Executive Committee Minutes
MID-YEAR MEETING | APR 2018
In addition to the Annual Conference, some of the I-NG members meet one more time in person to continue to consult on the plans and activities of the I-NG. This year the I-NG members met at the Mid-Year Meeting in Dallas, TX on April 13th. At this meeting our Chair, Fofi Constantinidou, informed the group an overview of last month’s minutes and announcements such as the successful new research grant award to her research group in the area of Brain injury rehab in Cypress. Updates were provided on the activities of each of the task forces of I-NG. The Research and Organization Task Force shared number of ideas that members proposed for e.g. projects to translate rehab measures in other international languages, Common Data Elements, and gender focused rehabilitation post-Traumatic Brain Injury. Research visits by I-NG members to Israeli Rehabilitation facilities were shared and prospects for future projects and collaborations were identified.
ING Membership Meeting
ANNUAL MEETING | OCT 2017
The annual business meetings allowed attendees to learn about the current affairs of I-NG as well as allow formal sharing of ideas and future possibilities. I-NG provides opportunity to discuss, learn, and explore together the rehab viewpoints of different countries. The question before us is how can I-NG facilitate and implement new knowledge across the globe. There has been growing interest in the Service Delivery Task Force of the I-NG, specifically in the research outcomes such as readmission rate, complication rate and comparing outcomes and functional scores from different countries. Analyses based on delivery model (manpower, length of stay, family support etc.) and assessment of the effectiveness of delivery models across the world were some of the ideas that the task force is approaching. Among the suggestions offered were to focus on education and training as well as the business side (translating ideas into commercial products) for the Service Delivery Task Force.
Among thoughts shared was an interest in raising capacity for rehab in lower income countries and how we can we assist low income countries and those countries without guidelines in developing rehab guidelines. This was seen as a critical element to streamline and significantly raise the bar for rehab provided to patients. It was not a surprise that those present at this meeting were interested in learning about what is happening in the rehabilitation world around the globe, making new friends, and discuss clinical issues from a global perspective looking at barriers and strengths. Examples shared were of the Sunnaas rehab hospital in Norway which has international projects in low cost countries. The issues around refugees and the rehab needs around this population were brought into focus by the Brucker speaker, Dr. Maria Vlassopoulos. The talk resulted in a rich discussion of ideas and thoughts which eventually resulted in a new task force of I-NG name Refugee Task Force.
