UPCOMING CLINICAL EXCHANGE WORKSHOP

Building capacity in global neurology

26 May 2023 | 14:00-15:00 UK time | Register

The increasing burden of neurological disorders calls for a prompt and targeted action to improve access to the neurology care worldwide. One of the pillars of the WHO's intersectoral action plan is building capacity in global neurology. Using his experiences from USA and Zambia, Dr Mashina Chomba will discuss strategies on how meaningful improvements can be made on the ground in settings with variable resources.

Chair: Professor Sam Nightingale MBChB, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Cape Town.

Speaker: Dr Mashina Chomba MBChB, MMed Neurology Consultant Neurologist, Department of Internal Medicine at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia Dr Chomba is one of Zambia's first locally trained neurologists. He graduated from the University of Zambia School of Medicine where he attained his medical degree and later his Master of Medicine degree in Neurology. He also completed a research fellowship in neuroinfectious diseases at Columbia University in New York, USA, in 2021 and is currently an NIH Fogarty Global Health Fellow. Dr Chomba’s research focus is on the epidemiology of neurologic diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, in Zambia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Learning Objective - Gain insights into practice in different settings through knowledge exchange with fellow participants.

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PREVIOUS CLINICAL EXCHANGE WORKSHOPS

Promoting intersectoral action for brain health: a focus on dementia

The World Health Organization has outlined the need for intersectoral action to improve brain health around the world - but how do we achieve this? Our chair, speaker and panel will discuss using intersectoral approaches in dementia, covering both the healthcare setting and community. We will describe practical approaches that can be taken with limited resource. 

Chair: Professor Mohamed Salama MBBCH, DTQM, PhD
Professor at the Institute of Global Health and Human Ecology, the American University in Cairo, Egypt.
Mohamed is leading the Egyptian Longitudinal Study of Aging to try to reshape the current understanding of aging. He obtained his medical degree in 1999 from Mansoura University, Egypt where he began his clinical training. He received his MSc in Toxicology in 2006 and through a DAAD scholarship his PhD degree in Neurotoxicology in 2011 through collaboration with Philipps University in Marburg, Germany.

Speaker: Professor Eléonore Bayen MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine at Sorbonne University and Director of the Neuro-Rehabilitation Department of Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.
Eléonore holds a medical degree in Neurology (2008) completed with a qualification in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, and a PhD in Economics (2015). She has a dual background in Neurosciences and Health Economics. She has expertise in neurology, in cognitive impairment and in the management of complex disability situations. Her research focuses on synergistic patterns of social-economic and medical handicap and also the impact of multimorbidity in the process of loss of autonomy, including prediction-prevention of disability and of acquired vulnerability according to the ICF - WHO approach. To raise awareness of Brain Health Eléonore launched the MyBrainRobbie initiative in 2019, which aims to empower children and teenagers in the domain of brain health and, more broadly, promote equity in brain health in society at large; it has been translated in 7 languages.

Recording coming soon

Implementing WHO’s neurology revolution

Chair: Dr Nicoline Schiess, MD, MPH Technical Officer, World Health Organisation (WHO), Department of Mental Health and Substance Use, Brain Health Unit.
Nicoline Schiess is a technical officer working in the Brain Health Unit in the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use at the World Health Organization. In this role she serves as the point person for various adult neurological disorders as well as assists in the implementation of the Intersectoral global action plan on epilepsy and other neurological disorders, a global plan of action for neurological disorders.

Dr Marie-Pierre Preziosi MD, PhD Lead Meningitis and Co-Lead R&D Blueprint for Action to prevent epidemics World Health Organisation (WHO), Department of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals.
Dr Preziosi is leading on the Global road map on defeating meningitis by 2030 at the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as co-leading on the R&D Blueprint for action to prevent epidemics. From 2012-2014, she was director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project, a partnership between WHO and PATH, established in 2001. The project mission was to eliminate epidemic meningitis as a public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa through the development, testing, introduction and widespread use of meningococcal conjugate vaccines.

This is an open session for policy makers, academics and clinicians organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Neurology & COVID-19 Global Forum and The Global Health Network.

Developing tools to deliver neurological Universal Health Coverage

This interactive session will discuss different tools to ensure neurological health care is universal for all. Including a global inter-observer variability study reviewing the in-patient Case Record Form used by the COVID-CNS team, supported by the WHO and WFN and conducted across 14 countries in high, middle and low income settings.

Chair: Prof. Njideka Okubadejo, MBChB, FMCP, FAAN | Professor of Neurology and Consultant Neurologist specializing in Movement Disorders at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria.

She is the first female neurologist and first female tenured Professor of Neurology in Nigeria. Her main research interest is in Movement Disorders in Africa (particularly genetics and epidemiology).

