Annual Report 2000
19 December 2000
Dear Members and Friends,
Chers Membres et Amis,
Liebe Mitglieder und Freunde
The 74th year of the Collegium
Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum has been in many ways
special. We began the new millennium by adopting the fifth
edition of our rules at our fifth meeting in the United States,
where our fifth General Secretary, Paul van den Broek, completed
his 14 years of service as our helmsman.
Although I thanked him already in Washington,
I would like once again, on behalf of us all, to thank Paul for
all he has done for the success of the Collegium. Gently but
firmly he has guided our Society, in the right direction.
Supported by his charming wife, Joyce, he has also fostered the
Amicitiae Sacrum spirit in the Collegium. Joyce and Paul, please
accept our grateful thanks.
The 2000 meeting in Washington on 27-30 August
was succesful and important. Following the efficient
preparations by our American colleagues, under the command of
the President of the meeting, Jim Snow and Vice-President, David
Lim, we (143 participants and 59 accompanying persons) spent
four enjoyable days together, both scientifically and socially.
On Sunday we had a Family Tour to orient
ourselves to the sights of Washington. The monuments of the
greatest American heroes as well the wealth of Washington's
other memorials and parks were impressive. In the evening the
President welcomed us at the Ritz-Carton Hotel, the venue of the
meeting, at Pentagon City, just aross the Potomac River from
Washington. Afterwards, we had time to enjoy an American buffet
supper with our colleagues and friends in the Amicitiae Sacrum
spirit.
The official Opening Ceremony took place on
Monday morning. In his opening address Dr John G Campbell, the
President of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and
Neck Surgery, dealt with five major areas of challenge in
otolaryngology: continuous medical education, research, the
Internet, international co-operation, and balance of quality and
cost in care, especially from the Academy's perspective. The
other highlight of the Ceremony was the presentation of the
Shambaugh Family's gift to support the Shambaugh Prize in
Otology. The presentation, with memories of their father George
E Shambaugh, Jr, was given by Dr George E Shambaugh III, MD and
David Shambaugh, PhD. Also Ms Karel Ann Titone, the Treasurer of
the Shambaugh Medical Research Institute was present. The gift
of USD 54,557.09 will secure that even in the future every other
year the Collegium can award this prize to a distinguished
scientist who has made important contributions to otology. The
Collegium thanks the Shambaugh Family for their generosity and
positive attitude to this Society and otology. The Shambaugh
Prize for 2000 was then awarded to professor Allen Ryan for his
outstanding scientific contributions to the immunobiology of the
middle ear and the development of the inner ear and his
leadership in the molecular biology of the auditory vestibular
system, We all certainly agree that our long-standing
Jury-member more than deserved this prestigious prize. During
the Opening Ceremony the Coolidge String Quartet, four young
instrumentalists and doctors, from the Department of Music,
University of Maryland, brought us, in a masterly way, the world
of old and original American tunes.
The scientific program continued on Monday
with a symposium on Recent Advances in Biomedicine, moderated by
James F Battey, Jr, the Director of the NIDCD, NIH. In this
symposium some of the most distinguished scientists from the
National Institutes of Health provided us with the cutting -
edge knowledge of their fields: Dr Francis Collins, the Director
of the NIHGR on the Progress toward Determining the Structure of
the Human Genome and Drs Lance Liotta, NCI, Jeff Trent, NIHGR,
and Carter van Waes, NIDCD, on gene expression changes and
molecular pathogenesis of tumours in general and of squamous
cell carcinoma of the head and neck especially. This kind of
overview on the most advanced molecular biological tumour
research we hardly can experience anywhere else but in the home
of the NIH.
The second symposium on Wednesday, conducted
by Allen Ryan, concentrated on Hereditary Hearing Impairment.
Claes Möller from Gothenburg gave us an excellent survey of the
genetics of recessive syndromic hearing loss and the clinical
relevance of the findings. Cor Cremers from Nijmegen continued
on dominant syndromic hearing loss, again from the clinical
point of view.
Dr Thomas Friedman from Bethesda spoke about non-syndromic
hearing losses, and the Moderator summed up the symposium by
examining the future perspectives on the treatment of inherited
hearing disorders including the transplantation of corrected
hair cells. Again we felt that we had been brought to the
forefront of one of the hottest topics in otorhinolaryngology.
