Board Walk
Board Walk – October 2014
Putting Asia on the map
Cephalalgia 2014, Vol. 34(11) 942–943 ! International Headache Society 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0333102414548970 cep.sagepub.com
from both patients and healthcare providers in Asia. As a member of the International Headache Society Board of Trustees rooted in Asia, I feel deeply obliged to make direct contributions in headache medicine in this region. In order to arouse the awareness of the importance of headache medicine, educational programs are a vital step to recruiting junior neurologists and pain specialists. By promoting experience sharing and facilitating resource exchanging, we are looking forward to filling the gap between Asia and the rest of the world. Shuu-Jiun Wang Deputy Director, Neurological Institute, Taipei Veterans General Hospital Professor and Chairman, Faculty of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan. Email: [email protected]
After completing my headache fellowship training under Dr. Silberstein in 1996, I established a headache clinic in a tertiary medical center in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. For the past 18 years, our team has been making ever increasing advances in our efforts to improve the quality of clinical service and push the frontiers of headache research. Perhaps the most important challenges and privileges our clinic faces are the volume (&2,000 new patients/year) resulting from the high accessibility of our medical system. Since a formal referral mechanism is practically lacking in the health care system in Taiwan, we have the opportunity to study headache disorders on the frontline, in particular, reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndromes, spontaneous intracranial hypotension, and some other ‘‘minor’’ headache disorders, such as primary stabbing headache and cough headache. In addition to managing headache patients in the clinic, we are aiming at the public health concern of reducing the headache burden in the population. In order to have potential impacts on health policy makers, we have, through various studies, provided some large-scale epidemiologic data on headache disorders in different populations, such as adolescents, women and the elderly. Compared to other more life-threatening illnesses, headache disorders have received insufficient attention
Promoting population-based headache research
After my first completed term on the Board of Trustees I am delighted to continue to serve in the governing of the International Headache Society (IHS). My main focus continues to be to strengthen the role and education of methods of population-based headache research and to foster research collaboration between various disciplines. Recognition of population-based headache research, development of adequate tools for large-scale population-based studies, and interpretation of population-based data for the clinical context are still in need of improvement. I support efforts to create teaching
Wang and Kurth modules and guidelines that help to develop the field further. In particular, we want to focus on educating young physicians and scientists to motivate and inspire them in the headache field. My main research focuses on the interrelationship of migraine with the vascular system as well as brain structure/function, genetic markers, and co-morbid conditions. I collaborate with several population- and clinic-based projects and we recently shifted focus to specifically evaluate the effects of migraine in young adults. Furthermore, we focus on psychosocial factors and their relationship with headache in general and migraine in particular.
943 The IHS provides a unique and exciting network of people from various backgrounds committed to all aspects of headache care and research. I am very excited to continue my work as a member of the Board of Trustees to further strengthen and increase awareness of the main missions of the IHS. Tobias Kurth Inserm Research Center for Epidemiology and Biostatistics (U897) – Team Neuroepidemiology and University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France. Email: [email protected]
Board Walk – October 2014
Putting Asia on the map
Cephalalgia 2014, Vol. 34(11) 942–943 ! International Headache Society 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0333102414548970 cep.sagepub.com
from both patients and healthcare providers in Asia. As a member of the International Headache Society Board of Trustees rooted in Asia, I feel deeply obliged to make direct contributions in headache medicine in this region. In order to arouse the awareness of the importance of headache medicine, educational programs are a vital step to recruiting junior neurologists and pain specialists. By promoting experience sharing and facilitating resource exchanging, we are looking forward to filling the gap between Asia and the rest of the world. Shuu-Jiun Wang Deputy Director, Neurological Institute, Taipei Veterans General Hospital Professor and Chairman, Faculty of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan. Email: [email protected]
After completing my headache fellowship training under Dr. Silberstein in 1996, I established a headache clinic in a tertiary medical center in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. For the past 18 years, our team has been making ever increasing advances in our efforts to improve the quality of clinical service and push the frontiers of headache research. Perhaps the most important challenges and privileges our clinic faces are the volume (&2,000 new patients/year) resulting from the high accessibility of our medical system. Since a formal referral mechanism is practically lacking in the health care system in Taiwan, we have the opportunity to study headache disorders on the frontline, in particular, reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndromes, spontaneous intracranial hypotension, and some other ‘‘minor’’ headache disorders, such as primary stabbing headache and cough headache. In addition to managing headache patients in the clinic, we are aiming at the public health concern of reducing the headache burden in the population. In order to have potential impacts on health policy makers, we have, through various studies, provided some large-scale epidemiologic data on headache disorders in different populations, such as adolescents, women and the elderly. Compared to other more life-threatening illnesses, headache disorders have received insufficient attention
Promoting population-based headache research
After my first completed term on the Board of Trustees I am delighted to continue to serve in the governing of the International Headache Society (IHS). My main focus continues to be to strengthen the role and education of methods of population-based headache research and to foster research collaboration between various disciplines. Recognition of population-based headache research, development of adequate tools for large-scale population-based studies, and interpretation of population-based data for the clinical context are still in need of improvement. I support efforts to create teaching
Wang and Kurth modules and guidelines that help to develop the field further. In particular, we want to focus on educating young physicians and scientists to motivate and inspire them in the headache field. My main research focuses on the interrelationship of migraine with the vascular system as well as brain structure/function, genetic markers, and co-morbid conditions. I collaborate with several population- and clinic-based projects and we recently shifted focus to specifically evaluate the effects of migraine in young adults. Furthermore, we focus on psychosocial factors and their relationship with headache in general and migraine in particular.
943 The IHS provides a unique and exciting network of people from various backgrounds committed to all aspects of headache care and research. I am very excited to continue my work as a member of the Board of Trustees to further strengthen and increase awareness of the main missions of the IHS. Tobias Kurth Inserm Research Center for Epidemiology and Biostatistics (U897) – Team Neuroepidemiology and University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France. Email: [email protected]
