IAPA News – Lyon in March 2005.

For a Scandinavian – Spring is probably the first word that comes to mind when thinking of visiting Lyon in Southern France in the middle of March. You picture in your mind the timid sunshine on the beautiful hills above the city centre as well as the flowers of spring heralding the coming of the warmer and lighter season. But, alas, none of this was true when the officers of the IAPA Executive Committee met for discussions in Lyon in the middle of March 2005. The organizer of the XII International Symposium in Audiological Medicine, Lionel Collet, was the generous host of the meeting but, however mighty his local influence and his impeccable hospitality it was beyond his powers to wave the cold snowflakes in the air away and turn the chilly late winter into the spring we expected and wanted.

Perhaps the cold sweeping through Europe from the north explained why the invited representative from the Union of European Phoniatricians – Manfred Gross – was not able to join us, and that the editor of the journal Audiological Medicine.
Given the frosty surroundings it was easy for the officers of the Executive Committee – EC – to concentrate on the agenda. We started the meeting by discussing our cooperation with the phoniaticians in Europe. The evolution in Poland and Italy where Audiology and Phoniatrics now are joined in one specialty not forgetting the order in Europe’s largest country – Germany – where Pediatric Audiology and Phonatrics has been a combined, but separate medical specialty for several years was discussed. The fact that Audiology and Phoniatrics are joined in one specialty in European countries counting almost 200 million inhabitants together can hardly be disregarded. The EC decided to proceed with the collaboration and IAPA has been invited to participate in the UEP conference in Berlin 15-18th of September commemorating 100 years of phoniatrics in Europe.
The collaboration with other specialties was also on the agenda. Agnete Parving informed of her visit to the meeting of the ENT section of the UEMS in Nice last October. She was asked to inform the meeting of our ENT colleagues about the situation of audiology in Europe. In this context we discussed the apparent lack of audiological education in the curriculum of the ENT specialty in Europe and further, whether it was the role of IAPA to assist our colleagues in obtaining such knowledge. We also discussed whether participating in the work of the ENT section of the UEMS was the best forum to promote the official EU recognition of our specialty – Audiological Medicine, or if there were other means of progress we could recognize. It was agreed that the EC would seek information in the EU countries regarding curriculums and models of specialist training in audiology and phoniatrics.
We also discussed whether the formation of a European branch or section within IAPA would give the UEMS representatives a clearer mandate to speak on behalf of the European audiological physicians. It was felt that the European officers of the EC had the required mandate.

The ratification of the IAPA constitution was discussed and the proposed changes were accepted and confirmed by the General Assembly. The ratification of the constitution is a never ending project and the combination of the EC and how the committee best serves its purpose is the next task in order to keep the constitution up to date and as make it as effective as possible for the benefit of the IAPA members.
The representation of IAPA within the several international organizations, such as World Health Organization, International Society of Audiology and Hearing International was also on the agenda and the officers agreed that the representatives should be selected from among the EC members facilitating a close contact between the organization and IAPA.

The organizer of the XIII International Symposium in Audiological Medicine in Mexico City – Pedro Berruecos - presented his plans to the EC and the General Assembly regarding the symposium venue and his collaboration with the Pan-American and Mexican Audiological Societies. The three themes of the symposium will be “The present situation of neonatal hearing screening in the developed and developing countries”, “Noise as a public health problem” and “Diagnostics and treatment of central auditory disorders”. The EC also proposed the subject of “Hearing loss and its treatment in ancient civilisations” as a keynote lecture.

Mariola Sliwinska-Kowalska accepted the nomination of the EC and the General Assembly to organise the XIV IAPA Symposium in Poland in 2008, possibly in collaboration with the UEP.The officers also discussed the possibility of the far east – Indonesia, Thailand, China or India – as the venue for the 2010 IAPA Symposium.

The importance of promoting IAPA by meetings and symposia was discussed and Sliwinska-Kowalska informed the meeting of her continuing effort to promote IAPA in the Eastern European countries by including a IAPA-related symposium in her annual conference Otolaryngologia in September in Lodz, Poland. In 2005 Agnete Parving will be the invited IAPA representative.

The number of IAPA members is rapidly on the rise. The national societies of audiological physicians in Denmark and Sweden have collectively become members of IAPA and IAPA now has over 300 members, audiological physicians from all over the world. We were not sure if the handful of the founding IAPA fathers in Wiesbaden 25 years ago would have anticipated such a rapid expansion of the association.

The 25th anniversary of IAPA was also of subject of Dafydd Stephens’ presentation “25 years of IAPA” during the symposia itself. An abstract of the presentation can be found on the IAPA website – www.iapa-online.org - for those wishing to refresh their memory of the past.

The growing number of IAPA members also reflects the increasing distribution of the IAPA journal “Audiological Medicine”. The journal editor – Valerie Newton – informed the meeting of the intentions and efforts of the publisher – Taylor & Francis Group – to achieve a PubMed registration for the journal’s articles. The EC officers and the IAPA members are hereby kindly requested to always consider the journal for their publications as more scientific publications are required when PubMed registration is aimed for.

During this meeting in Lyon meeting Agnete Parving declared her wish to step down as IAPA vice-president. Agnete retired from her position as the director of the Department of Audiological Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen two years ago and although she is very much active as a senior researcher and as a professor of clinical audiology she argued that the leadership of the IAPA should be reserved for those active in the clinical field. The executive committee regretfully accepted Agnete’s wish to retire and during the General Assembly Linda Luxon was elected vice-president of IAPA. Other members of the EC were elected in 2002 and will remain in office until the Mexico meeting next year. They are Jose Barajas president; Bo Walter treasurer, Konrad S. Konradsson secretary and Dai Stephens past-president. The EC’s co-opted members are Mariola Sliwinska-Kowalska, the editors of the Audiological Medicine, Alessandro Martini and Valerie Newton and the symposium organizer, Pedro Berruecos.

The General Assembly unanimously accepted the proposition of the IAPA president, Jose Barajas, to elect Agnete Parving as an Honorary Life Member of IAPA. Agnete is well known to us all and she is undeniably the Grand Lady of Scandinavian audiology. She has been an active IAPA member almost since the beginning and an EC member for many years. Agnete accepted the nomination by giving a short but resolute speech during the Gala Dinner at Paul Bocuse’s restaurant the evening after the General Assembly where she cited the writings of St. Paul – not referring to the chef himself, by the way, but one of the founding fathers of the Christian church. A citation reflecting Agnete’s current interest in religious history, a subject that she is presently studying at the University of Copenhagen. We, the members of IAPA, all thank Agnete for her efforts in promoting Audiologcial Medicine all over the world and we welcome her continuing efforts as an active IAPA Honorary Member and the ambassador of our speciality for life.

Agnete Parving and Jose Barajas at the Gala Dinner during the XII Symposium in Lyon

Konrád S. Konrádsson
In March 2005, somewhere above the clouds.