ENS, SSIF announce prestigious award to recognize excellence in medical education

Serono Symposia International Foundation (SSIF) has announced today a public competition for an Award to recognise an expert in the field of neurology who has made a significant contribution to medical education activities through research and dedication. This prestigious Award is established in partnership with the European Neurological Society and has been announced today during the ENS meeting held in Lisbon, Portugal.

The criteria for the candidates' application cover a wide range of skills and attributes that SSIF is looking for in a potential winner of the award. The Award Committee composed by SSIF Scientific Committee and Board of Directors Members and ENS Members, will assess the professional dedication and leadership to continuing medical education.

"The challenge of medical education, today, is to manage to follow the outstanding advances in the field of neurological sciences - said Professor Giancarlo Comi, President of the Scientific Committee of SSIF - and I am particularly glad to welcome this prestigious initiative by SSIF that highlights the crucial value of medical education for the entire healthcare professional's field."

The application criteria for the award will include physicians and scientists from 35 to 50 years old working in the field of degenerative dementias, multiple sclerosis, neurodegenerative disease entailing movement disorders and/or parkinson's disease. The ideal candidate will have five or more years of medical educational services at educational live events as scientific organizer, speaker or tutor and/or an academic course teaching experience as lecturer or professor. Besides this, the ideal candidate will be author to 10 best papers published in the last 10 years, authorship of books or book chapters or best book papers in the last 10 years and/or authorship of online courses in the last 5 years.

Applications are open for submission from May 28th to December 31st, 2011 and the winner, announced during the ENS Meeting in 2012, besides receiving a 10.000 euro value award, will become a Member of the SSIF Advisory Committee.

Candidates must register and submit their application and documentation on the dedicated web site http://www.ssifaward.org, no later than December 31st 2011.

"Our future health depends on today's medical experts' minds and Medical education has never been more important than today - said Jean Daniel Baki, Secretary to the Board of Directors of SSIF - and the SSIF award highlights the importance of medical education and recognizes those who are contributing to broaden tomorrow's scientific horizons. This award aims to provide a greater opportunity to share thoughts and opinions in a stimulating environment within the neurology community."