Thank you to all faculty and participants for entering into the spirit of the EPNS Masterclass 2024 and contributing to this special EPNS event.

19-21 September 2024 (Thursday morning until Saturday lunchtime)

Masterclass topic: Great Expectations

Expectations are growing all the time in our specialty: new diagnostic techniques and ground-breaking treatments appear incredible one day; but by the next have become the “new normal” that everyone expects of us. New possibilities bring new responsibilities: to make diagnoses as rapidly as possible to ensure best possible outcome; to offer every treatment possible, as close to home as possible. Who will pay for these new capabilities? Or give us the extra time we now need to deliver them? How can we carry on doing more and more?

And there are still so many situations we can’t help — catastrophic brain injury, many remaining neurogenetic disorders. Families’ expectations have been raised by the good news stories: ‘why can’t my child have that treatment I read about online?” “I don’t believe you when you say there’s nothing that can be done”. We may believe their expectations are unrealistic but how can we be sure? What are the limits of recovery in the brain? When should we strive? And when should we ask parents to accept that whilst care is very possible, cure isn’t?

As well as the world class clinical and neuroscience faculty you expect from the EPNS we were thrilled to welcome parents, ethicists, philosophers, and researchers from other disciplines to speak at the event.

The EPNS Cambridge Masterclass has established itself as something special and 2024 did not disappoint.

Masterclass Location: 

Corpus Christi, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Accommodation:  

Corpus Christi College and St Catharine’s College and Gonville and Caius College in en-suite single rooms. These are student rooms and can be quite basic. Participants were notified about which college their accommodation had been reserved after registration. All 3 colleges were walking distance from each other.

Number of participants:

We limited numbers to 40 participants to preserve the interactive nature of the meeting.

Who could participate?

Building on the unique features of our first four Masterclasses, this was a small, interactive meeting with – where possible – delegates attending in “couples” of a senior mentoring clinician and the leaders of tomorrow: to share and learn from each other in areas where often there are no easy answers. We therefore preferred participants to register as a pair and complete a joint booking form, but we did accept enquiries from “unattached” individuals. Note: participants registering as a pair did not necessarily have to work at the same hospital but had to have a mentor/mentee connection. We suggested the junior partner should be under 45, with a clinical practice in paediatric neurology and active in research and teaching.

Organising Committee

Dewi Bakker (Netherlands), Rob Forsyth (UK), Lucia Gerstl (Germany), Maria Gogou (UK), Kathleen Gorman (Ireland), Florian Heinen (Germany), Ilona Kopyta (Poland), Joe Symonds (UK), Mia Westerholm-Ormio (Finland).

Programme: CLICK HERE

Speakers:

  • Sarah Barclay (UK), Founder and Director of Medical Mediation Foundation
  • Hannah Cock (UK), Professor of Epilepsy and Medical Education
  • Sarah Davis (UK), Senior Research Fellow, School of Medicine and Population Health, University of Sheffield
  • Gerald Dickens (UK), Actor
  • Paul Eunson (UK), Paediatric Neurologist, Edinburgh
  • Peter Falkai (Germany), Professor of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Munich
  • Charles A Foster (UK), Visiting Professor Oxford Law Faculty; Senior Research Associate at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and Ethox Centre, University of Oxford
  • Florian Heinen (Germany), Professor of Paediatric Neurology, LMU Klinikum Munich and MUC Hauner, Munich University Centre for Children with Developmental and Medical Complexity
  • Andreas Meyer-Heim (Switzerland) Professor for Paediatric Rehabilitation, Swiss Children’s Rehab, University Children’s Hospital Zurich
  • Erica Molteni (UK) Coma Science Group, University of Liège
  • Ulrike Schara-Schmidt (Germany) Professor of Paediatric Neurology and Neuromuscular Disorders, University of Duisburg -Essen
  • Laurent Servais (UK) Professor of Paediatric Neuromuscular Diseases at the MDUK Oxford Neuromuscular Centre. Invited Professor of Child Neurology at Liège University
  • Barbara Wren (UK/Ireland) registered and chartered psychologist, accredited mediator, highly experienced organisational consultant and facilitator at Barbara Wren Psychology

Registration Fee: 450 Euro per person OR 785 Euro per couple:

  • Three nights’ accommodation (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) at either Corpus Christi or St Catharine’s or Gonville and Caius College in a single STUDENT room with en-suite facilities.
  • Breakfast served at Corpus Christi college.
  • Access to the full Masterclass programme
  • Lunch on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
  • Conference dinner in the College dining hall on Friday evening followed by an open after-dinner discussion of issues arising. (Please note, the capacity in the Dining Hall is sufficient to accommodate all participants but we are unlikely to be able to accommodate accompanying partners who are not participating in the masterclass).
  • Coffee and tea during all breaks.

It was possible to register with no accommodation or breakfast included, and registration fee was 350 Euros per person OR 600 Euros per couple.

Attendees were responsible for organising their own transport.

Additional nights’ accommodation could be booked at a cost of 100 Euros per night.

Optional Social Event on Thursday evening: 60 Euros per person:

  • Kettles Yard house visit CLICK HERE to learn more
  • 2-course Dinner at ‘The Eagle’, a traditional English pub opened in 1667 where Watson and Crick celebrated discovering DNA and 100’s of WW2 RAF pilots left behind a wall of messages in the hope they were never forgotten.
  • Note: drinks at The Eagle were NOT included in this price. Guests needed to purchase their own drinks from the bar.

Important:

  • Delegates were encouraged to register as a “couples”; a senior mentoring clinician and a mentee/leader of tomorrow.
  • Couples did not necessarily have to work at the same hospital but had to have a mentor/mentee connection.
  • If anybody registered as an individual with no mentor or mentee partner, we worked to find another delegate to become their partner.
  • The EPNS Masterclass 2024 booking form constituted a binding agreement. By submitting a booking form, delegated accepted the EPNS Cambridge Master Class 2024 TERMS & CONDITIONS
  • Places were limited and demand was high.
  • Both attendees (mentor and young neurologist) had to be fully paid-up members of the EPNS
  • We recommended delegates take out appropriate insurance.
  • Bookings were taken on a first come first served basis, secured on receipt of full payment.