Stuart B. Bauer, MD ICCS President

With the dawn of a new decade, our society is as vibrant as ever. We have accomplished a great deal in the past year and 2011 appears to be even brighter than previous years. Our influence on the world scene is more pronounced than ever, thanks in no small part to the efforts of our executive Board, friends of the Board and the regional representatives (Sujit Chowdhary, Eliane Fonseca, Michal Maternik and Mario Patricolo) who have actively promoted our message as widely as possible. I take great pride in knowing we have a cadre of very committed individuals who want to disseminate our knowledge and expertise to as many people as possible in order to create pediatric centers of excellence around the world.

This year is no exception. We have courses scheduled in Egypt (this course is postponed due to recent political events but hopefully will take place once the political climate improves), Brazil, Taiwan and Moscow. Next year we hope to bring our message to South Africa, Romania, Poland, Chile, North America, and Cambridge, England, where our biennial meeting will take place in September. We have struck more formal relations with the International Continence Society, thanks to the efforts of Wendy Bower, our representative to that organization. Currently, we have collaborations with Ferring and Laborie Medical to help ensure the feasibility that our scientific programs can be carried out without compromise.

We continue to disseminate our message through standardization documents that have been or will be published during this year: Psychological and Psychiatric Issues in Urinary and Fecal Incontinence (J of Urology, April), and Evaluation and Treatment of Non-Monosymptomatic Nocturnal Enuresis (TBA). Substantial progress has been made on other standardization documents including ‘management of daytime incontinence’, ‘neurogenic bladder dysfunction’, ‘gastrointestinal issues’ and ‘urodynamic assessment’. It is anticipated that these sentinel efforts will be in print in 2012 – 2013 after they have been vetted by our members via our website. We are launching a new standardization document for transitional care in children with chronic urologic disorders that extend into adulthood. Lastly, we feel it is time to revisit and update the standardization of terminology document that was published in 2006. It is one of the most widely cited manuscripts in the literature today.

Our educational chairperson, Dr. Mario DeGennaro, is exploring ways to disseminate information to our members and for members to receive postgraduate credits for e-learning. It is anticipated this project will be functional in 2012. Janet Chase, another member of the Board, has put together ICCS designated slide sets on several ICCS-related topics, including standardization of terminology, anatomy and physiology of lower urinary and gastrointestinal tracts, enuresis, and assessment and treatment of daytime urinary incontinence, using a new slide format she designed. Once approved, these ICCS slide sets will be available for members to peruse and use to educate colleagues and patients.

Our website is scheduled to be revamped in an attempt to make it more user friendly, more informative, more secure and hopefully more interactive in the future, so you will know instantaneously how our Society is progressing. The Board and I want to serve you, to help you understand and better treat children with incontinence, to become scientifically stimulated in order to pursue research projects where you work, to collaborate with others in this and associated fields of medicine, and to attend and participate in postgraduate courses and scientific meetings we sponsor. We look forward to your continued support for and dialogue with the ICCS.

Sincerely,

Stuart B. Bauer
June, 2011