EUREPA e-newsletter 1 / 2009

Dear members of EUREPA, dear friends,

We would like to update you on the activities of EUREPA in a very busy year 2009.

Two new epilepsy centers have become part of the European Educational Network, offering training possibilities in the curriculum of the EUREPA Certification of Epileptology for Medical Doctors. This is now possible at the Epilepsy Unit of the Helsinki University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, directed by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eija Gaily, and the Brno Epilepsy Center of the St. Anne's University Hospital, Brno, Czech Republic, with Prof. Ivan Rektor. A total of 30 network centers now offer onsite training in epileptology - for a list, please consult the EUREPA website.

EUREPA is proud to present the third graduate of the Eurepa Certification in Epileptology, Dr. Csilla Gyimesi from Pecs, Hungary. Pictures of the ceremony at the Eurepa General Assembly in Budapest can be found on the Eurepa website www.epilepsy-academy.org, see EUREPA certification.

28 new EUREPA members were accepted at the Executive Board meeting on June 29th, at the ICE in Budapest. We would like to extend a hearty welcome to all of you. EUREPA now covers 57 countries with a total of 400 individual members and 55 corporate members.

A General Assembly took place at the International Epilepsy Congress 2008 in Budapest, Hungary. At this meeting, the Chair Prof. Giuliano Avanzini pointed out that the proces of redefinition of EUREPA's role in the Global Education Agenda is still ongoing. EUREPA members will receive the minutes shortly.

Website updated! EUREPA has again redesigned and reorganized its website. It now offers more information for organizers of educational courses and potential applicants to educational activities, including teaching methods, scholarship/bursaries/grants and links.

The 2nd Caucasian Regional Summer School on Clinical Epileptology will take place in Bazaleti, Georgia, from October 4-9, 2009. Information can be found on the website www.gelae.ge and also on the EUREPA website.

Several EUREPA co-organized onsite courses, the Migrating Course on Epilepsy and the Baltic Sea Summer School on Epilepsy, were repeated in 2009 after their great success:

The 3rd Baltic Sea Summer School on Epilepsy (BSSSE) was hosted in Kiel, Germany, from July 12-17, 2009.
The 4th BSSSE will be organized with the Norwegian Epilepsy Society near Oslo from June 6-11, 2010. More information soon to come on the Eurepa website
The 3rd Migrating Course on Epilepsy (MCE) also took place again, in Pruhonice, Czech Republic, from May 24-31, 2009.
The 4th MC will be held in Poland, in Serock (near Warsaw), from August 15-22, 2010, with the Polish Society of Epileptology as hosts. A first announcement of the course can be found on the website < Activities & projects < Onsite courses.

VIREPA - the Virtual Epilepsy Academy:

All four e-moderated distance learning courses "Genetics of Epilepsy" (5th edition), "EEG in the diagnosis and management of epilepsy" (4th edition), "Neuroimaging"(3rd edition) and "Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy" (2nd edition) will be starting again in October.
For the VIREPA course on Neuroimaging III the deadline for application is extended until September 30, 2009. For the course on Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy II, a very limited number of places is still available until September 30, 2009. For the course on Genetics of Epilepsy V starting on September 18, applications are still possible.
All courses were presented with introductory morning sessions at the 28th ICE in Budapest, Hungary.

Besides the already named VIREPA distance learning courses, Migrating Courses and Baltic Sea Summer Schools, EUREPA is also involved in the organization/logistics of the Moscow-Kazan courses and conferences and the EPODES project. EUREPA early morning sessions (former breakfast seminars) were also organized at the 28th ICE in Budapest, free of charge and open to all congress participants.

The EPODES Project (European Project on Development of Epilepsy Surgery Program for Central & Eastern Europe), initiated by the CEA, includes courses,fellowships and visiting professorships. This year, five fellowships and two visiting professorship are being realized. Details, the list of surgical centers and contact information are available on the EUREPA website.

EUREPA has accredited 20 educational courses or activities taking place all over Europe in 2009 so far.

The presentations of some breakfast seminars from the 8th ECE in Berlin 2008 are available on the VIREPA platform. On this platform, EUREPA members also have access to the presentations of the breakfast seminars “Discussion on seizure related automatisms”, held at the International Congress on Epileptology in Singapore and organized by Executive Board member Prof. Maria Paola Canevini. If you do not already have a login & password, just register as a guest and we will upgrade your status to "user" and "member" on the platform.

We support the Lobbying Action for Epilepsy Research in Europe by the CEA. More information on our homepage or under 'projects'.

To those who have not yet paid their annual membership dues for 2009 (Euro 20 i.e. Euro 10 for juniors up to 35): Please transfer the fee to our bank account (see below) or transmit current credit card data. You can find the form on the homepage under 'Membership'.

With greetings from all of us here at EUREPA, I send you best regards,

Sincerely,

Petra Novotny, MPH

Assistant Office Manager

Please don’t hesitate to contact me in case of questions, suggestions, ideas, contributions etc. You can reach me via email at

petra@epilepsy-academy.org, Fax +49 521 144-4311, Tel.: +49 521 144-4346, or at the EUREPA Office, Maraweg 21, D – 33617 Bielefeld, Germany.

Bank account: COMMERZBANK Bielefeld, Germany, BLZ 480 400 35, IBAN: DE09 4804 0035 0511 2206 00, BIC/Swift code: COBADEFFXXX, account no. 51 12 206 00, “charges to the account of the orderer”.

EUREPA website: www.epilepsy-academy.org

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