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Irish Neurological Association, Annual Neurology Update Meeting, Hyatt Centric Hotel, Dublin, 7 October 2022.

The upcoming Annual Neurology Update Meeting in Dublin has a packed and varied programme.

The 21st Annual Neurology Update Meeting will take place on Friday, 7 October 2022 at the Hyatt Centric Hotel, Dublin, under the directorship of Dr Eavan McGovern. 

Dr McGovern is a Consultant Neurologist at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. Her special interest is in movement disorders. 

This is a neurology education day, which will be of interest to neurologists, general physicians, and general practitioners. 

The meeting will begin with Dr McGovern giving a short welcome and introduction. The first session is on epilepsy. 

Prof Norman Delanty, Consultant Neurologist, Beaumont Hospital, will deliver the opening presentation. He is also Clinical Professor at the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, and a funded investigator at the FutureNeuro Research Centre at the RCSI. 

Prof Delanty has been active in many translational research projects. He initiated the Irish epilepsy biobank, originally funded by the Higher Education Authority of Ireland, and collaborates nationally and internationally with other investigators. He was the clinical instigator in the development of the now nationally used epilepsy electronic patient record. He is also the founder of the Irish Epilepsy and Pregnancy Register. The title of Prof Delanty’s talk is ‘Novel therapies in epilepsy’. 

The next speaker is Dr Pat Moloney, Department of Genetics, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK. Dr Moloney is currently in the final year of his neurology higher specialist training. 

Over the past two years, he completed a clinical research Fellowship as part of the RCSI StAR MD programme under the supervision of Prof Delanty and Prof Gianpiero Cavalleri. 

Currently, he is undertaking a Richard Steevens Fellowship in Neurogenetics at Queen Square. He will speak about the genetics of focal epilepsy. 

The next session is on peripheral nerve disease. ‘Disorders of the peripheral nerve’ is the title of the presentation by Dr Aisling Carr, Consultant Neurologist, MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Disease, Queen Square. Dr Carr was appointed to her position in 2016 after completing a clinical Fellowship in peripheral nerve disease. Her current clinical practice specialises in peripheral nerve and neuro-inflammatory disease. 

Following Dr Carr’s talk, Prof Aisling Ryan, Consultant Neurologist, Cork University Hospital (CUH), will speak about neuromuscular disorders and channelopathies. Prof Ryan’s research interests include clinical and epidemiological aspects of neuromuscular disease and collaborative translational neuroscience projects. 

At the next session, which is on neurotechnology, Ms Catherine Moran, Consultant Neurosurgeon Beaumont Hospital will deliver an update on deep brain stimulation in Ireland. This will be followed by a presentation on peripheral nerve ultrasound, which will be given by Dr Anna Whelehan, Consultant Clinical Neurophysiologist, Beaumont Hospital. 

Prof Marie Vidailhet, Professor of Neurology, Salpêtrière Hospital, Sorbonne University, Paris, France, will deliver the sole lecture for the fourth session, which is on movement disorders. Prof Vidailhet has a long-standing interest in movement disorders, Parkinson’s disease, and dystonia in clinical practice (through the National Reference Centre for Dystonia and the European Refence Network) and research – from pathophysiology to experimental therapeutics. Within her research group at the ICM Brain and Spine Institute, she has contributed to the understanding of the pathophysiology of dystonia and other, rare movement disorders and to the development of therapeutic approaches, such as deep brain stimulation in dystonia and non-invasive stimulation in tremor. 

The final session of the meeting is on multiple sclerosis (MS). Dr Hugh Kearney, Consultant Neurologist, St James’s Hospital, Dublin, will give a talk entitled ‘Treatment of highly active multiple sclerosis’. Dr Kearney is part of the Academic Unit of Neurology in Trinity College Dublin and is developing a research group focused on translational research in MS, including the development of diagnostic biomarkers. 

The other lecture during the session will be delivered by Dr Maria Gaughan, Consultant Neurologist, St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin. Dr Gaughan will speak about stem cell transplantation in MS. 

AGENDA