New Year’s message from the ISPRM President

• Under the leadership of the Chair of the Publication Committee, Gerard Francisco, and President-elect Walter Frontera we are now progressing to launch the first issue around the Buenos Aires Congress.

The ISPRM educational portal

• With strong leadership from the Education Committee, Henry Lew, Mooyeon Oh-Park and Rochelle Dy and a close collaboration of the ISPRM Secretary, Francesca Gimigliano and Kenes staff we are nearing the stage that the Educational portal can be launched!

ISPRM congress topics

• The topics of the ISPRM congresses need updating
• A Task Group dedicated to this topic – consisting of Franco Franchignoni, Christoph Gutenbrunner and the President’s Cabinet; with the ISPRM Committees, represented by their Chairs, acting as consultants – will be working on a revised listing

Planning of ISPRM 2018 World Congress, Paris, July 8-12

• SOFMER and ISPRM leadership will be signing their final agreement for the 2018 World Congress during our site visit on January 13-14, 2017. We find it important to underline the good spirit and the ease to reach a mutually beneficial agreement. It clearly demonstrates that ISPRM can arrive to a solution that fits any National Society, independent of its size, and that it is always possible to arrive to a win-win situation for both parties
• I wish to thank our French colleagues for the good spirit, enthusiasm and trusting relationship.

There is a long learning curve on organizing an International Congress. ISPRM is learning with each event and wishes to always improve to achieve a better, more consistent and unforgettable congress. ISPRM 2018 will be a remarkable event!

Updating of the Kenes-ISPRM contract

• Signed in 2011, the experience and knowledge provided during the last six years will allow us to arrive to a better and updated contract.

Cochrane Rehabilitation

• On December 16 the official launch of Cochrane Rehabilitation took place
• Cochrane Rehabilitation will be led by Stefano Negrini, and coordinated by Carlotte Kiekens.

United Nations (UN) partnership

• The UN Task Force, under the leadership of John Melvin, is performing an extraordinary job and ISPRM is working towards reaching an official position within the UN
• Linamara Battistella, Sam Wu and Bryan O’Young had a productive meeting with Eric Zhang (Officer of the UN CRPD) and Akiko Ito (Chief Secretariat of the UNCRPD) on December 2, 2016
• ISPRM was invited to join the 10th Session of the Conference of States Parties to The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by participating in a side event in June 2017
• UNCRPD will work with ISPRM to grant a consultative status
• ISPRM will participate in an event for the International Day for Persons with Disabilities at the UN Headquarters in NY on 12 Jan 2017
• A special session with the UN will take place at the Buenos Aires Congress, aimed to develop the UN-ISPRM relationship. If feasible, we will also have a session under the title: UN and ISPRM: Changing Mindsets for the 21st Century.

World Health Organization (WHO) partnership

• The WHO Liaison Committee, under the leadership of Christoph Gutenbrunner and the President’s Cabinet are deeply involved in growing the relation with WHO
• “The Rehabilitation 2030” meeting will take place at the WHO headquarters, in Geneva, 6-7 February 2017 and ISPRM will participate
• During this meeting, among other dedicated meetings, a session about the “The WHO Rehabilitation Country Toolkit” will take place. This questionnaire will allow a comprehensive assessment of the quality and quantity of the national rehabilitation capacity identifying the needs relating to the capacity of rehabilitation policy, financing, service delivery, human resources, assistive technology and emergency preparedness.

ISPRM Committees

• The Committees are at the heart of our Society
• With our Committees getting more active and productive, ISPRM is actually suffering from “growth pains”, with the Committees active all around the year and not only during World Congresses