Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 01.05.2002, Blaðsíða 5

Welcome address
Læknablaðið
THE ICELANDIC MEDICAL JOURNAL
We would like to welcome you to the 33rd
Scandinavian Neurology Congress and the 2nd
Scandinavian Congress of Neurological Nursing,
held in Reykjavik, Iceland, May 29th through
June lst. The president of Iceland, Mr. Ólafur
Ragnar Grímsson will open the congress. The
Scandinavian Neurology Congress is held bian-
nually in one of the Nordic countries. Iceland
was the host in 1980 and 1990. This year’s con-
gress is organized by the Icelandic Neurological
Association in cooperation with the Nordic MS
Consortium. Neurological nurses are now parti-
cipating in the congress for the second time, the
first time being in Oulu in Finland in 1998.
In the past, various Nordic subsections within
the field of neurology have shown interest in
having Iceland as a conference venue. As the
Icelandic Neurological Association is a relatively
small organization, it has not been possible to
fulfill this request until now when we joined
forces and decided to combine the Scandinavian
Neurology Congress and the Nordic MS Con-
sortium into a single conference. Only time will
tell whether we will take this route again.
Compared to the European, the World Fede-
ration and the American meetings, the Scandi-
navian Neurology Congresses are relatively small
events, making it impossible to cover all fields
within neurology. Therefore, we have decided to
limit ourselves to MS, headache, stroke, the treat-
ment of pain, and the quality of life among
patients with neurological diseases in modern
society. In addition, there will be short talks on
some of the other neurological diseases, along
with panel discussions and poster presentations.
Due to the uniqueness of Iceland in the field of
genetics, where deCODE genetics is a pioneer, it
is our pleasure to offer a presentation on the
genetics of neurological diseases. Furthermore,
we feel it is important to discuss the future of
neurology and the future of nursing of patients
with neurological diseases in the Nordic count-
ries since the number of such patients will in-
crease in the coming decades and we have to
prepare ourselves for that. In order for us to
provide the best possible care to neurological
patients, we must maintain a good collaboration
between our fellow Nordic neurologists as well as
between doctors and nurses. Thus, we are pleased
t0 able to provide both doctors and nurses
withajoint program.
The number of delegates at Nordic conferen-
ces has decreased in the recent decades. The
Albert Páll Sigurðsson MD
Chairman of the 33rd Scandinavian
Neurology Congress
organizing committee
Ingibjörg Sig. Kolbeins RN
Chairman of the 2nd Scandinavian
Congress of Neurological Nursing
organizing committee
reason being the increasing number of similar
conferences held throughout the world. The
future of Nordic cooperation remains uncertain.
However, it is our firm belief that it is essential to
continue cooperation of this nature and streng-
then it.
As with all collaboration, one needs to reflect
on the past and plan the future. One aspect of
this planning could be to change the name of the
congress from the Scandinavian to the Nordic
Neurological Congress/Conference as this name
reflects better the breadth of Nordic cooperation.
It has been our goal to offer a diverse, infor-
mative and entertaining program and we hope
that we have achieved it. We would like to take
this opportunity to thank our associates and
sponsors, because without their assistance this
conference would not take place.
Fylgirit 43 88. árg. Maí 2002
Aðsetur:
Hlíðasmári 8, 201 Kópavogi
Útgefandi:
Læknafélag íslands
Læknafélag Reykjavíkur
Símar:
Læknafélög: 564 4100
Læknablaðið: 564 4104
Bréfsími (fax): 564 4106
Læknablaðið á netinu:
http://lb.icemed.is
Ritstjórn:
Emil Sigurðsson
Hannes Petersen
Hildur Harðardóttir
Karl Andersen
Vilhjálmur Rafnsson ábm.
Ritstjórnarfulltrúi:
Védís Skarphéðinsdóttir
vedis@icemed.is
Auglýsingastjóri og ritari:
Ragnheiður K. Thorarensen
ragnh@icemed.is
Blaðamaður, umbrot:
Þröstur Haraldsson
umbrot@icemed.is
Upplag þessa heftis: 2.200
Áskrift: 6.840,- m.vsk.
Lausasala: 700,- m.vsk.
© Læknablaðið
Læknablaðið áskilur sér rétt til að
birta og geyma efni blaðsins á raf-
rænu formi, svo sem á netinu.
Blað þetta má eigi afrita með nein-
um hætti, hvorki að hluta né í heild
án leyfis.
Prentun og bókband:
Prentsmiðjan Gutenberg hf.,
Síðumúla 16-18, 108 Reykjavík
Pökkun:
Plastpökkun, Skemmuvegi 8,
200 Kópavogi.
ISSN: 0023-7213
Læknablaðið/
Fylgirit 43 2002/88 5