Speaker: Dr Arina Tamborska, MD National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool and Department of Neurology, Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool

Dr Arina Tamborska is an academic clinical fellow in neurology at the University of Liverpool and a neurology registrar at the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust. Following graduation from Edinburgh Medical School, she pursued academic clinical training at King’s College London before moving to Liverpool. Her research interests include neurovascular disease, neuroepidemiology and developing tools for clinical research harmonisation. Learning Objective -Gain insights into practice in different settings through knowledge exchange with fellow participants

Movement disorder

Dr Sundus Alusi, Consultant Neurologist, The Walton Centre, Liverpool UK.Dr Alusi subspecialises in movement disorders including Huntington's Disease, Deep brain stimulation and tremor disorders. She was the clinical lead for movement disorders at The Walton Centre 2020-2022.

Speaker: Dr Nestor Nsengiyumva, MD, Neurology lecturer, Hope Africa University Faculty of Health Sciences, Bujumbura, Burundi, Honorary Neurology Consultant, Burundi National Police Hospital, Bujumbura, Burundi
Dr Nestor Nsengiyumva is a Consultant Neurologist in Burundi. He did a six month clinical training fellowship in Movement Disorder at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK with Dr. Sundus Alusi and Dr. Antonella Macerollo in 2019-2020, funded by the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society, European Section.

COVID-19, de novo seizures, and epilepsy

In this highly interactive session we will discuss several clinically relevant questions on the association of COVID-19 with epilepsy/seizures:

• Is the risk of COVID-19 contraction increased in patients with epilepsy?
• What is the incidence of de novo seizures in people with COVID-19? Clinical cases with variety of forms of de novo seizures in COVID-19 will be demonstrated.
• Are acute symptomatic seizures frequent in patients with COVID-19 disease?  The risk factors and diagnostic strategies will be discussed.
• What is the impact of COVID-19 and pandemic on the occurrence of the non-epileptic (functional) seizures?
• What is the frequency and etiology of seizures in post-COVID condition?

Chair: Professor Alla Guekht MD, PhD, Director of the Moscow Research and Clinical Center for Neuropsychiatry and Professor of Neurology at the Russian National Research Medical University.
Her main research interests are focused on epilepsy after stroke and traumatic brain injury, somatic and psychiatric co-morbidities in epilepsy, social issues (epidemiology, QOL, stigma). She is Elected trustee of the World Federation of Neurology, Treasurer of the International League against epilepsy, co-chair of the “Follow-up and long term impact working group meeting COVID-19 NeuroForum”. She has been involved in many WHO projects in epilepsy and brain health.

Speaker: Professor Ali A. Asadi-Pooya, M.D. Dr.  Asadi-Pooya is a Professor of Epileptology, at the Department of Neurology, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. He is also an Adjunct Research Associate Professor of Neurology, Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Department of Neurology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA. He did his fellowship in “epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology” at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA in 2006-2008, and a second epilepsy fellowship on “Invasive intracranial EEG monitoring” in 2014-2016. 

He has established an Epilepsy Care Unit and epilepsy surgery program with a multidisciplinary team in 2008 at Namazee Hospital, Shiraz, Iran. He has also founded the Shiraz Epilepsy Research Center in 2020. He has published more than 290 papers and 12 books about various aspects of epilepsy.

One Health and neurological disorders – an interdisciplinary multi-health approach

One Health uses an interdisciplinary and at times transdisciplinary approach to look at the interconnection of human, animal and environmental health in the context of infectious and non-infectious diseases and beyond. The One Health concept is hardly ever used in the context of neurological disorders but has recently gained traction through its inclusion in the WHO Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders. This will attract attention but foremost curiosity about how the One Health concept could best be implemented for neurological disorders. We will shine some light on this intriguing approach by presenting classical One Health neurological cases such as rabies and neurocysticercosis.
Chair: Prof. Dr. Dr. Andrea S. Winkler
Co(joint)-director Center for Global Health, Technical University of Munich, Germany

Prof. Winkler is a specialist neurologist, a senior researcher and the co(joint)-director of the Center for Global Health at the Technical University of Munich. She is also the founding director, now deputy director, of the Centre for Global Health at the University of Oslo, where she holds a full professorship in Global Health. Prof. Winkler has 20 years of experience with both clinical work and research in countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Her special interest lies with poverty-related neglected diseases of the infectious as well as non-infectious nature, global neurology/mental health and global One Health.

Speaker: Assoc Prof. Dr. Fan Kee Hoo, MRCP
Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia

Associate Professor Dr. Hoo Fan Kee is a neurologist, general physician and senior lecturer at the University Putra Malaysia.  He is currently the chairman of Malaysian Stroke Council and ex officio member of Malaysian Society of Neuroscience. 

Global Brain Health Clinical Exchange Platform – Critical Care of the Neurological System in COVID-19

This interactive session covered critical care of the neurologic system.

