2012 – An ISPRM Landmark Year

In 2012, ISPRM has implemented a new governance and a new organizational structure which have been developed over the last 4 years, based on the strategic plan outlined in a previously published special report of this journal (1, 2). The mid-term meeting of ISPRM in Atlanta in November 2012, hosted by AAPMR, was an important landmark in the development of our society. Accordingly, we have given this year’s information from the president’s cabinet the title “2012 – An ISPRM Landmark Year”.

In this paper, we review key elements of this landmark year and present the current and revised policy agenda.

New governance

The development and implementation of a more democratic governance was one of the essential goals of ISPRM’s way forward (1, 2). Most importantly, this includes the election of 9 representatives of the national societies and 3 representatives of the individual members to the executive board. It also includes the election of 15 representatives of the individual members to the assembly of delegates. This significantly strengthens the involvement of national societies and individual members in all decision-making bodies and processes of the society.

The architecture of the 3 ISPRM areas and 9 subareas, as shown in Fig. 1 and described in Table I, which in principle was approved in previous years, forms the geographical basis for the election of the representatives of the national societies and individual members. This architecture will also be used for other activities that require equal distribution of activities around the world (e.g. scientific committee and World Congresses). The elected representatives of the national societies are listed in Table II.

Fig. 1. Map of ISPRM World Areas (a list of countries is available on www.isprm.org).

As can be seen in Table II, there were no candidates or valid elections for two subareas, Africa and South America. We expect representatives for the national societies in South America and Africa to be elected in the next election in two years. Unfortunately, the election of representatives of the individual members could not be successfully implemented in Atlanta. The reason was that the quorum of at least 5% of individual members being present could not be achieved.

In a retreat after the Atlanta ISPRM meeting, the president’s cabinet proposed to review the election procedure for the election of individual members. The president’s cabinet also suggested that the development of a new and revised procedure should be completed in the context of an emerging membership model, which is likely to have an impact on the individual membership.

On January and February, 2013, an electronic voting procedure was successfully performed and the representatives of the individual members (except one for the Americas), and the chair of the Assembly of Individual Members were elected.

The new procedure for the election of vice president, secretary, and treasurer was implemented by the nominating committee for the first time in Atlanta. It involved a call for applications and an evaluation of the applications by the members of the nominating committee. Following this procedure, for the first time, several candidates applied and presented themselves to the assembly for election. In the retreat of the president’s cabinet after the Atlanta mid-term meeting, it was proposed to further develop the procedures for the election of vice-president, secretary and treasurer in light of the experience of Atlanta. Most importantly, it was suggested that in the future, nominations can only be made to the nominating committee and no longer during the assembly of delegates. It was further suggested that the nominating committee will present all candidacies to the assembly of delegates and make a recommendation. All candidates will be informed about the recommendations in advance and will have the possibility to withdraw their candidacy prior to the election.

During the assembly of delegates, the membership committee raised the issue of membership and voting rights for countries where there is more than one society. The president’s cabinet in its retreat felt that it should be possible that more than one society of a country can become a member of ISPRM. With respect to the voting rights for countries with more than one society, the president’s cabinet will closely work with the membership committee and establish a proposal to be voted on during the Beijing congress.

Kenes International, new Central Office

In Atlanta, our new central office, Kenes International, managed our ISPRM meetings for the first time. The leadership of ISPRM acknowledged the tremendous effort the Kenes team has made to ensure the transition to the new central office based in Geneva, Switzerland. It also acknowledged the major efforts that have been made towards the registration of our society as a non-governmental organization at the chamber of commerce in Geneva. At this point, the central office has responded to all requests from the chamber of commerce and we are looking forward to the registration of our society in Switzerland.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: first ISPRM world congress organized by Kenes International

Atlanta 2012 was the last so-called mid-term meeting. From 2013 on, ISPRM will hold yearly conferences, first in Beijing, China, 2013, followed by Cancun, Mexico, 2014 and Berlin, Germany, 2015. From 2016 on, ISPRM will organize its own congress through its professional congress organizer, Kenes International. Congresses still will be hosted by a national society. ISPRM welcomes also regional societies in mutual recognition with ISPRM to participate in the congress organization in their region, preferably in conjunction with the regional meeting.

According to the ISPRM statutes and policies and procedures, the congress site for 2016 was chosen during the ISPRM mid-term meeting in Atlanta. Four countries applied. According to a technical analysis by Kenes International, all 4 proposed congress sites were valid and offered a highly attractive setting. The assembly of delegates voted to hold the 2016 congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. During our next congress in Beijing 2013, the assembly will vote on the congress location in the ISPRM area of the Americas in 2017. During the 2014 ISPRM World Congress in Cancun, the assembly of delegates will vote on the congress site of the 2018 Congress that will be held within the ISPRM area of Europe, Eastern Mediterranean and Africa. Potential candidates are encouraged to contact our central office at Kenes regarding the congress requirements (www.isprm.org).

Congress structure

Starting with the 2013 World Congress in Beijing, congresses will be organized in a more uniform way ensuring better orientation for participants and, in particular, a continuous communication of researches with mutual interests. To reach this goal an ISPRM-topic list has been developed (3) following the structure of the scientific bases of the field of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) (4). It includes the following 5 areas: biosciences in rehabilitation, biomedical rehabilitation and engineering, clinical PRM, integrative rehabilitation, and human functioning. Additionally, other contemporary topics of interest will be included in the scientific program of the congresses. Finally, at least one session will be dedicated to the Liaison with WHO and organized in cooperation with this organization.

To ensure a high quality scientific program, an ISPRM-scientific committee will be established to assume the responsibility for the scientific content. Besides the congress president, scientists from all ISPRM subareas will be nominated, 2 from each sub-region. To ensure continuity, every year 3 committee members will be replaced. The second principle for the nomination of scientific committee members is that, for all research areas, internationally recognized experts will be appointed. This scientific committee structure will be implemented starting 2015 in Berlin.

