8th National Conference of the Association of Child Neurology (India) “ Bridging Advances and Basics in Child Neurology

​Conference Title: 8th National Conference of the Association of Child Neurology " Bridging Advances and Basics in Child Neurology "
Location: New Delhi, India Date: Feb. 3-5, 2017 Hosting Society: Association of Child Neurology
Local Hosts: Dr. Rekha Mittal, Dr. Suvasini Sharma, Dr. Rakesh Jain
Type of meeting: National Conference

Participants: The 8th National conference of the Association of Child Neurology hosted approximately 400 attendees including 275 delegates (child neurologists, adult neurologists, pediatricians and trainees) plus 90 faculty. The delegates originated from all regions of India and included a few delegates from Bangladesh and Nepal. The faculty included 12 international and 78 national faculty. 

Panel of speakers and speaker affiliations: 

1. Linda De Meirleir, Vrie Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium 
2. Biju Hameed, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
3. Michael Johnston, Kennedy-Krieger Institute and Children's Hospital and Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, USA
4. Pratibha Singhi, Advanced Pediatrics Center, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India
5. Ingrid Tein, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
6. Jo Wilmshurst, Red Cross Children's Hospital, University of Capetown, Capetown, South Africa 

Topics covered (and speaker)
1. Linda De Meirleir: Pyridoxine dependency and related disorders.
2. Biju Hameed: Rational treatment of epilepsy and newer anti-epileptic drugs (panel discussion)
3. Michael Johnston: Disease modifying treatments for neurogenetic developmental disorders – what does the future hold ?
4. Pratibha Singhi: Dyskinetic cerebral palsy – recent advances in diagnosis and treatment.
5. Ingrid Tein: Metabolic myopathies; Recent advances in the treatment of mitochondrial disorders
6. Jo Wilmshurst: Epilepsy in infants: Treatment guidelines. 

The conference was composed of parallel sessions including the following themes (1) New frontiers in pediatric neurology (2) Hot topics in epilepsy (3) Status epilepticus (4) Bedside clinical neurology (5) Immune mediated and inflammatory disorders (6) Video sessions of autism, reflex seizures, psychogenic seizures and epilepsy mimics in infants (7) Neuromuscular disorders (8) Neurometabolic disorders (9) Recent advances in pediatric neurology (10) Epilepsy (11) Neuro-infections (12) Stroke and headache. 

The common sessions included (1) Panel discussion on the rational treatment of epilepsy and newer anti-epileptic drugs (2) Mechanisms of epilepsy (3) Neurodevelopmental disorders (4) Genetic testing in pediatric neurologic conditions (5) Debate on Neonatal screening (6) Parasomnias (7) Movement disorders (8) Controversies in neurology. There were also poster presentations with a poster competition adjudicated by national faculty and ICNA members. 

Outcomes/Future Plans 

1. The conference stimulated lively interactive academic discussions.
2. Excellent progress was made during the site visit and in the planning of the scientific program for the upcoming ICNC2018 (Nov. 14-18th, 2018) in Mumbai, India with the local organizing committee and executive board of the AOCN. 

Support: 

According to the ICNA policy, the ICNA members supported their own international flights as well as their own accomodations in Mumbai during the ICNC2018 site visit. The ICNA members gratefully acknowledge the support of the AOCN for the internal costs of accomodations and local travel related to the AOCN conference in New Delhi. 

ICNA members received no honoraria. The ICNA members also acknowledge their respective Universities/teaching hospitals for allowing them to use their conference leave time away from service commitments to contribute to the AOCN conference.

Main conference program http://www.childneurocon2017.com/scientific-program/