Chair: Assistant Professor (Dr) Sherry H-Y Chou, Associate Professor of Neurology (Neurocritical Care). Chief of Neurocritical Care in the Department of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

Dr. Sherry Chou is a physician-scientist with expertise in clinical neurology, neurocritical care and vascular neurology and award-winning mentor. Dr. Chou founded and leads the large Global Consortium Study on Neurological Dysfunction in COVID 19 (GCS-NeuroCOVID) and serves as an invited member to the World Health Organization forum on neurological impacts of COVID 19.

Speaker: Dr Ayush Batra, MD

Assistant Professor Department of Neurology (Neurocritical Care) and Pathology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

Ayush Batra, MD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and practicing Neurocritical Care Physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL, USA. He completed his neurology training at the combined Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University, in Boston, MA, USA, where he subsequently completed fellowship training in Neurocritical Care. Dr. Batra’s research interests bridge immunology, vascular biology, and neuroscience, and seek to understand inflammation-mediated mechanisms of acute neurologic injury.

Learning Objective
-Gain insights into practice in different settings through knowledge exchange with fellow participants

Brain Health Clinical Exchange Platform: Neurological Infectious Diseases: Focus on Diagnosis & Management of Brain Infections

27 May 2022

This interactive session will cover pathophysiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, management and prognosis of major infections of the brain, including meningitis, encephalitis and abscess. We will additionally discuss acute involvement of the nervous system in COVID-19.

Chair: Dr Benedict Michael

Speaker: Dr Bhagteshwar Singh, MBChB MRCP DTMH
Lead fellow for the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Brain Infections & MRC-funded COVID-Neuro Global research programme in Brazil, India and Malawi.
Clinical Research Fellow in the Liverpool Brain Infections Group, and senior clinical trainee in Infectious Diseases.

Brain Health Clinical Exchange Platform: A focus on headache

29 April 2022

In this interactive workshop, we will discuss the detection and characterisation of headache in high, medium, and lower income settings.

This is an open session for policy makers, academics and clinicians organised by The Global Health Network.

Chair: David García-Azorín MD PhD MSci
Department of Neurology, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid, Spain. Spanish Society of Neurology board.
Speakers:
Professor, Dr. Med. Director Rigmor Højland Jensen, Danish Headache Center, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet-Glostrup, University of Copenhagen
Dr. Marcio Nattan Souza, Coordinator of the Headache Fellowship Program at University of São Paulo and member of the Education Committee of the International Headache Society.
Learning Objective
-Gain insights into practice in different settings through knowledge exchange with fellow participants

Brain Health Clinical Exchange Platform: A focus on paediatric neurology

25 March 2022

In this interactive workshop, Assoc Prof Roa will discuss clinical cases in paediatric neurology, including pediatric NeuroCOVID/MIS-C. This is an open session for policy makers, academics and clinicians.

Chair: Ass Prof (Dr) Ericka Fink
Associate Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Paediatrics, Dept of Critical Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Speaker: Assoc Prof Juan David Roa, MD MSc
Associate Professor of Paediatric Neurology and Paediatric Intensive care, Universidad Nacional de  Colombia, LARed Network, SLACIP

Learning Objective

• Gain insights into practice in different settings through knowledge exchange with fellow participants

Brain Health Clinical Exchange Platform: Coma - Approach to encephalopathy

25 February 2022

In this interactive workshop, Asst Prof Omar Siddiqi will discuss the approaches taken to the encephalopathic patient in high, medium, and lower income settings.
This is an open session for policy makers, academics and clinicians.

Asst Prof (Dr) Omar Siddiqi:
Assistant Professor of Neurology & Director of Global Neurology Program, Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, USA.

Chair
Prof (Dr) Kameshwar Prasad:
Professor of Neurology. Director & Chief Executive Officer, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

Learning Objective

• Gain insights into practice in different settings through knowledge exchange with fellow participants

Brain Health Clinical Exchange: Acute neurology in resource-limited settings: tackling clinical dilemmas using decision analysis

24 January 2022 | 2 PM (London, GMT) 

Prof Aaron Berkowitz: Professor and Director of Global Health, Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine (USA); Health and Policy Advisor, Partners In Health; Senior Specialist Consultant, Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders

Chairs
Dr Kiran Thakur: Neurologist, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, USA Consultant, World Health Organisation: Brain Health Unit

Dr. Biniyam A. Ayele: Department of Neurology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Post-Doctoral Neuroinfectious Fellow, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, NY, USA

Decision Analysis to Address Clinical Dilemmas in Resource-Limited Settings, Aaron Berkowitz MD PhD | Download presentation [pdf 1.8mb]

Brain Health Clinical Exchange: ’Seizures in the Fields’…Using Public Health to Address Neurologic Illness

30 November | 2 PM (London, GMT) 

In this interactive workshop, Dr James Sejvar from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will use a recent outbreak investigation to outline how public health professionals go about solving medical mysteries.
The Brain Health Clinical Exchange is co-organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Neurology & COVID-19 Global Forum and The Global Health Network.