November 2014 – Assembly of National Sleep Societies (ANSS)
Assembly of National Sleep Societies (ANSS)
During the ESRS Congress in Tallinn, colleagues of the ANSS Executive Committee asked me to assume the role of Chair – a daunting task indeed. Stepping up as successor to Ludger Grote is ‘Mission Impossible’!. With his distinguished and gentlemanly style, he personified modern and effective leadership. He moulded a cooperative team from the Executive Committee members, powered by the energy and wisdom of Stefan Mihaicuta and Javier Puertas.
Together with the new entries Erna Sif Arnardottir – offering vitality and enthusiasm – and Johan Verbraecken – securing tradition in research and education – we are fortunate that the Vice-Chair, Marta Gonçalves and the Secretary, Michaela Gjerstad will continue to preserve an atmosphere of friendship and hospitality.
The program of the new ANSS Executive Committee (EC) will be based on three fundamental keywords: continuity, collaboration, connection.
Continuity: all the tremendous work and effort that has been undertaken to date will require consolidation through initiatives and projects. The striking success of the Wake-Up Bus is the lastest such endeavour in a long, productive story. We are also proud to announce that the Wake Up Bus paper was accepted for publication in the Journal of Sleep Research on 4 November 2014.
Collaboration: the ESRS is the beacon for all ANSS activities. Therefore, a continued operational interaction with the ESRS President, ESRS Board and ESRS Committees is mandatory in order to achieve shared goals.
Connection: networking between the Presidents of individual national sleep societies needs to be supported in order to raise novel ideas and focus attention on problems in sleep medicine and research across Europe.
The ANSS 2015 meeting will be hosted by the Czech Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine Society in Prague where all the national Presidents will highlight achievements and share their experience and outlook on difficult issues affecting sleep medicine and research in their respective countries.
Erna Sif Arnardottir is completing the analysis of scoring methods and rules from the European scoring questionnaire on sleep disordered breathing, while Michaela Gjerstad is working on a draft paper focused on reimbursement for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders in Europe. The latter complies with the ESRS’ request for a paper on the cost of sleep disorders in Europe.
Finally, the inclusion of ANSS EC members on ESRS Committees is as follows: Marta Gonçalves (ESRS Board as EC Vice-Chair and EU Committee), Erna Sif Arnardottir (Sleep Medicine Committee), Liborio Parrino (Education Committee).
New ideas and proposals are starting to flourish within the EC and we are always delighted to receive thoughts and suggestions on improving the awareness of sleep medicine and research throughout Europe.
Liborio Parrino
Chair of the ANSS Executive Committee