisa, MD, MS
Founding Director,
Kessler Foundation Research Center, NJ, USA
President of the ISPRM