In addition to the symposia, the scientific
program consisted of 52 oral presentations and 35 posters,
usually of high scientific quality The papers covered the major
fields of our speciality, and were grouped according to their
contents. However, the majority of the papers were from otology,
and more papers from the other fields should be encouraged in
future meetings. The posters were "semioral": they had a special
"presentation" time during which the presiding officer R Dobie
and the discussion leaders J Ylikoski (otology), v Lund (rhinology)
and W Thumfart (laryngology - head and neck surgery) with the
poster presenters introduced the posters followed by group
discussion about selected posters. This approach was interesting
and worth continuing, only time required for that may cause some
problems. Some of the oral presentations became cancelled after
the program had been put together, and two posters were
withdrawn. However, all the presenters notified the organisers,
and could be replaced by the others.
A relatively great number of the papers were
presented by non-members. According to our rules their number
shall not exceed ten. There were also some problems with the
titles of the papers: although they were required in three
official languages, many omitted one or two of the languages,
causing extra work for the organisers. Maybe we should discuss
whether we ought to have this requirement in the future, too.
The Business Meeting was held on Monday
afternoon:
- The President James B. Snow welcomed the
members.
- The President commemorated the members
who had passed away since the last meeting in Lyon: John
Conley (USA), Douglas Laing (Hong Kong), Masanori Morimoto
(Japan), Cesar Fernandez (Chile), Jaime Marco-Clemente (Spain)
and Giovanni Rossi (Italy). The members honoured the memory
of these respected members standing and with a moment of
silence.
- The year report 1999 was approved without
any additions or comments.
- The financial report presented by our
Treasurer Rene Dauman was approved. The finances were
reassuringly again, "under control", with a positive balance
of USD 45,000. The annual subscription will be unchanged,
USD 50.
- The following candidates, proposed by the
respective national groups, and reviewed by the Credentials
Committee, were accepted as new members: Ricardo Ferreira
Bento (Brasil), Weining Huang (China), Terese Ovesen and
Klaus Qvortrup (Denmark), Mohammed Samy Elwany (Egypt),
Markus Rautiainen (Finland), Alexander Berghaus (Germany),
Spiros Manolidis (Greece), Eiji Yumoto (Japan), Chul Hee Lee
and Keehyun Park (Korea), Gonzalo Corvera Behar (Mexico),
Herman Kingma (the Netherlands), Per Djupesland (Norway),
Hector Cardoso (Peru) and Malou Hultcrantz (Sweden).
- For the next two years the Board and the
Credentials Committee will be the following:
Board:
J. Snow, President
D. Lim, Vice-President
P. Karma, General Secretary
P. van den Broek, President-elect
R. Dauman, Treasurer
M. Goycoolea, Councillor
M. Hirano, Councillor
E. Stennert, Councillor
M. Anniko, Editorial Secretary
B. Neel, Second Secretary
Credentials Committee:
W. Arnold
A. Ryan
A. Morgon
- The Shambaugh Family's gift, USD
54,557.09, to fund the Shambaugh Prize, was received with
great gratitude. This year the prize was awarded to Prof.
Allen Ryan.
- The proposed revision of the rules was
sent to the members before the meeting. The President
introduced the final suggestions to the General Assembly.
After lively discussion, and one voting, they were accepted
with some amendments. Maybe the most noteworthy thing about
the new rules is the expansion of the national membership
quota to 13 regular members (for USA 26), of whom 3 (for USA
6) can be non-clinical. I hope that the members familiarise
themselves with the enclosed new rules.
- In 2001, because of the World Congress in
Cairo (later CANCELLED),
there will be no ordinary Collegium scientific meeting.
However, we will have a special
CORLAS
Symposium during the World Congress, on Antimicrobial
Aspects in Otitis Media (P van Cauwenberge, K Prellner , S
Juhn and J Thomsen as tentative speakers). Because the
Collegium will turn 75 in 2001, our member and friend Nasser
Kotby, the President of the World Congress, has promised to
arrange a special CORLAS
75th Anniversary Gala Dinner on 20 October
2001 (the day before the World Congress) in Hotel Mena House,
Giza, Cairo (later CANCELLED).
Hopefully a great number of us will be there (for a
practical details, see Important information).
