IFOS World

Welcome to IFOSWorld

Dear friends of otorhinolaryngology

It was not an easy decision to agree with the candidacy for the General Secretary of IFOS after such great personalities of international otorhinolaryngology as Jean Marquet, Peter Alberti and Jan Grote that have brought international ORL and IFOS world congress to the today level. This position requires a lot of personal effort, time consuming activities to find the bridge between east and west, north and south, hi tech otorhinolaryngology and mirror otoscopy, otologists, rhinologists and head and neck experts, political cuts and appropriate needs. What should we focus at during the incoming period.
The IFOS world congress:
The preparation process is in excellent shape. Seoul is the city with a lot of experience hosting international meetings of any kind. The Korean colleagues under the leadership of Chong Kim are doing very good job with adequate timing. The first information has already been delivered and the program committee will meet in Seoul in May this year to prepare attractive and valuable program for otolaryngologists from all over the world. We all hope that many colleagues will find this congress interesting and worth to come to Seoul. The bit for hosting the IFOS congress 2017 has already been delivered among national societies.
Cooperation with subspeciality organizations:
Otorhinolaryngology in the developed world is developing mainly in the subspeciality organizations. The latest developments and achievements are presented in the meetings focused on particular parts of ORL. Some of these organizations may be invited to become a partner of IFOS and organize their meetings under the auspice of IFOS as world subspeciality meetings. This will not increase the numbers of meetings but will bring awareness of such an event for all national societies and their members.
How to bridge developed and developing countries in the field of ORL:
This is the task that is difficult to manage generally, not only in the ORL field. There are always requests to reduce the congress fee for the developing countries on the HINARI list. Even if we would do so this would not significantly increase the number of participants from the developing countries. More effective in this field might be continental organization as EUFOS, PAFOS, AOFOS etc., that can better recognize local needs and provide scholarships for individuals not only for the congresses but also for courses, long term education, study stays. IFOS will support the activities of experts from the developed world in the developing world.
Hearing for all:
The world begins to recognize hearing loss and deafness as significant disability that should be monitored, managed and supported. Neonatal hearing screening, hearing screening in preschool children, hearing screening in elderly will identify many people with hearing disability requiring some intervention. It is important to show these problems to talk about them to be recognised and funded properly. There is a significant progress in the action Hearing for all in the WHO. We should unify all our activities to recognize hearing problems all over the world to join our forces.
These are the first ideas to continue and the IFOS business and to ensure sustained development in the field of international oto-rhino-laryngology and head and neck surgery.

Milan Profant
General Secretary of IFOS from 2011

New General Secretary

After a period of 10 years I have handed over the responsibility for the World Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (IFOS) to my successor Milan Profant, Professor and chair of the ENT Department of Bratislava, Slovak Republic. He is up till now Secretary General of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS). He will be an excellent person for the International representation of our specialty.

I am grateful for your confidence in me as General Secretary. I have had the opportunity to visit many of our Society members in all continents of the world in the past 10 years. In my term as General Secretary we organized three World Congresses, Cairo in 2002, after a postponement of 1 year, due to the attack of 9/11 in 2001 in the USA, Rome in 2005 and Sao Paulo in 2009. The preparations for the world congress in 2013 in Seoul are in progress. The Scientific level of the congresses and also the attendance is increasing. A guarantee for the continuation of quality was the change of the committee structure of IFOS, with 7 subspecialty committees formed by the leaders in these subspecialties around the world. The chairpersons are the advisors of the General Secretary and with him they are the Scientific Advisory Board for the World Congress. According to our mission statement we have a responsibility to the world:

To identify critical global ORL care needs and communication disorders, to propose ways to prevent and treat individuals with them and to set priorities among these needs according to their impact on society

Our main public health action is the Worldwide Action Hearing for All, because hearing impairment and deafness is the most occurring handicap in the world and more than 50% can be prevented. The action starts to have success and awareness is growing. IFOS is the official NGO in WHO and on request of the Executive Board I will be responsible in the coming two years as representative of IFOS in the support group in WHO.
New initiatives for the education in ENT around the world are taken, and the contacts with governments and international organizations are increased. You can follow the action on our website (www.ifosworld.org) Where you can also see the worldwide congress agenda and where you have your own webpage with connections to you society website.
IFOS has limited funds to run all these activities but is rich in people who are interested in the international representation of our specialty. I therefore would like to thank my Regional Secretaries, the members of the different Executive Boards, the different committee members, the counselors and the Presidents in the past period. It was a pleasure to work with them and thanks to their work IFOS is in good shape. I am confident that the 20th World Congress in Seoul 2013, 1-5 June will be a success as was the meeting in Sao Paulo. I wish my successor Milan Profant all the best. It was a pleasure to serve IFOS.

Jan J. Grote
General Secretary of IFOS, from 2001-2010

Professor Wolgang Draf passed away

Sad news arrived from Europe in the last part of 2011: Professor Wolfgang Draf sadly passed away. Wolfgang was a friend to many of us and a great ambassador for our specialty. He achieved remarkable expertise in otorhinolaryngology especially in skull base surgery. He was well known on all the continents for his surgical and scientific activities. His well-documented and instructional presentations, always delivered with a degree of panache together with his unique blend of humour have provided extra decoration at many international congresses.
Wolfgang Draf served as the IFOS Executive Board member from 2002 to 2009 to represent Europe. In the period 2005 – 2007 Wolfgang served also as President to European Society of Skull Base Surgery (ESBS). Wolfgang spent his professional life as Director of the University ENT Department in Fulda, Germany. He will be sadly missed by all of us and will long stay in our memories. We will remember him during the next Executive Board meeting in Vienna.

Milan Profant

Education

During the XIXth World Congress in Sao Paulo, the initiatives of the Educational Committee were discussed in the Executive Committee meetings of Sunday May 31st and June 4th and were approved during the General Assembly.
The paper on minimum requirements of an ENT training worldwide are combined with the initiative of Dr. Johan Fagan from Cape Town to start with an ENT training program within the Developing Countries. This training program should be totally different from the training programs in Developed Countries because of their need and possibilities and their different incidence of disease and complications. Dr. Johan Fagan developed the website Educational support for ENT surgeons in the Developing World

Educational support for ENT surgeons in the Developing World