1982: 1st Annual 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
Year | Conference details |
1982 | 1st Annual Meeting, USA President: Mike Harrison |
1983 | 2nd Annual Meeting, USA President: Bill Clewell |
1984 | 3nd Annual Meeting, USA President: Joseph Schulman and Maria Michejda |
1985 | 4th Annual Meeting, USA President: Frank Manning |
1986 | 5th Annual Meeting, England President: Charles Rodeck |
1988 | 6th Annual Meeting, USA President: Mark Evans |
1988 | 7th Annual Meeting, Germany President: Manfred Hansmann |
1989 | 1989 8th Annual Meeting, USA President: Mike Harrision |
1990 | 1990 9th Annual Meeting, New Zealand President: Kevin Pringle |
1991 | 1991 10th Annual Meeting, USA President: Bill Clewell |
1992 | 1992 11th Annual Meeting, France President: Yves Dumez |
1993 | 1993 12th Annual Meeting, Canada Presidents: Doug Wilson and Duncan F. Farquharson |
1994 | 13th Annual Meeting, Belgium President: Camille VandenBerghe |
1995 | 14th Annual Meeting, USA President: Frank Chervenak |
1996 | 15th Annual Meeting, Italy Present: Umberto Nicolini |
1997 | 16th Annual Meeting, USA Presidents: Mark Johnson and Mark Evans |
1998 | 17th Annual Meeting, Australia President: Brian Trudinger |
1999 | 18th Annual Meeting, England Presidents: Ross Welch and Bannister |
2000 | 19th Annual Meeting, USA President: Scott Adzick |
2001 | 20th Annual Meeting, South Africa President: Nick Fisk |
2002 | 21st Annual Meeting, Canada President: Jean-Martin Laberge |
2003 | 22nd Annual Meeting, Switerzland President: Wolfgang Holzgreve |
2004 | 23rd Annual Meeting, USA President: Ken Moise |
2005 | 24th Annual Meeting, Denmark President: Connie Jorgenson |
2006 | 25th Annual Meeting, USA President: Mike Harrison |
2007 | 26th Annual Meeting, Aruba President: Humphrey Kanhai |
2008 | 27th Annual Meeting, Greece President: Nikolaos Papadopulous |
2009 | 28th Annual Meeting, Brazil Presidents: Ricardo Barini and Eduardo Isfer |
2010 | 29th Annual Meeting, Japan President: Toshio Chiba |
2011 | 30th Annual Meeting, USA President: Timothy Crobleholme |
2012 | 31st Annual Meeting, New Zealand President: Kevin Pringle |
2013 | 32nd Annual Meeting, Israel Presidents: Schlomo Lipitz and Zvi Appelman |
2014 | 33rd Annual Meeting, USA. President: François Luks |
2015 | 34th Annual Meeting, Greece President: Jan Deprest |
2016 | 35th Annual Meeting, Botswana Presidents: Oluyinka and Olutoyin Olutoye |
2017 | 36th Annual Meeting, USA President: Alan Flake and Karin Blakemore |
2018 | 37th Annual Meeting, Indonesia President: Mahesh Choolani |
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