The official 75th Anniversary festivities will
take place one year later, in 2002, in Noordwijk (near
Amsterdam), the Netherlands, Paul van den Broek as the
President. The dates are 25- 28 August 2002.
And the following year, 24- 27 August 2003, the meeting will
be held in Helsinki, Finland. In addition to these approvals,
there are some future options and suggestions for the
meetings: Jerusalem 2004, Rome 2006 and Stockholm 2007.
The social program followed the traditions of
the Collegium in the Amicitiae Sacrum spirit. On Monday the
accompanying persons (and some of the members) visited the
impressive National Gallery of Art. In the evening we had a
reception at the National Air and Space Museum, hosted by
General John R Dailey, the Director of the Museum. That evening
the museum, thanks to Mr Joe L Allbritton, the President of the
Riggs Bank in Washington, was reserved for us only. His old
friend, our member Bob Alford, was the Master of the Ceremonies,
which included the spectacular IMAX movie on the future of the
exploration of space and ended in a delicious buffet supper. On
Tuesday a visit to Mount Vernon and the plantation of George and
Martha Washington was made by boat. On Wednesday a VIP tour to
the White House was something the visitors will certainly
remember.
The Members' Dinner at the National Press
Club, the foremost in its class in the whole world, made us feel
privileged. After the introduction of the new members by Paul
van den Broek and the new members themselves, our senior members
H P House, A Morgon and C Verwoerd said some words to them and
us all.
Especially worth noting is the demand of Alain Morgon that "there
should be more ladies in the Collegium". As many times before,
the Collegium had a musical program of its own, and the evening
ended in tunes presented by w Arnold, J Elidan, R Thalman, and
P-G Lunqvist. Simultaneously our accompanying persons enjoyed a
superb dinner at the sophisticated Willard Hotel, just the
opposite side of the street. As far as I have been told, the
atmosphere was lively, with of our beloved companions calling
their Collegium memories.
The highlight of the whole meeting was the
Gala Banquet at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The banquet was preceded
by a special Collegium Musical Performance by our member George
Gates, baritone, and John Legg, piano. We heard all the
beautiful American songs from "Beautiful Dreamer' to "Impossible
Dream", and ended the performance together in "God Bless America".
After the excellent dinner, Jim, I and we all thanked, from all
our hearts, our retiring General Secretary, for all he has done,
and that is much, for the Collegium. Jim forwarded Paul a
crystal intaglio sculpture of heron, a bird with a home at the
Potomac River area, as a Collegium gift. And Paul forwarded me
as his successor, the "General Secretary's Collegium Key" - it
was a bit rusty , but I suppose that this does not have any
special significance. Our Treasurer for the last ten years, Jean
Marie Aran, who completed his service last year, but could not
be present in Washington, was given the Collegium Medal, which
his successor René Dauman promised to take to him to Bordeaux,
the home town of our money before and also from now on.
We owe thousands of thanks to Jim Snow, David
Lim, supported by their charming wives Sallie and Sookie, and to
our American member colleagues. They prepared us an
unforgettable visit to the capital of their great country. They
can be assured that we really appreciate all they had done for
us and for the Collegium, and what we experienced during these
days.
Some time after Washington Jim Snow informed
me that that the US Group of the Collegium had decided to make a
gift of USD 25,000 for a loan fund for the Collegium meetings.
We receive this gift with a greatest gratitude, and will keep
this money in the Collegium accounts separated as a kind of a
seed money (loan) for our future meetings. On behalf of the
Collegium, I thank the US Group for their generous support to
our key functions.
Dear members and friends, we have begun the
new millennium in full sails. We have revised our rules to meet
today's and future demands, and to improve the scientific
activity and performance of our distinguished Society. Our
meeting in Washington showed the great potentials of our members.
Let us take that to even better use, within the context of this
Society, to the benefit of otorhinolaryngology and us all - at
the same time remembering the Amicitae Sacrum spirit of our
Society.
When I am now beginning my duties as your
General Secretary, I will, once again, thank you for the
confidence you have shown in me. I know that this is a big
challenge. You can be assured that I will do my utmost for the
success of the Collegium and to preserve its unique spirit of
Amicitae Sacrum.
Finally I, and my wife Anni, would like to
wish you and those closest to you, all the best for the coming
year. See you in Cairo (later CANCELLED).
Pekka Karma |
