Welcome to the Joint Annual Meeting 2020 of

SHS & SPS

Dear friends and colleagues

Welcome to the Annual Congress of the Swiss Headache Society and the Swiss Pain Society (formerly SGSS/SSED) on 1 and 2 October 2020 in Bern, our joint anniversary conference. This year is a special year for both societies, as we are celebrating 25 years of SHS and 30 years of SPS.

The program has been designed to be correspondingly varied. The various aspects of interdisciplinary and multimodal pain therapy will be discussed, this year with the main focus on headaches. The varied program includes not only the tried and tested or controversial topics, but also the latest developments in therapy. The program is also aimed not only at headache and pain specialists, but also at younger (and older) colleagues from a wide range of medical fields, from primary care to specialists. Finally, our professional societies are multi-professional and include all health care professions dedicated to the care of (headache) pain patients.

With the solemn "My most tricky case" we want to take a look at the past of our former presidents. With the Hot Topic Lectures we offer a new presentation platform, which also allows to present short, scientific ideas or burning issues to a large audience. Besides our keynote lectures on Thursday (Peter Goadsby on headache pathophysiology and Nouchine Hadjikhani on the progress of imaging) and like the anthropologist Jeremy Narby on Friday, all facets of currently useful therapies are discussed, from complementary to surgical, from medicinal to psychotherapeutic.

With this anniversary congress, we would like to stimulate the discussions in the subject areas, contribute to the concept formation of each individual and thereby improve patient care.

On behalf of the members of the scientific committee and the undersigned presidents, we are therefore very pleased to welcome you on these days.

PD Dr. med. K. Maurer              PD Dr. med. A. Gantenbein
President SPS                            President SHS