In 1972 eleven neurosurgeons assembled in Chicago a year after attending a meeting in Paris where it was decided that a society of pediatric neurosurgeons working throughout the world should exist. In Chicago the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN) was founded and its first meeting to be held in Tokyo one year later was scheduled. The energy for this stemmed from a shared belief that there was much to be learned about the craft of caring for children with neurosurgical illnesses and that by meeting to share knowledge gained a more a rapid evolution of our specialty would occur. This type of communication has always been at the core of the ISPN’s activities and in 2000 our then president Hal Rekate led us in putting this mission on paper:
The International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN) seeks to promote the health of children throughout the world by encouraging the ethical transmission and exchange of neuroscientific information and techniques related to Pediatric Neurosurgery
The mission of the ISPN is the promotion of health in our young patients. To support this we give our time, energy and money to support educational activities. Every year we host a scientific meeting somewhere in the world with 300 to 400 physicians and allied health care workers attending. This is an opportunity for us to share with each other advances in the care of children and to plan ISPN sponsored activities that will further the education of care givers for children with neurosurgical illnesses. Our society provides faculty and financial support every year for courses in emerging countries needing education in the treatment of children. The intent of these courses is to provide an overview of the state-of-art in pediatric neurosurgery and thereby inform physicians attending these courses about modern day management of neurosurgical illnesses in children and the expected outcome. Our members supply manuscripts for our professional journal, Child’s Nervous System. We are passionate to further our specialty and the energy for this comes from our love of children and our desire to serve them well.
