Dear colleagues, friends and partners,
I welcome you as the new president of the EHF. I thank the Council for entrusting me in this position, and I feel deeply honoured to serve in this position for the next two years. I will continue the hard work of the past presidents, Prof. Zaza Katsarava and Prof. Christian Lampl. Their vision and dedication have been crucial in enhancing the EHF to its current flourishing state, based in the European continent. I look forward to even further enhancing our leadership across headache science all over Europe.
Together with the newly elected board, I will work hard to enhance the activities of the EHF in the coming two years.
During my presidency, I would like to continue the vision for EHF to strengthen and enlarge our leadership in headache across Europe, by putting emphasis on:
- Advancing the link between basic scientists and clinicians, thus enhancing translational science in the field of headache
- Stimulating educational initiatives of the EHF, including our ‘School of Advanced Studies’ (SAS), thereby enhancing knowledge on headache throughout different regions of Europe and beyond
- Further advancing the recently founded group of Future Headache Experts, thus stimulating exchange of knowledge and collaborations between young researchers and medical doctors from different research disciplines
- Work in accordance with Sustainable Developmental Goals 3 and 5, i.e., improve health and promote well-being for all at all ages, and achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The latter is still needed given the high burden of headache disorders especially in women, but also given the difficulties that many women still face while trying to establish their career
- Keep in close contact with our member states, so that they feel appreciated and feel the value of being part of the EHF
- Increase the awareness of headache disorders, involving headache professionals, policy makers, as well as patients
With these and obviously even more activities, I trust that EHF will continue to form an important community within Europe for medical doctors, basic scientists as well as policy makers. Obviously, we will continue our relation with Springer and the Journal of Headache and Pain, which is currently a leading headache journal with an impact factor of 7.4.
Our successful EHC2022 conference in Vienna was succeeded by a congress with even more participants in Barcelona in December 2023. Next meetings will be in Rotterdam in 2024, and Lisbon in 2025. It is a privilege to be actively involved in the organizations of these meetings.
Following the course that was already started during the last years, the EHF board will consistently exchange their ideas for the further development of our organization in a transparent way, according to our newly established bylaws.
I look forward to working with all of you to develop the EHF further and to support your national priorities.
Yours sincerely,
Antoinette Maassen van den Brink