Headache specialists will gather in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for the International Headache Congress (IHC), which will run from Thursday, September 7, to Sunday, September 10.
For the first day, the conference promises “a uniquely Canadian opening ceremony” along with awards and recognition, followed by several lead-off presentations as part of the Presidential Symposium, according to the congress website.
The organizers have planned the program to encourage interaction and engagement among attendees, which should be feasible with an expected attendance of around 1200.
“I think we are really expanding our horizons,” said Cristina Tassorelli, MD, PhD, IHC scientific program committee co-chair and professor of neurology at the National Neurological Institute C. Mondino at the University of Pavia, Italy. Appropriately, the theme of the meeting is New Horizons in Headache.
Dr Tassorelli highlighted for Medscape Medical News some of the science at the meeting as well as ways it will be presented to encourage audience participation. She said that presentations will include information on new mechanisms of headache and new treatments, primary and secondary headaches, the paradox of medication overuse headache, molecular mechanisms of pain, ion channels, biomarkers, and trigeminal neuralgia.
Saturday, September 9, will be a busy day, featuring several clinical and preclinical sessions on migraine biomarkers, emerging therapies, neuromodulation, the burden of headache disease worldwide, and big data. Also that day, the Cephalalgia Award will be presented.
Late-breaking basic and clinical science trials will be presented on Sunday, September 10, along with sessions on the mechanisms and use of placebo in headache, a review of the clinical and basic science highlights of the meeting, more awards, and the closing ceremony.
Innovations in Information Presentation
Moderated ePoster sessions will be new this year, with almost one fourth of posters being presented using booths in the exhibit hall with seating for 10 to 15 people. These ePosters will appear on touch screens. Each author will have 4 to 5 minutes to describe the work, and moderators will control the discussions and comment on the work.
“We wanted the chairs to be very active and to attract people,” Dr Tassorelli said. A goal is to get viewers involved—in a large audience, “usually it’s the same people asking questions.”
Posters are also a good way for researchers and audience members to network. While in oral platform sessions only a few minutes are usually available for questions and answers after each presentation, posters allow more time for back-and-forth.
In another step toward more audience participation this year, “The best poster will be selected by the audience,” she said. Since the audience will be voting for the best ones, the aim is to encourage delegates to view more posters.
There will also be a couple of point/counterpoint sessions, one of which will pit discussants supporting peripheral vs central mechanisms in migraine, with each side citing the relevant data to support their positions.
Some basic science sessions will run alongside clinical sessions, “and that’s where we use the parallel session format,” meaning separate sessions taking a more basic or a more clinical approach to the same problems, Dr Tassorelli explained. On the other hand, some sessions will integrate both basic and clinical science aspects.
One example is a session on placebo and nocebo. “Placebo is something that is very basic in its phenomenology…and then the following presentation is how you can use placebo in clinical trials,” she said. The first speaker will discuss the basic mechanisms of placebo, followed by a presentation on the implications for clinical trials and clinical practice.
“There are several sessions like this where we stretch from the basic mechanism and the science to understand what is the importance in the clinical field, and the opposite, of course,” she said.
Other Presentations
Nearly 500 abstracts were submitted to the meeting, and most were accepted. “This tells you about the high scientific quality of the [submitted] abstracts,” Dr Tassorelli noted. So while highlighting the following presentations of particular interest, she emphasized that attendees should certainly not restrict themselves to just these.
Headache classification will be a big topic, occupying three sessions. A teaching course on refractory headache will focus on epidemiology, challenges in definition and classification, and approaches to management.
Following that, a special plenary session will cover headache classification, with talks on its history, field testing of the new beta version of the International Classification of Headache Disorders, third edition (ICHD-3 beta), and pain and headache in the next revision of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).
A brief talk as part of a tournament for trainees will present a clinical decision support system using imaging data for migraine classification.
A session on vulnerability to migraine will present the role of genetics and epigenetics. Dr Tassorelli said people start with their genetics, but “epigenetics in the end is the life of the people,” with epigenetic changes to DNA coming from exposure to emotional trauma and the environment.
A session will showcase clinical trials involving therapeutic monoclonal antibodies for migraine, as well as the clinical efficacy of small molecules targeting calcitonin gene-related peptide.
Dr Tassorelli pointed to presentations of “interesting data on neuromodulation” involving both peripheral and central neuromodulation.
She also mentioned a session on biomarkers that are “important from the clinical point of view.”
In an oral communication session at the same time, speakers will discuss the use of monoclonal antibodies for migraine and the use of noninvasive vagus nerve stimuli for the treatment of cluster headache.
Data will be presented in this session and others on the chronification of headache, “going from a disorder of migraine to medication overuse headache…a secondary type of headache usually from migraine,” Dr Tassorelli said. “So there is interesting information coming out that will have a direct implication on the clinical management of the patient.”
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Late Breaking Abstracts — Clinical and Basic Science: Saturday, September 9, 4:00 to 5:00 pm
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Oral Communications 5 — Epidemiology: Sunday, September 10, 8:00 to 08:48 am
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Chronic Headache in Adolescents: Prevention, Diagnosis and Management: Sunday, September 10, 8:48 to 10:30 am
All this will be taking place in Vancouver, a West Coast Canadian seaport surrounded by mountains and thriving with art, theater, and music scenes as well as outdoor recreation. The convention center is on the waterfront with calming views of Vancouver Harbour.
As an ethnically diverse community, the city offers a variety of cuisines and was recognized as a top city in Canada in Travel + Leisure magazine’s 2014 World’s Best Awards, as the magazine’s number 2 city in Canada this year, as the Top Destination in Canada by TripAdvisor’s 2016 Travelers’ Choice awards, and as a best place to live in North America in Mercer’s 2016 Quality of Living survey.
“I would suggest that the attendees book maybe one additional day or two if they want to do some tourism because they will be quite busy with the meeting,” Dr Tassorelli advised.
Dr Tassorelli has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
International Headache Congress (IHC) 2017. Meeting abstracts will be published in Cephalalgia, and the program is now online at www.ihc2017.com.
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