Dear Friends,
About 27-28 years ago we started systematic practical cadaver teaching at Texas University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas. This method of teaching has become part of an annual ongoing activity of teaching doctors how to use three dimensional imaging to perform pain treatment procedures to improve patient safety.
This year, 2010, is our 15th annual Budapest Conference incorporating what we have learned over the years. Not only do doctors need to perform procedures safely, they need to be evaluated according to the highest and most appropriate level. We believe better education leads to better patient care.
To document that interventional pain physicians achieve a required knowledge and skill level, the World Institute of Pain (WIP) developed the Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice (FIPP) examination. We now have 599 physicians worldwide who have taken and passed the examination. The Examination Board chairperson is Dr Nagy Mekhail MD, PhD, FIPP. Every year there are two examinations. The seventeenth examination will be conducted in Budapest, September 2, following the Conference. The second examination for 2010 was in Cleveland, Ohio USA in April. The future clearly brings the need for additional examinations and examination locations
Under the leadership of WIP President, Prof Serdar Erdine, MD, FIPP, significant changes have occurred in the organizational structure of WIP. Successful regional meetings have helped doctors but more importantly have helped patients. Every time we move forward, we make the dream of the spiritual father of WIP (Prithvi Raj, MD, FIPP) come more and more true. None other than he would have thought of such an organization.
The Budapest Conference has always focused on relevant procedures and material. We are presenting the most current evidence. Participates will know that they will be better for having participated. The only reason the World Institute of Pain, and the Budapest Conference, and the other regional conferences have succeeded is because there is a need for these activities. For example, the WIP World Congress in New York City in 2009, attracted over 2,450 participants. Our next Congress will be in Seoul, South Korea in 2011. Please keep your eyes on WIP website to keep up with the latest Congress developments.
At this 2010 Budapest Conference we will have a very important WIP board meeting to work on the best possible way for the new direction in which the society and the membership must proceed. We must continue to raise the bar for all of our activities.
We have a wonderful journal, Pain Practice, and we are working towards indentifying worldwide centers that deserve the award of Center for Excellence. Please look at this activity very carefully; otherwise, you may miss one of the most important new developments.
We have an outstanding faculty for the 2010 Budapest Conference as well as a refreshingly new, exciting professional group led by Sandra Vámos helping us organize the meeting. The local arrangement Committee from the beginning has been chaired by Dr Edit Racz, MD, FIPP. In Hungary, she is like John Bonica was for pain medicine in the USA. She is ably assisted by Lorand Eross, MD, FIPP and Agi Stogicza MD, FIPP.
Those of you who regularly attend the Budapest meeting will notice the changes in Budapest. The new Budapest is being reborn from the destruction by war and even more so by communism and invasion. The air is fresher, the food is fantastic, the music is great and the Awards Ceremony is going to be truly remarkable.
We are very proud to work with the people that help us. Our membership should recognize industry for the willingness to help and allow us to continue with our educational activities. We have key sponsors without whose help we could not have come this far. You will notice these visionaries of the industry in the program as well as the Budapest Conference and the WIP website. I suggest you also note the ones who do not support and do not believe in activities of this very important worldwide society. We are not competing with any other group or societies as every one of us belongs to multiple societies. We purely exist because there is a need for our activities.
The policy of WIP is to involve those who wish to teach and those who wish to learn.
It is absolutely essential that we carry on and involve the key people in different countries by helping them organize national sections and make pain medicine safer and better worldwide.
We look forward to you joining us to watch and listen to the most beautiful, starry-eyed children of the Hungarian folk dance group who will show us how it should be done.
You will be better and you will make us better by your participation.
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| Gabor B. Racz, MD, FIPP Director Budapest Conference PainLubbock Texas USA |
Serdar Erdine, MD, FIPP President World Institute of Istanbul TURKEY |