In the retreat after the Atlanta ISPRM one of the authors (CG) emphasized the need to collaborate with the national societies by having, for example, sessions in several WHO languages. This will be implemented for the 2015 ISPRM congress of Berlin.

Committees

For the first time, all ISPRM committees met in a pre-defined and systematic way gathering for 1.5 h workshops each in Atlanta. With the increasing and successful committee work, the planning of the committee meetings during the ISPRM congresses will be of utmost importance. Also, committees are encouraged to hold at least bi-monthly phone conferences involving all committee members. With regard to committee governance and operations, ISPRM leadership developed principles during its strategic workshop which was held in January 2013. This involved for example the administrative support for committee work, the management of funds for specific committees, the procedural and monitoring systems for committee activities, as well as the relationship of committees to external organizations.

There were a number of committee-related motions during the Atlanta meeting. The motion by the WHO–ISPRM liaison committee to adopt the ICF-based conceptual descriptions of rehabilitation as a health strategy (5) and of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (6) was approved. The conceptual descriptions, together with some practical exemples (so-called “use cases”) will be discussed in a separate publication in the official journal of ISPRM.

The motion to create a new committee named “Clinical Sciences Committee” was also approved. Over the next year, the designated committee chair will organize the committee interest groups in line with our topic list and the organization of one of our educational tools, the MediGrip® (www.medgrip.org). Table III shows the currently envisioned interest groups. The most important principles of the Clinical Sciences Committee is the involvement of mentors and mentees and the development of suitable clinical standards based on a review of guidelines from the different ISPRM areas.

Another important change of the committee structure concerns the ISPRM–WHO liaison committee. According to the collaboration plan with WHO a new sub-committee will be established. It will work on community-based rehabilitation guidelines. Especially here the ISPRM–WHO liaison Committee policy is to involve ISPRM members from lower income countries. The first gathering of this subcommittee will be held in Beijing 2013. To avoid having too many sub-committees and to promote collaboration among them the subcommittees for the implementation of the UN-convention for the Rights of People with Disabilities and the World Report on Disability will be merged into one sub-committee.

Mutual Recognition of ISPRM and regional organizations

One of the most important issues with respect to our governance is the development of a fruitful collaboration with regional societies. In this context it is important to recall that ISPRM membership structure includes national societies and individual members. However, regional societies are not members of ­ISPRM. Therefore, it has been suggested to develop joint workplans in the context of a mutual recognition contract (1, 2). These workplans include topics of recent interest following all 3 mandates of ISPRM (humanitarian, scientific and professional). Currently, the mutual recognition contract has been signed by ISPRM in collaboration with the 4 European bodies of PRM (European Society for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ESPRM), the UEMS-PRM Section & Board, the European Academy for Rehabilitation Medicine (EARM)), as well as with the Latin-American Association for Medical Rehabilitation (AMLAR). Table IV shows the work plan of the mutual recognition contract. Similar work plans and mutual recognition agreements are currently being developed in collaboration with Asia-Oceania Society for PRM (AOSPRM) and the Pan Arabic Association of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PARM).

Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine

ISPRM follows two avenues to strengthen our specialty through collaboration with journals. The first is our “Web of Journals”, the second is our official international journal, the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine. In Atlanta, the French Journal of PRM was accepted as a journal “published in association with ISPRM” and the Chinese Journal of PRM as well as Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine were accepted as a journal “endorsed by ISPRM”.

Revised policy agenda

Table V shows the updated policy agenda of ISPRM. The policy agenda serves as a guide for our membership and most importantly for our committees. It provides an overview regarding our main activities and serves as guide for the two-yearly renewal of our work plan in collaboration with WHO.

Principles and Practice of Clinical Research Harvard São PaUlo program, call for nomination of attendees

One of the most important programs of ISPRM to aid young PRM investigators in their development has been and will continue to be the Harvard Sao Paulo program. It is important to note that a number of alumni are now active in committees including the executive committee of ISPRM. Therefore it is crucial that national societies nominate their candidates for the Harvard Sao Paulo program and to support their development as young investigators with an interest in international collaboration. For information regarding the Harvard Sao Paulo program, please contact our Central Office at Kenes International.

Emerging issues

The leadership of ISPRM has identified a number of important issues that will require our attention over the next two years. They include among others the collaboration with industry and societies from other specialties. Others are the development of research, which is addressed through our task force and now the Clinical Sciences Committee. Finally, ISPRM is envisioning using the media for developing educational and training programs.

Based on the working plan of the period from 2010 to 2012 an updated workplan has been set up (Table V). It will be published in extenso soon (7). It on the one hand includes the following through of the working tasks in relation to WHO, the improvement of ISPRM´s internal working structures and some new points related to building up appropriate rehabilitation structures all around the world as well as defining important questions for future research.

REFERENCES

Accepted Apr 15, 2013

Marta Imamura, MD, PhD1, Christoph Gutenbrunner, MD, PhD2, Jianan Li, MD3, Jorge Lains, MD4, Walter Frontera, MD, PhD5, John Olver, MBBS, MD, FAFRM6 Gerold Stucki, MD7

From the 1Institute of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, University of São Paulo School of Medicine, São Paulo, Brazil, 2Department for Rehabilitation Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, 3Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, China, 4Centro de Medicina de Reabilitação da Região Centro, Rovisco Pais, Tocha, Portugal, 5Department of PM&R, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, USA, 6Monash University-Epworth Rehabilitation, Melbourne, Australia and 7Department of Health Sciences and Health Policy, University of Lucerne, Switzerland. E-mail: gutenbrunner.christoph@mh-hannover.de