History – International Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society

1982: 1^stAnnual Meeting

Organised by Mike Harrison with input from Maria Michejda, Charles Rodeck and Bill Clewell. Charlotte Catz was the NIH Person who provided some liaison and I suspect some funding. (You might want to check some of those details with both Mike {who may well have some interesting memory lapses} and Bill Clewell.)

President: There wasn’t a President, as such, but Mike more or less chaired the meeting.

The participants were all individually invited, and the small number was due to the fact that the meeting was held at the Kroc Foundation Ranch, and there was room for only 30 participants with almost everyone sharing a room.

If you look at some of the Participants listed, some of them included Mike’s Fellows.

Participants

Richard Berkowitz, Tim Canty, Charlotte Catz, Peter Callen, William Clewell, Alfred de Lorimier, Richard Depp, Michael Edwards, Roy Filly, John Fletcher, Frederic Frigaletto, Walter Garey, William Garrett, Mitchell Golbus, Michael Harrison, Albert Jonsen, Michael Johnson, Robert Krock, William Liley, Morris Mahoney, Frank Manning, Paul Meier, Maria Michejda, Donald Nakayama, Lewis Nelson, John Newkirk, Kevin Pringle, Charles Rodeck, Mark Rosen, Joseph Schulman.

The important things to emerge from this conference were an agreement to meet the following year, a Position Statement on invasive fetal therapy {Harrison, MR et al. Fetal treatment 1982: Consensus statement from Kroc Foundation Symposium. New England Journal of Medicine 307:1651-1652 (1982)}, and the setting up of an international Fetal Treatment Registry.

1983: 2nd Annual Meeting

Held at Aspen, Colorado. Organised by Bill Clewell. Results of the Registry were reported. It was very apparent that the guidelines that had been set at the first meeting and had been reported in the New England Journal article, were being largely ignored. However, note that in these early meetings there was a strong representation from Ethicists such as John Fletcher and (I think) Al Johnson. It was at this meeting that the Society was actually formed and named. (I must admit that I was the one who insisted on the title of “International Fetal Medicine & Surgery Society.) There was also agreement that, in general, the meeting would be held outside of America every second year, although it was acknowledged that the first few meetings would need to be held in the USA, in order to provide time for other people to start to organize the meeting. It was at this meeting that the concept that the site of the meeting would cross an ocean every year was developed. To a very real extent, I drove that concept. I was extremely concerned that if we were not careful, then the organization would be dominated by the North Americans, just by virtue of the numbers that would be able to attend. This has been borne out by the fact that the European Meetings always have a much greater European attendance.

It was also at this meeting that it was decided that the most important job for the President was to organize the next meeting.

President: I guess that you would have to say Bill Clewell.

1984: 3rd Annual Meeting

Washington, DC. This was largely organized by Maria Michejda, although Joseph Schulman was recorded as being the first President (as defined by the criteria above). This meeting delivered an extremely important lesson:- don’t hold the meeting at a site where there are lots of distractions! A lot of the attendees spent most of the meeting visiting the sights around Washington DC.

President: Joseph Schulman

1985: 4th Annual Meeting

Brisk discussions about the reliability of various animal models for Neural Tube Defects. Discussions about Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia and other Heart & Lung problems. Clear evidence from the Registry data that the guidelines that had been thrashed out at Santa Inez for the treatment of Hydrocephalus & hydronephrosis were largely being ignored by those involved in fetal intervention. The incredible discussions we had about the use of anencephalic fetuses as organ donors and the ethics and practical realities of fetal reductions.

President: Frank Manning

1986: 5th Annual Meeting

London, England.

President: Charles Rodeck

1987: 6th Annual Meeting

President: N/A

Year	Conference details
1988	7th Annual Meeting Macinokic Island, Michigan, USA President: Mark Evans
1989	1989 8th Annual Meeting Asilomar, California, USA President: Mike Harrision
1990	1990 9th Annual Meeting Rotura, New Zealand President: Kevin Pringle
1991	1991 10th Annual Meeting Phoenix, Arizona President: Bill Clewell
1992	1992 11th Annual Meeting Evian, France President: Yves Dumez
1993	1993 12th Annual Meeting Whistler, Canada Presidents: Doug Wilson and Duncan F. Farquharson
1994	13th Annual Meeting Antwerp, Belgium President: Camille VandenBerghe
1995	14th Annual Meeting Newport, Rhode Island, USA President: Frank Chervenak
1996	15th Annual Meeting Capri, Italy Present: Umberto Nicolini
1997	16th Annual Meeting Juno, Alaska, USA Presidents: Mark Johnson and Mark Evans
1998	17th Annual Meeting Heron Island, Australia President: Brian Trudinger
1999	18th Annual Meeting Carlis, England Presidents: Ross Welch and Bannister
2000	19th Annual Meeting Nantucket, USA President: Scott Adzick
2001	20th Annual Meeting Kruger, South Africa President: Nick Fisk
2002	21st Annual Meeting La Malbaie, Quebec President: Jean-Martin Laberge
2003	22nd Annual Meeting Zermatt, Switerzland President: Wolfgang Holzgreve
2004	23rd Annual Meeting Charleston, South Carolina President: Ken Moise
2005	24th Annual Meeting Helsingor, Denmark President: Connie Jorgenson
2006	25th Annual Meeting Hawaii, USA President: Mike Harrison
2007	26th Annual Meeting Aruba President: Humphrey Kanhai
2008	27th Annual Meeting Athenian Riviera, Greece President: Nikolaos Papadopulous, MD
2009	28th Annual Meeting Amazon, Brazil Presidents: Ricardo Barini, MD & Eduardo Isfer
2010	29th Annual Meeting Kanagawa, Japan President: Toshio Chiba
2011	30th Annual Meeting, Sedona, Arizona, USA President: Timothy Crobleholme Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio
2012	31st Annual Meeting Queenstown, New Zealand President: Kevin Pringle, M.D., University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand
2013	32nd Annual Meeting Jerusalem, Israel Presidents: Schlomo Lipitz & Zvi Appelman
2014	33rd Annual Meeting Chatham, MA, USA. President: François Luks
2015	34th Annual Meeting Hersonissos, Crete, Greece President: Jan Deprest
2016	35th Annual Meeting Kasane, Botswana Presidents: Oluyinka & Olutoyin Olutoye
2017	36th Annual Meeting Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA President: Alan Flake, MD, Karin Blakemore, MD
2018	37th Annual Meeting Bali, Indonesia President: Mahesh Choolani