Page 3 - Focus on REPRODUCTION SEP 2015

CONTENTS
LOOK AHEAD TO HELSINKI 2016 4 LOOK BACK ON LISBON 2015 6 ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF MEMBERS 11 ESHRE NEWS 14 EIM CONSORTIUM 16 NEW IMPACT FACTORS FOR ESHRE JOURNALS 18 INPROFILE:CRISTINAMAGLI 19 PGD CONSORTIUM 27 FROM THE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS 28
THE MATURITY OF REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE 22 as seen through our medical journals FROM ASSISTED TO ARTIFICIAL REPRODUCTION 24 The feasibility of sperm cells and oocytes from manipulated stem cells LAST WORD: THE ONE-IN-A-MILLION BABY 38
CHAIRMAN’S INTRODUCTION
This is my first introduction to Focus on Reproduction as Chairman of ESHRE. I am writing it in Sweden in the middle of a Scandinavian ‘summer’ (14 degrees, heavy winds, and rain . . . ), and with the last days of my holiday approaching too quickly.
I have now spent two years as Chairman Elect of ESHRE, working with Anna Veiga as Past Chair and Juha Tapanainen as Chairman. It has been a rewarding and exciting experience - and one in which I have learnt in much more detail how ESHRE works. I have to say that I am impressed by the number of things in which ESHRE is involved, and to see the impact that we have in reproductive medicine. Not only on a day-to-day clinical and scientific level, but also at a European and international policy level, working together with EU and WHO as well as with other international societies and organisations. It is crucial that we are present when major decisions about reproductive medicine and science are being taken.
Alongside policy making, one of the most important objectives for ESHRE is scientific knowledge and education. We have a responsibility to acquire knowledge from the experts in our field and to collect data - and to extend this information into the community, by which I mean not only ESHRE members but also our politicians, regulators, patients, media and general public. And this should be done through all the channels we have available, through our workshops, our certification programmes, our journals, our website, our national representatives and our annual meetings. We do have a huge opportunity and a lot of tools at our disposal.
We also have the advantage of a very well running, hardworking and dedicated ESHRE machinery in the Executive Committee, the SIGs and Task Forces and working groups, and of course our Central Office under the direction of Bruno Van den Eede. For me the best part of ESHRE has always been the fantastic people one meets. This creates a lot of positive energy, that we all need in order to move ahead.
One place where we find a lot of these fantastic people is the Annual Meeting. And, although a little biased, my impression is that this year’s meeting in Lisbon was very good indeed. I even heard a number of people saying it was one of the best. The scientific quality was high, the venue was
very efficient, and Lisbon of course is a wonderful city. The app, having improved for each year, now received a lot of positive feedback, and, for the first time ever, I heard no complaints at all about the food! Many thanks to
the organisers and to our Central Office for an excellent job. But there is never time to relax, and now planning for Helsinki next year moves into a more intensive phase.
So, thinking ahead to my task as Chairman of ESHRE, I am very much looking forward to the next two years. I know that it will be a lot of work, with a number of challenges to deal with, but I am also confident that it will
be a very interesting – and fun – time.
Kersti Lundin ESHRE Chairman 2015-2017
// SEPTEMBER 2015