November 2013 – Assembly of National Sleep Societies (ANSS)
Assembly of National Sleep Societies (ANSS)
The EC of the ANSS has met in Valencia (September 2013) and had frequent contacts via e-mail and phone. The activities can be summarised as follows:
Our main activity during the last period was the organisation of the EU Wake Up Bus project initiated by Marta Gonçalves together with the EU Committee headed by Roberto Amici and the ESRS President Philippe Peigneux. This successful collaboration within the ESRS highlighted the importance and potential of the ANSS structure within the ESRS. It was a historic moment to join the EU symposium on sleepy driving together with the substantial number of European Sleep Society presidents and members. We therefore would like to thank Marta Gonçalves for her outstanding performance before, during and after the campaign and also all members of the National Sleep Societies for their enormous efforts to perform this unique and very successful campaign in Europe. The EC-ANNS aims to further develop this collaboration between national sleep societies and the different bodies of the ESRS in the future. For more details of the project and the single contributions of the National Sleep Societies, please read also the report of the EU committee and visit the ESRS website (www.esrs.eu).
Our second important activity is the ongoing preparation for the Annual ANNS president meeting in Graz, Austria, together with the ESRS board and relevant ESRS committees. We are grateful to Wolfgang Mallin and the Austrian Sleep Society who will host the meeting in 2014. All presidents of the National Sleep Societies – please note already now the date: Friday the 2nd of May until Sunday the 4th of May 2014. We will send more detailed information soon.
Our third focus is on the finalisation of several status reports regarding education, certification and reimbursement of sleep medicine services in Europe. This work is in progress and we plan to present the most recent data in the first half of 2014. In addition, we aim to update the information of the ESRS webpage with regard to the ANSS. There have been major developments to be presented on the website.
Finally, we would like to encourage you (specifically the board members of the National Sleep Societies) to review the representation of your National Sleep Society on the ESRS website. In case of updates, please contact your National Sleep Society board which will communicate the necessary changes to the ESRS webmaster (esrs.bk@online.de). Please, review also the representation of sleep research centres in your country (Laboratories), current information might be incomplete on the ESRS website.
The EC-ANSS wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year
Ludger Grote, Chair
on behalf of the Executive Committee, Assembly of National Sleep Societies