AASPN

Current President’s Message

Dear Colleagues and AASPN family,

It was with great honour and humility that I accepted to be President of the AASPN in December 2023. The AASPN is a young society, founded in 2013 to promote paediatric neurosurgical care in the Asian region through the education and training of neurosurgeons. It provides support to units in developing countries through regional networking and interpersonal contacts. These collegiate interactions, based on respect, honesty and a shared common vision transforms the society into an AASPN family.

Notwithstanding the detrimental impact of COVID on our activities and the sad loss of too many of our precious members during that time, the previous 10 years had seen remarkable growth through the enthusiasm, expertise, wisdom and care of its founding members, past presidents, executive board and most importantly, you, its members.

My Presidency started as the world emerged from that terrible shadow. Yet out of that darkness arose an opportunity to reimagine the way our society interacts with the broader neurosurgical community.

To this end we signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Society of Paediatric Neurosurgery in December 2023 so that together we can advance the needs of our region. We held our first joint meeting with the Asian Australasian Society of Neurosurgery in Taiwan in November 2024 so that we can broaden paediatric specific knowledge to our region’s neurosurgical colleagues.

We have redesigned our educational course. Still linked with the courses in Europe and South America we have maintained the scope and breadth to provide a comprehensive paediatric neurosurgical curriculum. The course is now also linked to our congress to increase the opportunity for our members to attend. At its core remains the open discussion of concepts, cases and their complexities.

In December 2025 our biannual congress will be held in Bali, Indonesia. This congress is focused on the technologies and developments that enhance our delivery of care. I look forward to the opportunity to meet and welcome you in Bali.

Wirginia Maixner
President
Asian Australasian Society for Paediatric Neurosurgery